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Real data, extraordinary findings: £1.2 billion in hidden savings for UK field service businesses
Are you getting the most from your maintenance schedule - or could you be leaving huge savings on the table?
Our brand new research finds that UK service providers could unlock significant revenue every year just by shifting when and how they log jobs. Read on to discover the key takeaways - including scheduling trends in your industry, the golden hour for logging jobs, and the smartest ways to boost efficiency, reduce costs, and outpace the competition.
The headlines
- Joblogic analysis of nearly 1 million maintenance jobs across 2,500+ UK service businesses
- Up to £1.2 billion in hidden savings linked to when maintenance work is logged and scheduled
- Wednesday at 4 pm is the “golden hour”, but only around 5% of jobs are logged in this window
- 23% of jobs are logged out of hours, including around 11,000 between midnight and 4 am
- A 267% jump in job logging between 6 and 7 am creates early bottlenecks, while quieter midweek windows go underused
What we uncovered
Data from 950,000 maintenance jobs, taken directly from Joblogic's platform, show that UK service businesses are sitting on an estimated £1.2 billion in potential savings each year. The best part? Unlocking that value can be as simple as improving how you schedule and log jobs.
Key findings from Joblogic data
By interrogating job data from more than 2,500 UK service and maintenance businesses on the Joblogic platform, we identified a number of clear timing patterns.
Some of the standout findings include:
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A midweek fast track
Wednesday at 4 pm is the golden hour for maintenance jobs. Work logged around this time is completed faster than at any other point in the week, but only around 18% of jobs are logged midweek and just 5% land in this window. Most businesses are walking straight past their most efficient slot.
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Heavy reliance on out of hours logging
Almost one in four jobs (23%) are created outside standard working hours, including around 11,000 between midnight and 4 am. This is when emergency rates kick in and fewer people are available to respond.
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Early morning pressure spikes
The service day starts hard and fast, with a 267% jump in job logging between 6 and 7 am. Mondays carry a particularly heavy load, while the quieter, more efficient midweek windows are underused.
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Timing gaps that turn into real money
Using industry benchmarks, our data suggests that Monday backlogs, late-night tickets and reactive scheduling could be costing UK businesses around £1.2 billion a year, driven by higher emergency callout rates, longer equipment downtime and the extra cost of reactive work over planned maintenance.
The picture that emerges is simple and powerful. Timing is one of the few parts of the maintenance process that businesses can adjust quickly, and the data shows that even small shifts can improve costs, completion times and team capacity.
Different trades have different timing patterns
Work patterns emerged across all service businesses, with each trade having its own trials.
Facilities management sees around a quarter of jobs logged out of hours, which drives up emergency costs but also reflects genuine 24/7 demand.
HVACR teams see sharp peaks around 8 am and slower completions. That suggests more of this work could be moved into planned visits before systems fail during the day.
Electrical engineers typically experience a drop in activity after 4 pm, just as completion rates are at their strongest. That points to unused capacity late in the day.
Building maintenance can face start delays of up to 19 days on some jobs. That shows how easily non-urgent work can slip down the queue when timing is not actively managed.
Plumbing, heating, and drainage tends to run more punctually but still clusters work at familiar times of day. That means teams are not always making deliberate use of the most efficient slots.
The details change by trade, but the story stays the same. Timing is one area where the majority of service businesses can still find real efficiencies.
Why maintenance timing matters
The data is crystal clear. For companies to really reach their potential, they need to look not just at what work they do, but when they do it. Smoothing work across the week and cutting avoidable out of hours jobs lowers cost, eases pressure on teams and keeps response times realistic. Tackle the timing problems your own data is pointing to, and the rewards will follow.
Coming soon
These findings are just one part of Joblogic’s wider research into the UK field service industry that sheds light on SLA performance, first-time fix rates, resource gaps, and much more. The full report lands in early 2026 - watch this space.
As featured in
FMUK Online
Business in the News
Electrical Times
UK News Latest
SME Business News
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