Grid Jarvis · Blog

What a wasted site visit costs: how installation companies can price it in for 2027 and plan around it

A technician stands in the cellar of a residential block. The meter room is locked, and the caretaker isn't answering the phone. After 15 minutes, the technician photographs the door and drops a card in the caretaker's mailbox. The meter swap goes back to the dispatcher.

If you are negotiating unit prices and framework contracts for 2027 in the fall of 2026, whether with grid and metering point operators or with housing companies and general contractors, allow for visits like this. Wage floors also rise: Germany's statutory minimum wage goes up on 1 January 2027, and as of July 2026, the minimum wage in the electrical trades is due to rise on the same day, unless its collective agreement is terminated by the end of September 2026.

We work out what one wasted visit costs and how to build it into your unit prices. Then we look at what the contract and the evidence on site need to cover. Finally, we show how to cut the number of wasted visits.

Minimum pay for your crews in 2027

On 1 January 2027, the statutory minimum wage rises from €13.90 to €14.60 gross per hour, an increase of 5.0%. The federal government set this in the Fifth Minimum Wage Adjustment Ordinance (Fünfte Mindestlohnanpassungsverordnung, MiLoV5), dated 5 November 2025.

The Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, BMAS) keeps an overview of sector minimum wages. As of 9 July 2026, it lists a nationwide minimum wage for the electrical trades of €14.93 for 2026 and €15.49 from 1 January 2027. This minimum wage has been declared generally binding (allgemeinverbindlich), so within its scope it applies whether or not a company is bound by the collective agreement.

It covers companies, and self-contained departments within companies, that install or maintain electrical and IT systems as a skilled trade. That expressly includes communication and data networks, and local grid and cable construction. So fiber companies can fall under it.

A company is excluded if it is proven that its construction work, including related construction tasks, takes up more than 50% of its total working time in a calendar year. Within the companies it covers, the minimum wage applies to employees to the extent that they do electrical or IT work, but not to apprentices. The exceptions in § 22 of the Minimum Wage Act (Mindestlohngesetz, MiLoG) apply here too.

In our view, this means there is a strong case that the electrical minimum wage applies to companies that swap electricity meters, and a weak one for companies that only swap water or heat meters.

Outside this scope, for example for civil works contractors on fiber rollouts, the floor is the statutory minimum wage, unless another sector minimum wage or a collective agreement applies. That is the position as of July 2026. The BMAS overview lists no sector minimum wage for the main construction trades (Bauhauptgewerbe).

The collective agreement behind the electrical minimum wage can be terminated with three months' notice, at the earliest with effect from 31 December 2026, so notice must be given by the end of September 2026. If it is terminated, the statutory minimum wage will be the floor from 2027. Before you commit to prices, check the status with the national electrical trades association (ZVEH) or your local guild (Innung).

What a wasted site visit costs

Count only the costs the wasted visit actually causes. The example below is based on assumptions, not market rates, so put in your own numbers:

  • Crew: one technician, internal hourly rate €52 excluding vehicle and office costs
  • Working time: 20 minutes' drive plus 15 minutes on site trying to get in and taking the photo, 35 minutes in total: €30.33
  • Vehicle: 12 extra kilometers at a fully loaded cost of €0.40 per kilometer: €4.80
  • Office: 15 minutes to rebook and inform the client at €45 per hour: €11.25

That makes €46.38. For a two-person crew, the working time counts twice: €76.72.

The internal hourly rate is not the wage. It is your annual labor costs, including employer contributions, plus a share of overheads, divided by productive hours: all hours on jobs, including the driving between them, excluding absences and training. If your rate already covers vehicle and office, count only the variable vehicle costs and drop the office line; otherwise you count those costs twice.

For the unit price as a whole, the new wage floor matters if your wages are close to it, because then it hits every working hour. For a single wasted visit, the jump matters little: compared with 2026, the wage cost of 35 minutes rises by €0.33 under the electrical minimum wage and €0.41 under the statutory one, both gross and before employer contributions. Two things make wasted visits expensive: the full hourly rate, which also carries your own wage increases for 2027, and how often they happen.

From one visit to the unit price

The deciding factor is how often visits fail. Take your own failure rate from a comparable project, not an industry figure. Say one visit in ten fails. That is one wasted visit for every nine completed units, so with the €46.38 from the example, about €5.15 per unit. If one visit in five fails, it is one for every four units, about €11.60. The same numbers show your client what reliable appointment confirmation is worth to them.

That leaves the time planned for the job itself. Count it either as paid but unused working time or as lost contribution margin, meaning the unit price minus the cost of the job. Pick one; adding the full unit price on top of the working time would count it twice. The margin view helps more with internal questions, such as whether an extra confirmation call pays off. If a nearby buffer job fills that time, this part largely disappears.

What the framework contract should say

A flat fee for wasted visits (Fehlanfahrtpauschale) exists only by contract, not by law. Without such a clause, you may in principle have a claim under the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB). Under a contract for work (Werkvertrag), that is compensation under § 642 BGB. Under a service contract (Dienstvertrag), it is the agreed pay under § 615 BGB. In both cases, reimbursement of extra expenses under § 304 BGB may also come into consideration. All of these require your contracting party to be in default of acceptance (Annahmeverzug), meaning they did not accept the work you offered as agreed or did not do their part to make it possible. But the resident is usually not your contracting party. So the contract has to say who is responsible for getting you access.

If the VOB/B (Vergabe- und Vertragsordnung für Bauleistungen Teil B, a standard set of German construction contract terms) is part of your contract, you must report any obstruction in writing without delay (§ 6(1) VOB/B). If you don't, you keep the § 642 BGB claim only if the obstruction was obvious, meaning the client knew both the facts and that they held up the work (§ 6(6) sentence 2 VOB/B).

If the fee is in your standard terms (Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen, AGB) and drafted as lump-sum damages, § 309 no. 5 BGB sets limits: the fee must not exceed the damage you would normally expect, and the clause must expressly allow the other side to prove that there was no damage or substantially less. In contracts with businesses, § 309 does not apply directly (§ 310(1) BGB), but its principles can still apply through § 307 BGB. Under § 307, an unclear clause can also be invalid for that reason alone. So define the wasted visit precisely.

In our view, the framework contract should cover these points:

  • Definition: A visit counts as wasted if the appointment was announced or confirmed as agreed and the crew, carrying ID, was on site within the time window, but could not do the work for reasons you are not responsible for. That covers residents who are not home or refuse access. It also covers a locked meter room or wrong device data from the client. It does not count if your crew was late or material it was supposed to bring was missing.
  • Jobs stopped for technical reasons: a separate line item with its own price, for example when the meter position (Zählerplatz) does not meet the grid operator's technical connection conditions (TAB).
  • Cancellation deadline: the client can cancel free of charge until a fixed time on the day before.
  • Waiting and calling: how long the crew waits and how often it calls before it leaves.
  • Fee: based on your documented costs, not the unit price.
  • Evidence: which records the client gets, and by when.
  • Handing back: after the second failed attempt, the order goes back to the client.

Just as important is what the client must do to get you access. For electricity and gas meters on the low-voltage or low-pressure network, the rules are in § 21 of the Low-Voltage Connection Ordinance (Niederspannungsanschlussverordnung, NAV) and § 21 of the Low-Pressure Connection Ordinance (Niederdruckanschlussverordnung, NDAV). As a rule, the connection owner (Anschlussnehmer, usually the property owner) or the connection user (Anschlussnutzer, usually the occupant) must let in a representative of the grid or metering point operator who carries ID, after prior notice ("nach vorheriger Benachrichtigung"). This applies where access is necessary, including to replace the metering equipment. For a smart metering system installed by the default metering point operator, Germany's Metering Point Operation Act (Messstellenbetriebsgesetz, MsbG) requires written notice at least two weeks before the visit and the offer of at least one alternative date (§ 38 MsbG).

For the water supplier's main water meter, the Ordinance on General Conditions for the Supply of Water (AVBWasserV) sets no notice period and requires access only where necessary and agreed (§ 16 AVBWasserV). For water and heat meters in rented flats, by contrast, access depends on the tenancy agreement and tenancy law (§ 555a BGB); under Germany's heating cost regulation (Heizkostenverordnung, HeizkostenV), occupants (Nutzer) must also tolerate the installation of devices that record heating and hot water use (§ 4(2) HeizkostenV). Set out in the contract who notifies the residents and who supplies device data and keys.

Evidence on site

A flat fee is only as good as its evidence. The technician should record it on the spot, not in the evening:

  • Timestamps for arrival and departure
  • Location at the time of the status update, no continuous tracking
  • Photos of the entrance with the house number or of the locked meter room door, without people or readable doorbell names, plus a photo of the card left behind
  • Contact attempts by call or SMS with the time, ideally from the system log
  • Reason from a fixed list: nobody home, no access, access refused, wrong device or data, material missing, technical defect
  • Note, for example "Called the caretaker, no answer"

Timestamps and locations are also personal data about your employees. If you have a works council (Betriebsrat), it has a right of co-determination on introducing this kind of recording and on how you use it, under § 87(1) no. 6 of the Works Constitution Act (Betriebsverfassungsgesetz, BetrVG). Also have the process checked for data protection beforehand, and record only what the evidence needs.

Send the client a weekly list of wasted visits by reason and address, with evidence. Your wasted-visit rate per project and area shows whether the causes lie on your side or the client's, and gives you a basis for price talks.

Preventing wasted visits

When you plan. In our view, only confirmed appointments should get fixed time windows. Put unconfirmed ones on the route next to a buffer job with free access, such as a meter swap in a meter room where a key has been left. If an appointment fails, the crew goes there.

Also group jobs by building and street, for example with a fixed day per property on which the caretaker has all the meter rooms open. Before the route goes out, the dispatcher checks every order. Are the meter number and location right, and is the material reserved? Is there a door code or key, and is the crew qualified for the job? If the resident sends a photo of the meter position in advance, the office can often tell whether the swap is possible.

When you contact residents. For electricity and gas meters, a notice posted on or in the building meets the notice requirement, but it doesn't tell you whether anyone will be home. So ask residents to confirm their appointment. The day before, send a reminder by SMS or call, with an easy way to rebook that also works in the evening. In the notice and the reminder, say why the appointment is needed, for example because the meter's calibration period (Eichfrist) is ending or the metering point operator requires the swap. Agree with the client who gives you the residents' contact details, and on what legal basis.

How Jarvis helps

Jarvis agrees appointments with residents by phone or SMS and answers their questions. Residents can confirm or move their appointment themselves around the clock. For example, once the reminder arrives, they can do it in the online portal that evening. Jarvis plans projects down to each technician's daily route, and routing algorithms work out the order of the jobs.

In the Jarvis app, technicians see the day's work orders, even offline in the cellar. If a technician finds nobody home, they record it in the app with a reason and a photo.

If wasted visits regularly cost your projects time, we're happy to show you how Jarvis confirms appointments with residents and plans routes. Book a 15-minute walkthrough.

This article is not legal advice. Have clauses checked by a lawyer, and if in doubt, ask your trade association which minimum wage applies to your company.

By Valter Pasanen, Founder, Grid Jarvis. Published 2026-07-15.