Van Stock: What to Carry So the Second Visit Never Happens

The second visit is the most expensive thing in a trade business and almost nobody measures it. You drive back, you park again, you explain yourself again, and you bill none of it. Most second visits happen because a part worth under ten pounds was not in the van.

Van stock is treated as a personal habit rather than a business decision, which is why it is usually built by accident: whatever was left over from the last job, plus whatever caused a problem once, accumulating for years until the van is full and you still cannot find the right olive.

It is worth about an hour of proper thought, once.

First time fix is the number that matters

If you measure one thing, measure the proportion of jobs finished on the first visit.

Most owners guess theirs is high and are surprised when they count. It is worth counting honestly for a month, because the cost is invisible in a way that hourly rate discussions never are. A second visit is not just the time. It is the slot that could have held a paying job, the customer's patience, and the fuel.

Put a rough value on it. If a second visit costs you an hour of billable time plus travel, and it happens twice a week, that is a substantial number over a year. Against that, carrying another two hundred pounds of common fittings is trivially cheap.

How to build the list properly

Not from a catalogue. From your own last fifty jobs.

Step one. For a month, write down every time you did not have something. Just the part and the date. No analysis.

Step two. At the end of the month, sort them. You will find a small number of items appearing repeatedly and a long tail of things that happened once.

Step three. Carry the repeats. Ignore the tail, deliberately. The instinct to carry everything is what filled the van with things you have never used, and a full van is slower to work from than a sparse one.

The useful principle: stock by frequency, not by fear. Most van stock is built from memorable disasters rather than common occurrences, and memorable is not the same as frequent.

The categories worth thinking about separately

Consumables you always use. Tape, sealant, fixings, cable ties, cloths. These should never run out, and they are cheap enough that running out is a systems failure rather than a cost decision.

Common failure parts for your trade. The specific things that go wrong in the properties you actually work in. A firm working mainly on 1930s housing carries different stock from one on new build estates, and copying someone else's list from a forum ignores that.

Anything that makes a return trip likely. Ask which missing item causes the most painful second visit rather than the most common one. Those are worth carrying even at low frequency.

Safety and testing equipment. Non negotiable, and worth checking calibration dates at the same time as stock.

Keeping it stocked without thinking about it

The list is the easy part. Restocking is where it collapses.

What works in small firms:

• Restock on a fixed day, not when you notice. Friday afternoon or Monday morning. A habit beats vigilance.
• One place where anyone writes down what they used. A shared note on a phone is fine. Something that requires opening a laptop will not be used.
• A minimum level for the top twenty items, so restocking is a glance rather than an audit.
• Check it after any unusual job, because that is when the van gets quietly emptied.

If you have more than one van, this stops being a personal habit and becomes a process, and it needs to be written down. Two engineers with different personal systems means neither can cover the other's day.

The cost side nobody mentions

Stock is money sitting still. A van carrying two thousand pounds of parts is two thousand pounds not in your account, and some of it will never be used and some will go out of date.

This is not an argument against carrying stock. It is an argument for carrying the right stock, which is a much smaller and more boring list than most vans contain.

While you are thinking about parts and money, it is worth being straight about what you charge for them. Materials markup covers the half of the invoice most firms are vague about, and van stock is exactly where the small unbilled items disappear.

Where it connects to planned work

Planned and recurring jobs are the easiest place to get first time fix close to perfect, because you know what you are going to do before you leave. A service visit has a known parts list. An emergency does not.

If a meaningful part of your work is planned, the stock question gets much simpler: carry the known consumables for the planned work, plus the frequency list for the reactive work. Planned maintenance schedules covers the scheduling side of that.

Where software helps

Not with the list. The list comes from your own jobs and an hour of attention.

Where it helps is knowing what you are driving to. Good job intake, with the property's history and photographs from the last visit, means you load the van for the actual job rather than the job as described in a two line phone message. Recording materials against the job also stops the small stuff vanishing unbilled.

We do not do stock control, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we do is bookings, deposits into your own Stripe account, a diary your team can see, and invoices that chase themselves. Pricing is published and the live demo is open.

FAQ

What should a plumber carry in the van?
Build the list from your own last fifty jobs rather than from a generic checklist. Note every time you were missing something for a month, then carry the items that appeared repeatedly and deliberately ignore the ones that appeared once. Property age and type matter more than trade averages.

How do you improve first time fix rate?
Stock by frequency rather than by memorable disasters, and improve job intake so you know what you are driving to before you leave. Photographs and history against the property help considerably on repeat visits.

How much stock should a van carry?
Less than most vans contain. Stock is money sitting still and some of it will never be used, so the goal is the right small list rather than broad coverage. A sparse van is also faster to work from.

How do you keep van stock topped up?
Restock on a fixed day rather than when you notice, keep one shared place where anyone records what they used, and set minimum levels for your top twenty items. Habit beats vigilance, particularly when you are busy.

Does van stock matter for planned maintenance work?
It is simpler there, because a planned visit has a known parts list before you set off. The frequency approach matters most for reactive and emergency work, where you cannot know in advance.

Key takeaways

• The second visit is the expensive, unmeasured cost. Most are caused by a part worth under ten pounds.
• Build the list from your own jobs, not a catalogue or a forum.
• Stock by frequency, not by fear. Memorable is not the same as frequent.
• Restock on a fixed day. Systems beat vigilance once you are busy.
• Stock is money sitting still, so the right list is smaller and duller than most vans suggest.