Block hours service plans compared with all inclusive maintenance plans

Two contract structures dominate the office copier market. Block hours plans sell a quota of technician time at a fixed rate, with parts and consumables billed separately. All inclusive maintenance plans bundle labour, parts, and toner into a single per page or flat monthly fee. The choice between them comes down to volume, predictability, and the office's tolerance for variable monthly bills. Neither structure is inherently better, and the same dealer typically offers both.

How block hours plans work in practice

A block hours plan begins with the customer purchasing a quota of engineer time, typically in blocks of 10, 25, or 50 hours. The hourly rate inside the block is usually 20 to 30 percent lower than the dealer's standard ad hoc rate, which is the savings that funds the model. The customer logs service calls against the quota, and the hours used per call are deducted from the running balance. When the quota is exhausted, the customer either buys another block or reverts to the ad hoc rate.

Parts and consumables on a block hours plan are billed at the dealer's standard list price, with no automatic discount. Toner orders, fuser replacements, and maintenance kits are quoted and invoiced as they occur. The administrative load on the customer is higher than on an all inclusive plan, since the office staff or facilities team becomes the inventory manager for consumables and the gatekeeper for service authorisation.

How all inclusive plans work in practice

An all inclusive plan rolls labour, parts, and most consumables into a single recurring fee. The fee can be a flat monthly amount tied to an agreed page volume, or a per page rate metered against the device's actual page count. The dealer assumes the inventory and dispatch overhead for consumables, with toner shipped automatically when the device reports a low state. Service calls trigger no additional billing within the SLA.

The premium that funds the all inclusive structure typically adds 12 to 22 percent to the equivalent metered cost of labour plus parts plus toner on a block hours basis. The premium pays for two things: the dealer absorbing the variance in monthly service volume, and the dealer carrying the inventory and dispatch load for the consumables. The customer trades a small amount of money for a predictable bill and a much shorter administrative path.

The side by side comparison

Dimension	Block hours	All inclusive
Pricing model	Prepaid hourly quota	Flat monthly fee or per page rate
Labour coverage	Charged against the quota	Included up to SLA limits
Parts	Billed at list price	Included for normal wear
Toner	Billed per cartridge	Included up to coverage cap
Preventive visits	Charged against the quota	Included on schedule
SLA enforcement	Best efforts, no penalty	Named hours with penalty clauses
Monthly bill variance	High	Low
Administrative load on office	Higher	Lower
Best fit volume range	Under 2,500 pages per month	Above 3,000 pages per month
Best fit fleet size	Single device or low usage cluster	Departmental and multi device fleets

When the block hours plan saves money

When the all inclusive plan saves money

A worked example at moderate volume

Consider a mid market MFP producing 5,500 pages per month, with roughly two service events per year and one maintenance kit every 30 months. On a block hours plan, the annual cost includes labour at the discounted block rate of around 4 hours per year at €85 per hour, parts at €420 across two visits, toner at €580 across the year, and a prorated kit cost of €180. The total comes to roughly €1,520 per year, or €127 per month, with notable variance between months when a kit replacement falls due.

On an all inclusive plan at a typical mid market rate of €0.007 per page, the same 5,500 pages per month works out to €462 per month, or €5,540 per year. The gap looks large until the comparison includes high coverage colour pages, where the same device producing 800 colour pages per month at €0.062 per page adds €595 per month on the metered side. The block hours plan still wins on average cost for this profile, but the all inclusive plan removes the variance and the inventory overhead from the office's workload.

The hybrid approach some dealers offer

A growing number of dealers offer a hybrid plan that combines a small flat monthly fee for parts and preventive visits with a metered toner charge and an ad hoc rate for unscheduled labour. The structure suits offices that produce steady volume but prefer to pay for toner only as it is used, often because colour coverage swings significantly month to month.

The hybrid plan removes some of the predictability of the all inclusive model but keeps the parts and preventive maintenance covered. Offices that pick the hybrid plan tend to be those that have tracked their own toner consumption for at least a year and can verify that the per cartridge rate compares well against the coverage cap on a fully inclusive plan.