Canadian dealerships are seeing higher fixed operations profits, with new data suggesting productivity and efficiency are playing an important role beyond increases in labour rates.
The Reynolds and Reynolds Fixed Operations Golden Metrics 2026 report examines total hours sold, hours per repair order (RO), effective labour rate (ELR) and profit per customer-pay RO across Canadian dealerships. The data is segmented by dealership location and monthly repair-order volume.
Profit per customer-pay RO increased year over year across every population classification, with gains ranging from 5.8 per cent to 11.3 per cent. Reynolds noted those increases outpaced ELR growth, indicating that higher pricing alone did not account for the improvement.
Labour rates nevertheless moved higher. Average ELR increased between 2.6 per cent and 7.6 per cent year over year depending on population classification. The report found ELR generally increased as shops became busier before dropping at the highest-volume dealerships.
Technology also emerged as a differentiator. In large population centres, stores where technicians used an automated tool to quote identified work averaged 0.21 additional hours per RO and $75.37 more profit per customer-pay RO than stores without such a solution. At an average 595 monthly ROs, that represented $44,845.15 more monthly profit.
The report also identified seasonal pressure points. Profit per RO typically declined in November and April despite higher service demand, a pattern Reynolds linked to seasonal tire-change activity.
Reynolds concluded that improving efficiency and productivity can help dealerships capture more available work, particularly as the ability to continually raise labour rates eventually faces limits.
