Home
What is a truck roll?
A “truck roll” is the dispatch of a technician (and a vehicle) to a customer’s home, business or site to install, inspect, troubleshoot or repair something. The term is used heavily in telecom, utilities, field service and appliance/consumer-electronics support. It’s shorthand for the most expensive way to resolve an issue — sending a person — as opposed to resolving it remotely.
What does a truck roll cost?
Estimates vary by industry and what’s included, but a single truck roll is commonly cited at roughly $150–$500 at the surface level and about $1,000 once all indirect costs are included (TSIA). In utilities specifically, the field-industry estimate is often $250–$500 per dispatch as a conservative figure (S&C Electric). On top of the direct cost sit scheduling overhead, travel time, lost capacity, and the customer’s multi-day wait.
Why truck rolls happen — and why many are avoidable
Most avoidable truck rolls share one root cause: the team can’t see the problem, so dispatching someone feels safer than diagnosing blind. A large share of completed visits resolve in minutes with nothing replaced — cabling, configuration, setup or customer-education issues that could have been handled remotely.
How to reduce truck rolls
Visual remote assistance lets an agent or expert see the issue live through the customer’s phone camera and resolve it remotely — or, when a visit is genuinely needed, dispatch a technician with an accurate, documented diagnosis. Operators using visual support report materially fewer dispatches.
Where truck-roll reduction matters
- Telecom & contact centers — router/Wi‑Fi fixes without a dispatch.
- Utilities & energy — remote inspection and field support.
- Appliances & electronics — setup and troubleshooting without an in-home visit.
- Insurance — remote claims inspection instead of adjuster visits.