The Dirty Truth About Maintenance Pricing

By Eric Schell, CEO & Founder of OneTap | Former Maintenance Technician

The $800 Problem

The sink in your restaurant bathroom breaks down in the middle of rush hour. Tables are full. There's a line out the door. Staff is rushing around trying to stop the water.

As the owner, you call your maintenance provider to get a plumber out fast. Boom. $400. $800 if it's an emergency. There goes $800 because what else are you supposed to do? Flood the dining room?

But where does that $800 actually go?

Not to the tech who fixed it. Not to better parts. Not to faster service next time. It goes to a system that's been overcharging you for decades and counting on you not to ask questions.

The Industry Lies We've All Been Told

Lie #1: "You're Paying for the Craftsmanship"

A lot of people think "well, it's a skilled craft so you're paying for the expertise, not the speed."

I've spent years in the maintenance industry and I'll let you in on a trade secret. That's not the case most of the time.

The ones who spread that narrative for 60+ years are the same ones who want you to keep believing it. Because that belief is what turns a quick fix into a $400 invoice. A routine faucet swap at your restaurant into a $600 line item. A clogged drain at your Nashville location into an "emergency service call" with a $200 surcharge tacked on before anyone even shows up.

It's not craftsmanship. It's margin.

Lie #2: "It's the Lazy Technicians' Fault"

This one is everywhere. "Prices are high because it's hard to find good techs. People are lazy now. Increasing prices is the only way to keep qualified technicians earning a reasonable living."

Another false narrative designed to keep customers from questioning their invoices.

The reality? There are plenty of people working in trades and training to enter them. Trade school admissions have doubled since 2014 (EdSmart). The pipeline is not empty.

But here's the real question. How do you sell becoming a tradesperson when skilled techs are bringing in thousands of dollars in revenue a week and walking away with 25% of it? Sometimes less. No equity. No growth path. Just the option of squeezing a few more hours into an already 90-hour week.

Techs aren't lazy. They're underpaid. And the industry blames them for it because that's cheaper than fixing the problem.

The Real Problem: Private Equity

Private equity figured this game out years ago.

Buy up local service companies. The HVAC shop in Nashville that's been around for 40 years. The plumber in East Nashville your restaurant has used since they opened. The electrical contractor in Franklin that every property manager in Williamson County has on speed dial.

Roll them into regional brands. Lock up the labor supply. Control demand through marketing spend that no independent contractor can compete with.

Monopoly: complete control of the entire supply of goods or of a service in a certain area or market. (Britannica)

How is an independent contractor supposed to compete against multi-million dollar marketing budgets? How is a solo plumber in Midtown Nashville supposed to show up on Google when PE-backed brands are spending $50,000 a month on ads?

They don't. They struggle until they're squeezed out entirely and forced to give up the dream of running their own business just to keep food on the table. The best restaurant maintenance tech in Davidson County ends up working for the same corporate machine that's overcharging the restaurants he used to serve independently.

Where Your Money is Actually Going

One word. Overhead.

Trucks that sit idle half the day. Dispatchers who shuffle schedules instead of solving problems. Layers of admin who never step foot on a job site. Call centers reading scripts. Software stacked on top of software just to keep the machine running.

Here's what overhead looks like as a percentage of revenue across the trades (InvoiceFly):

That cost has to go somewhere.

It goes to your invoice. The restaurant owner in Nashville paying $800 for an emergency plumbing call isn't paying for expertise. They're paying for a fleet of trucks, a dispatch center, three layers of management, and software that should've been replaced 15 years ago.

A light fixture swap turns into a $400 invoice. A leaky faucet becomes a minimum service call that feels insulting. A walk-in cooler repair at your restaurant that should cost $300 becomes $700 because the company needs 40% margins just to keep the lights on.

Customers feel ripped off. Because they are. Technicians feel trapped. Because they are. Everyone loses except the company skimming the middle.

But It's Not Entirely the Traditional Agency's Fault

Here's where I'll be fair.

These providers have been open for 50, 100, even 150 years. They built the largest fleets of trucks. They bought oversized equipment used three times a year. They covered larger and larger service areas. They hired more dispatchers so restaurant owners and landlords wouldn't have to wait. They ran software systems that were "robust" for their time but are now decades outdated.

Overhead was the strategy. The goal was to never miss a job because you didn't have a tech available. And for a long time, it worked.

But the world changed. Technology changed. Every other industry adapted. The maintenance industry didn't.

40%–60% margins on small repairs are common. Not because the work demands it. Because the machine requires it just to keep running.

The Industry is Stuck 30 Years in the Past

The entire maintenance industry is operating the same way it did in 1995.

No real innovation. Minor adjustments that barely qualify as "technology." Finally getting rid of the fax machine doesn't count as progress.

No solutions that actually improve the customer experience or lower costs. Because the industry:

Can't afford real innovation. All the money goes to overhead. There's nothing left to invest in better systems.

Has zero competition to force change. When PE firms control the market and independents can't compete, there's no pressure to improve.

Knows that lying to customers is cheaper than fixing the system. Why invest millions in technology when you can just tell restaurant owners "that's the price of doing business" and they'll pay it because they have no alternative?

Think about it. If we were 30 years behind in every other industry, we'd be driving cars without seatbelts. Using MapQuest printouts. Carrying quarters for pay phones.

Every other industry has adapted. Ride a cab lately? No, you opened an app. Book a hotel? You compared prices instantly online. Order food for your restaurant? You used a platform that gave you transparent pricing from multiple vendors.

Why should the maintenance industry be any different? Why should the restaurant owner in Nashville, the landlord in Donelson, the small business owner in Germantown accept a system that hasn't changed since the Clinton administration?

How the Maintenance Industry Should Work

Technicians earn livable wages without 90-hour weeks. A skilled HVAC tech or plumber should be able to support their family without destroying their body and their relationships.

Entrepreneurship is actually possible. Independent techs shouldn't be crushed by private equity monopolies just because they can't outspend a marketing department.

Customers get fair prices. Restaurant owners, landlords, and small business owners in Nashville shouldn't have to choose between paying an inflated invoice and letting their location fall apart.

Technology lowers costs instead of padding overhead. AI and modern platforms can do what dispatchers, call centers, and layers of admin do now. At a fraction of the cost. Those savings should go to customers and techs, not to investors.

None of that exists in the traditional model.

We've accepted a broken system. Prices climb. Techs stay broke. Customers stay angry. And nothing changes because we've been told this is "just how it works."

It's not.

OneTap: Built to Fix What's Broken

I didn't start OneTap because I read about the maintenance industry in a business school case study. I started it because I lived inside the broken system as a technician and watched it fail everyone involved.

OneTap replaces the overhead-bloated model with technology that actually works. Restaurant owners, landlords, and small business owners in Nashville get transparent, upfront pricing before a tech is ever dispatched. No mystery invoices. No "we'll see when we get there." No $800 surprises.

Technicians keep dramatically more of what they earn because OneTap doesn't need a fleet of idle trucks, a dispatch center, or three layers of management to operate. The savings go to the people who matter. The customer paying the bill and the tech doing the work.

The $800 emergency plumbing call at your restaurant? It doesn't have to cost $800. It costs $800 because the system behind it is inefficient, outdated, and designed to protect margins instead of serve customers.

That's the dirty truth about maintenance pricing.

And that's exactly what we're here to change.

Get started for free and see transparent pricing on your first repair.

Running multiple locations? Our Business Plan gives you centralized maintenance management across every property. Talk to our team and we'll walk you through how it works for your setup.

Eric Schell is the CEO and founder of OneTap and a former maintenance technician based in Nashville, TN. OneTap is available now in Nashville.

Have questions? Contact us | Follow Eric on LinkedIn