Six tests, ten minutes
A mobile mechanic loses money to two things: driving to jobs that needed a workshop, and answering "do you cover my area?" all day. The site can stop both. Run these on a phone.
1. Answer the area question without you
The test: as someone two towns over, work out whether you would come.
Pass: a page per area you cover, plus an area check inside the booking flow that rejects a postcode you do not serve before it becomes an appointment.
Fail: "covering the local area and surrounding towns", which guarantees the question gets asked by phone instead.
The fix: name the towns on real pages, and put the postcode check at the top of the booking, not the end.
2. Say what cannot be done on a driveway
The test: look for whether you would do a clutch on a sloped street.
Pass: a plain list of what you do on site and what needs a workshop — and why, in one line each.
Fail: nothing, so you find out on arrival and neither of you gets paid for the trip.
The fix: write the list honestly. Ruling work out on the site costs you nothing; ruling it out from the kerbside costs you a morning.
3. Price with the travel in it
The test: find the total for a front brake pad change at your address.
Pass: prices for common jobs with travel included, so the number on the site is the number on the invoice.
Fail: a labour rate plus an unstated call-out, which reads as a garage price plus a surcharge.
The fix: publish inclusive totals for the jobs you do most. Drivers compare you against a garage they can walk away from — a single honest total beats a rate card.
4. Take the address and the access details at booking
The test: book a job and see what you are asked.
Pass: address, parking situation, whether the car is on a drive or a road, and whether it starts.
Fail: name, number and "we will call you", which means a second phone call before any work is scheduled.
The fix: Jobber, ServiceM8 and Housecall Pro all capture custom fields at booking. Ask the three questions that decide whether the job is doable.
5. Let a photograph do the diagnosis
The test: try to describe a knocking noise through your contact form.
Pass: a fault form that takes photographs and a short description, so you can rule the job in or out before driving.
Fail: a message box. Text descriptions of noises are worthless; a photograph of a leak is not.
The fix: a photo-first fault form, images resized in the browser so a phone upload does not fail on one bar of signal.
6. Appear in under two seconds, and look insured
The test: on mobile data, count until the booking button is usable. Then look for your qualifications.
Pass: under two seconds, with qualifications, insurance and Google reviews visible without scrolling far.
Fail: a slider, a chat bubble, and no evidence you are insured to work on a stranger's car outside their house.
The fix: one compressed image, chat off, and the credentials stated plainly. A mobile mechanic is asking to be trusted at someone's home — that is a higher bar than a workshop, and the site has to clear it.
Scoring
Six passes and the site is doing the filtering for you. Four or five, fix in order. Three or fewer and you are still the switchboard — the area check and the fault form are the two that give you your mornings back.
Where this sits
Our mobile mechanic websites are built to pass all six at a fixed price. The wider trade version is on the automotive page. Insurance and licensing rules differ by country, which the country pages cover.