Detail, Utilization & age mix: in-service % and over-5-year share

What this section shows

Utilization & age mix is the second of three sections inside a franchisee's Equipment detail overlay, sitting between Capacity (piece counts, classes, purchase value, average age) and Maintenance & calibration watch (overdue counts). It holds two tiles:

• In service, the percentage of that location's equipment currently deployed rather than sitting in storage or retired. This is a read on utilization: how much of the capital tied up in equipment is actually working.
• Over 5 years old, the percentage of that location's equipment past the five-year mark. This is a read on refresh pressure: how much of the fleet is old enough to need a capital-replacement conversation.

Both tiles are peer-compared the same way every Capacity tile is: your location's own value, the peer median at the scope you've selected, and a delta line telling you whether that gap is good or bad news for this specific metric. Verinode does not tell a location or its network what to do with this reading. It surfaces the split and the comparison; your team decides whether a location needs a refresh conversation or a utilization check-in.

Where to find it

Open Assets from the HQ sidebar, then the Equipment pill, at hq.verinode.ai/equipment. From the Equipment page, click any location tile, in the Maintenance & Calibration Risk row, the Refresh Cycle row, or the Equipment by Franchisee row, to open that location's Equipment detail overlay. Utilization & age mix is the middle section of the overlay, its own labeled block below Capacity and above Maintenance & calibration watch. See Equipment (Assets): what HQ sees across the network for the full page and overlay walkthrough; this article goes deeper on the two tiles in this one section.

In service

What it measures. The share of a location's total equipment currently marked in service, as opposed to in storage or retired. It is computed as the location's in-service equipment count divided by its total equipment count, rounded to a whole percentage. A location with 260 pieces of equipment on file where 220 are currently deployed reads 85% in service.

Why higher is better. Equipment sitting in storage or marked retired is capital that isn't earning. A higher in-service share means more of a location's equipment investment is actually working jobs, so this tile is scored higher-is-better: a location above the peer median reads favorably, one below it reads as a utilization gap worth asking about.

Empty state. If a location has zero pieces of equipment on file, the tile shows a dash (", ") instead of a percentage, since there is nothing to divide.

Over 5 years old

What it measures. The share of a location's total equipment older than five years, computed as the count of equipment past that age threshold divided by the location's total equipment count, rounded to a whole percentage. The same total-equipment denominator is used here as for In service, so the two tiles read as two different cuts of the same fleet: one by current deployment status, one by age.

Why lower is better. Older equipment carries more breakdown risk, more maintenance cost, and less field capability than newer generations of the same class. A higher aged share signals refresh pressure building up, so this tile is scored lower-is-better: a location below the peer median is in good shape on age; one above it is a candidate for a capital-replacement conversation at your next regional or capital-planning cycle.

Empty state. Same as In service: a location with zero pieces of equipment on file shows a dash instead of a percentage.

How the peer comparison works for these two tiles

Each tile carries its own comparison, built independently from the same rules used everywhere in the Equipment overlay:

• Your value. The location's own In service or Over 5 years old percentage, shown as the tile's headline number.
• Median. The median In service (or Over 5 years old) percentage across the active peer set at the scope you've selected, shown as "Median N%."
• Percentile. Where your location's value ranks against that peer set, shown as "pN" beside the median once a comparison can be computed.
• Delta. A line below the median reading how far off your value is, colored by whether that gap is favorable for this specific metric:

- A gap under roughly 5% either way reads "On par with peers" in neutral gray, regardless of direction, small gaps aren't treated as meaningfully different. - A larger gap reads as a signed percentage, "+18% vs median" or "-12% vs median." It colors green (favorable) when the direction of the gap is good for that metric, in-service percentage above the median or aged share below it. It colors yellow for a moderate unfavorable gap and red for a large one. - If the peer median for a metric is exactly zero and your location's value is also zero, the tile still reads "On par with peers." If the median is zero and your value is not, no delta line renders at all, there is no meaningful percentage-off-a-zero-median to show.

• Target tag. If your network has an active program with a target set on In service or Over 5 years old, for example a brand-standard or certification-mandate program with a numeric floor or ceiling, the tile adds a small "✓ Meets target" or "✗ Below target" line under the delta, naming the target value and the program it comes from on hover. This comparison is against the program's target, independent of the peer median above it, a location can be on par with peers and still miss a network-set target, or vice versa.

When a peer comparison can't be computed at all, the median line is replaced with one of two short reads instead of a blank: "Cohort too small" when there aren't enough active peers at the selected scope to publish a number without risking identifying one of them, or "Pending benchmark seed" when the scope itself (Regional or National) doesn't have equipment benchmark data flowing yet. In either case, no delta or comparison renders below it, only your location's own raw value stands alone.

Scope: who you're comparing against

The scope switcher at the top of the overlay, Group, Regional, or National, changes which peer set both tiles compare against, the same switcher that governs every tile in the overlay. Selecting Group compares the location against the rest of your own network's active locations. Regional and National extend the comparison across networks, filtered to the same state or with no state filter, respectively.

Group-scope comparisons need a minimum number of other active locations reporting equipment data before either tile will publish a median, small cohorts are withheld rather than shown, since a single-digit peer set risks identifying which specific location sits behind a number. When the network doesn't clear that floor, the scope switcher shows Group as unavailable with a tooltip explaining that more active peers are needed for within-network comparisons.

Regional and National currently read as pending for every equipment metric, including both tiles in this section: those scopes are set up to comparison-ready the moment cross-network equipment intelligence seeds broadly enough to publish a benchmark, but a real, non-demo network never sees a Regional or National equipment number substituted from anywhere else in the meantime. The scope footer at the bottom of the overlay states this plainly for whichever scope you have selected. See Equipment (Assets): what HQ sees across the network for the footer's full behavior across the whole overlay, not just this section.

Anonymization carries through unchanged

Whether the location behind a tile appears by its real name or as a stable anonymized label like "Franchisee #A1B2" is set by your network's entity model, same as the rest of the overlay and the rest of HQ. Utilization & age mix doesn't add or relax anything on top of that: if your network is in independent-operators mode, the two tiles in this section still tell you the percentages, you just see them attached to an anonymized label rather than a name. See What HQ sees: the network privacy boundary for the full mechanics.

How to use it

1. 1Open a location's Equipment overlay from any tile on the main Equipment page.
2. 2Read the In service tile first. A location well below the peer median is running a lower share of its equipment investment than its peers, worth a quick check on whether that's a seasonal dip or a standing pattern.
3. 3Read Over 5 years old next. A location above the peer median is carrying more refresh risk than its peers, cross-reference it with the Capacity section's Avg age and Capital value tiles to see whether that's a fleet that's simply aging in place or one that's under-invested.
4. 4If a program has a target on either metric, check the target tag, a location can clear the peer comparison and still miss a network standard, or the reverse.
5. 5Switch scope to Regional or National only to confirm they're still seeding, Group is the only scope with a live comparison for equipment today.

Worked example. Say a location's overlay shows In service at 68% against a Group median of 87%, colored red with a "-22% vs median" line, and Over 5 years old at 41% against a Group median of 18%, also red. Read together, that's a location running a smaller share of its equipment fleet than its peers while also carrying a heavier load of aged units, a pattern that points toward equipment sitting idle because it's old and due for replacement, not two unrelated issues. That's the conversation worth having at the next capital-planning check-in: whether a refresh unlocks the utilization gap, rather than treating utilization and age as separate follow-ups.

Related articles

• Equipment (Assets): what HQ sees across the network
• What HQ sees: the network privacy boundary
• Programs
• Standards
• Benchmarks at HQ
• Network Health: the network home