Nationwide robot service network or a dedicated field service partner? How robot OEMs choose in the US and Canada
Short answer: A nationwide robot service network gives you technicians in many US cities working to your written procedures; a dedicated field service partner gives you a smaller team that learns your robot in depth and works closely with your engineers. Networks fit fleets that are already large, spread across many metros and serviced by scripted tasks (inspections, part swaps, preventive maintenance to a checklist). A dedicated partner fits the earlier and harder work: first deployments, demos, faults that need real diagnosis, training, spare-parts stock and anything that needs daily contact with a factory team abroad. Many robot makers end up using both, split by task rather than by brand loyalty.
This note is for robot manufacturers, mostly from outside North America, choosing who will do on-site service for their customers in the US and Canada. Disclosure: KeepRobots is a dedicated field service partner based in Vancouver, so we are one of the options described here. Other companies are described only by what their own websites and announcements say, checked on 2026-11-07, with links below. This is not a ranking, and naming a company does not mean it works with us.
The two models side by side
| Nationwide service network / multi-brand robot service company | Dedicated field service partner | |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | Coverage: technicians in many metros, dispatched against your procedures and parts | Depth: a team trained on your robot that works as an extension of your service department |
| Best at | High volume, repeatable work in many cities; uniform reporting | Deployments, demos, hard faults, training, escalations, new models |
| Who trains whom | You supply training material and certify their technicians on your platform | Same, but the partner also works through faults with your engineers in real time |
| Commercials | Contract, service plan or per ticket; the providers below do not publish prices | Often hourly or per visit; some publish rates (ours are below) |
| What to watch | Minimum volumes, how non-standard faults are escalated, technician turnover per metro | Geographic reach, travel cost and lead time outside their home region |
What US providers say about themselves
Quoted or summarised from each company's own pages on 2026-11-07. Read their current pages before deciding; we do not evaluate their work.
- Burroughs (Elmhurst, Illinois): its robotic automation page says it is "ready to provide multi-vendor, multi-device lifecycle services" with "extensive North American coverage". Its January 7, 2025 announcement with Pudu Robotics cites "500 service technicians strategically placed across the U.S. and Canada".
- Roboworx: describes itself as "a nationwide infrastructure with a corps of robotics-focused service experts", offering robot makers "white-label service, preventative maintenance, on-site optimizations, and training", with same-day and hot-swap service "in select markets".
- Robo Reliance (Colorado): says it is "OEM-agnostic, so one provider can cover a mixed fleet from multiple manufacturers", with "technicians recruited, vetted, and trained market by market around each client's deployments", and that "every technician is trained and certified on the client's platform before dispatch".
- Hemmersbach (Americas headquarters in Houston): its robotics page describes preventive maintenance and on-site or remote intervention "on behalf of Global System Integrators, Hardware Manufacturers and DaaS providers", with dispatched technicians "in more than 190 countries".
A wider list of US and Canadian providers, grouped by business model, is in robot field service companies in the US and Canada.
Seven questions that decide it
1. How many robots per metro, not in total?
A network's advantage is a technician already near the site. That matters when you have robots in dozens of metros. Two hundred robots in three metros is a different problem from two hundred robots in forty. Count robots and expected visits per metro area for the next 12 months before you compare offers.
2. Can the work be written as a procedure?
Swapping a wheel module, cleaning sensors or running a quarterly checklist can be written step by step and handed to any trained technician. Commissioning a site, tuning navigation in a busy lobby, tracing an intermittent fault or integrating an elevator cannot be fully scripted. The less scripted the work, the more you want people who know your robot and talk to your engineers directly.
3. How mature are your service documents?
Any third party is only as good as what you hand over: an English service manual per field-replaceable unit, fault trees, a spare-parts list, diagnostic accounts and a firmware procedure. If these are still being written, a partner that can work from Chinese documents and from calls with your factory team will get further in year one. What to prepare is in training field technicians for your robot.
4. Where is your engineering team, and what language does it work in?
Beijing is 16 hours ahead of the US West Coast in winter and 13 hours ahead of the East Coast. Escalations land in the factory's night. Ask each provider who joins the call when a fault goes beyond the script, in which language, and in which hours.
5. Do you need Canada as well as the US?
Check stated Canadian coverage provider by provider; some state it on their websites and some do not. If Canada matters, ask for it in writing per province.
6. What are the commercial minimums?
Ask for minimum monthly or annual volumes, onboarding fees, per-ticket rates, travel rules outside the provider's core metros and how parts handling is billed. Hourly partners usually have no minimum, which suits a fleet that is still small.
7. Whose name does the customer see, and who owns the data?
Both models can work white-label. Agree in writing whose uniform, ticket system and report template are used, and that tickets, photos, logs and parts data come back to you in a format your system can read.
Which fits which situation
| Your situation | Usually the better fit |
|---|---|
| First 5–50 robots in North America, a few metros, new model | Dedicated partner, with your engineers on the first deployments |
| Hundreds of robots across many states, stable model, written procedures | Nationwide network for routine visits |
| Frequent hard faults, firmware changes or site integration (elevators, doors, Wi-Fi) | Dedicated partner for these, whatever handles routine visits |
| Pre-sales demos and pilots for your sales team | Dedicated partner |
| Customers in both the US and Canada | Check stated coverage per country; combine if needed |
| One metro with enough visits to keep a full-time engineer busy | Consider hiring there; keep a partner for overflow and other regions |
Using both: split by task
| Task | Network | Dedicated partner | Your factory team |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled preventive maintenance in many metros | Yes | In its region | Sets the checklist |
| Part swaps to a written procedure | Yes | Yes | Ships parts, approves RMA |
| First deployment of a model, pilots, demos | Yes | Joins remotely or on site | |
| Faults the script does not solve | Escalates | Diagnoses with your engineers | Root cause, firmware |
| Training other technicians on your model | Can deliver | Writes the material | |
| Spare parts and spare units on consignment | Per contract | Yes | Owns the stock |
For the split to work, both providers use the same ticket fields and RMA rules, and your SLA to customers is one step looser than what the providers promise you. See robot service SLAs in North America and building an authorized service provider network.
Cross-border partners: what the entry rules tie to
If your partner's engineers travel from Canada to US sites, their entry for repair work is tied to the original sale. Under the USMCA after-sales provision, 8 CFR 214.2(b)(4)(i)(F), Canadian citizens can be admitted as business visitors to install, repair and maintain commercial or industrial equipment "purchased from an enterprise located outside the United States, during the life of the warranty or service agreement", where the equipment was made outside the US. For engineers who need a visa, 9 FAM 402.2-5(E)(1) requires the contract of sale to oblige the seller to provide those services. In practice, the partner prepares an excerpt of your sales or warranty contract and a work letter before each trip, so it helps to write service obligations into your sales contracts from the start. The border officer decides. General information, not legal or immigration advice.
Questions to ask either kind of provider
- Which metros have technicians today, and which are served by travel? Ask for a list, not a map.
- How will our model be trained and certified, by whom, and how long before the first ticket?
- What happens when a fault is outside the procedure: who calls our engineers, in what language and hours?
- Minimums, onboarding fees, rates, travel rules and parts handling, in writing.
- Insurance certificates you can provide to our customers, and who contracts with and invoices whom.
- Can you work white-label, and will tickets, photos and logs come back to our system?
- Which other robot makers' products do you service, and how do you keep their data separate?
A longer checklist is in what to look for in a robot service partner.
Where KeepRobots fits
KeepRobots is a dedicated, non-exclusive field service partner for robot makers, based in Vancouver. We do deployments, hourly on-site repair, preventive maintenance, pre-sales demos and spare-parts and demo-unit storage across Western Canada, and travel per project to the rest of Canada and to US sites. Seattle is about three hours by road; Portland, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, Chicago and New York/New Jersey have nonstop flights from Vancouver (see robot repair and field service in the USA). Our engineers work in English and Mandarin, read Chinese technical documents and work with factory teams in China hours. We can work under your brand or as your named North American field service partner.
Rates, before tax: diagnostic US$200 (US) or C$200 (Canada) per robot, per visit, credited against an approved repair; on-site labour US$150 or C$150 per hour; C$100 call-out per visit in the Greater Vancouver core zone; travel for US projects and outside the core zone quoted per project and approved before we travel. No onboarding fee, annual fee or minimum volume. How it works for manufacturers: North America field service for robot manufacturers and third-party service for robot makers.
FAQ
Should a robot maker use a nationwide service network or a dedicated field service partner?
It depends on fleet spread and the kind of work. A nationwide network suits large fleets spread across many metros with work that can be written as procedures. A dedicated partner suits first deployments, demos, hard faults, training and close work with your engineers. Many makers combine them: the network for routine visits, the partner for deployments, escalations and regions the network does not cover.
Which companies offer nationwide robot field service in the US?
Companies that describe nationwide or North American robot service on their own websites include Burroughs (multi-vendor lifecycle services; 500 technicians across the US and Canada cited in its 2025 Pudu announcement), Roboworx (white-label service through a nationwide network), Robo Reliance (OEM-agnostic, anywhere in the US) and Hemmersbach (robotics service for integrators and manufacturers). Checked 2026-11-07; this is not a ranking.
Can a robot maker use both a network and a dedicated partner?
Yes. Split by task: scheduled maintenance and scripted part swaps in many metros to the network; deployments, demos, faults outside the script, training and spare-parts stock to the dedicated partner; root cause and firmware stay with your factory team. Use one set of ticket fields and RMA rules for both.
What should I ask a robot field service provider before signing?
Which metros have technicians today; how your model will be trained and certified; how faults outside the procedure are escalated and in which language; minimums, rates, travel and parts handling; insurance certificates; white-label and data return; and how they keep other makers' data separate.
Can a Canadian field service partner work on robots in the US?
Yes, per project. Canadian citizens can be admitted under the USMCA after-sales provision, 8 CFR 214.2(b)(4)(i)(F), to install and repair equipment made outside the US and bought from an enterprise outside the US, under the warranty or service contract from that sale. The partner prepares a contract excerpt and work letter before each trip; the border officer decides.
What does KeepRobots charge for US and Canadian field service?
Before tax: diagnostic US$200 or C$200 per robot, per visit, credited against an approved repair; on-site labour US$150 or C$150 per hour; C$100 call-out per visit in the Greater Vancouver core zone; US travel and travel outside the core zone quoted per project. No onboarding fee, annual fee or minimum volume.
Sources
- Burroughs, Robotic Automation Systems (checked 2026-11-07): burroughs.com
- Burroughs, strategic partnership with Pudu Robotics (2025-01-07): blog.burroughs.com
- Roboworx home page (checked 2026-11-07): roboworx.io
- Robo Reliance home page (checked 2026-11-07): roboreliance.com
- Hemmersbach, Robotics (checked 2026-11-07): hemmersbach.com
- US eCFR, 8 CFR 214.2(b)(4)(i)(F), after-sales services under the USMCA: ecfr.gov
- US Department of State, 9 FAM 402.2-5(E)(1), commercial or industrial workers: fam.state.gov
Provider descriptions are taken from their own websites and announcements on the dates shown and may change; they are not an evaluation or ranking, and listing a company does not imply any relationship with KeepRobots. KeepRobots rates are current published rates, before tax, and may change. Immigration rules are summarised for orientation only; confirm with an immigration lawyer.