'Fix it' might be the most expensive phrase in trucking, because everything after it happens at their discretion, on their invoice. These six questions take ninety seconds to ask, and each one closes a specific door that bad invoices walk through.
Sets the price of looking before anyone looks. Typical honest answer: a flat $100–$200, often credited if you proceed with the work. What the question prevents: the mystery "shop time" line that grows to fit whatever the repair didn't.
Nobody can promise exact numbers on an undiagnosed truck — but any competent shop can bracket it once they've looked, and text or email costs them nothing. The follow-up that does the real work: "call me before exceeding it." Now the invoice can't outgrow the estimate silently, which is the single most common way a $600 job becomes $1,900. A shop that resists putting a range in writing is answering a question you didn't ask.
"We can get you in today" and "we can fix you today" are different sentences. If the part ships from two states away, you want to know before your truck is disassembled in their bay — because a disassembled truck can't go to the shop across town that has the part in stock. Ask before the teardown.
Standard in the industry is 90 days to a year on parts and workmanship; national-account shops often longer. The answer matters, but the reaction matters more: a shop that stands behind its work answers instantly. A shop that gets vague about warranty is predicting its own comeback rate.
Most legitimate shops bill against standard flat-rate hours for common jobs — meaning the job costs the book time whether it takes them longer or shorter. Knowing the rate ($125–$200/hr is the current normal band, region-dependent) and the book hours turns the labor line from a mystery into arithmetic you can check.
Six words, enormous filter. Honest shops hand over your dead water pump without blinking — some bag it up by habit. A shop that suddenly can't produce the part it supposedly replaced has told you something worth knowing, ideally before you're a regular. (Core-charge parts get returned to the supplier — a real exception an honest shop will explain, not hide behind.)
The meta-lesson: none of these questions is adversarial, and good shops answer all six without friction — they get them from every fleet maintenance manager alive. You're not being difficult. You're speaking the language of someone who's done this before, and shops price accordingly.
On the roadside version of this conversation — where urgency is doing the negotiating — the breakdown checklist covers the compressed three-question version, and the honest-shop guide covers picking who to call in the first place. Which is the real answer: questions protect you, but a shop that was vetted before you needed it protects you better.
The labor rate, the diagnostic fee and whether it applies to the repair, a written itemized estimate, and the parts warranty. Every honest shop answers these without friction.
A reasonable diagnostic fee is normal — but cap the hours up front and get agreement that it's credited toward the repair if you proceed.
No written estimate, pressure to authorize open-ended work, and quotes that grow without a call. If the story changes when you push for paper, find another shop.