How to Optimize a Technician Route

Why This Matters

The average residential service tech spends 31 percent of his workday driving. At a loaded cost of $91.84 per hour, every hour of driving is $92 of non billable cost. A tech who drives 2.5 hours a day is burning $230 daily in unbillable time. Cut that to 1.75 hours a day through route optimization and you save $69 daily per tech, or $16,560 per tech per year. Multiply by 5 techs and that is $82,800 in recovered productivity, plus the ability to fit 1 extra call per tech per day. That extra call adds roughly $450 per tech per day, or $540,000 per year across 5 techs at 240 days. The total value of optimized routing on a 5 tech shop is north of $600,000 per year. This is not a theoretical number, it is measured across thousands of service shops. Most owners dismiss it because they think their area is too spread out or their calls are too urgent. Both beliefs are wrong.

The Steps

1. 1

   Step 1: Group calls by ZIP code at the start of each day

   Before you dispatch anything, pull up all of today's scheduled calls on the dispatch map and group them visually by ZIP code. If you have 18 calls spread across 4 ZIPs, cluster them so each tech takes calls primarily in 1 or 2 adjacent ZIPs rather than crisscrossing the whole service area. A plumbing tech covering 75201 and 75202 should not also be driving to 75043 mid day unless it is an emergency. This first pass clustering cuts windshield time by roughly 35 percent compared to chronological scheduling. Use Kaldr Tech's auto cluster feature to do this in 30 seconds, then manually adjust for any time window constraints.

   Pro tip: Color code each ZIP on the map so clustering mistakes jump out visually.

2. 2

   Step 2: Sequence calls to move in one direction

   Within each tech's cluster, sequence the calls to move in one direction across the day. If your HVAC tech is starting in the north part of the service area, his first call should be the farthest north and the day should flow southward toward his home location. This single rule prevents backtracking, which is the biggest hidden cost in routing. A tech who drives north 20 minutes, south 25 minutes, north 15 minutes, and south 30 minutes has wasted roughly 45 minutes compared to the same 4 calls run north to south in sequence. Save 45 minutes per day per tech and you fit one extra call, which is $450 in revenue.

   Pro tip: Always end the day closest to the tech's home, not the shop. Keeps him happy and on time.

3. 3

   Step 3: Respect the time windows you promised customers

   Route optimization never overrides a committed customer window. If you promised Mrs. Thompson a 10 AM to noon arrival, she gets a 10 AM to noon arrival even if it breaks your cluster. Kaldr Tech flags any route sequence that violates a committed window with a red warning so the dispatcher catches it before publishing the schedule. The fix is to either move another call out of the window, add a buffer slot, or honestly tell the customer you need to reschedule. Breaking a committed window to save 15 minutes of drive time is pennywise and pound foolish because it costs you a review and potentially a customer for life.

   Pro tip: Treat committed windows as immovable constraints. Optimize everything else around them.

4. 4

   Step 4: Rebuild the route at 11 AM based on live status

   At 11 AM, do a quick review of how the morning is going and adjust the afternoon sequence. If a tech's 9 AM job ran 45 minutes long, his afternoon is going to slip unless you reshuffle. Open the dispatch board, look at which jobs are still in the afternoon queue, and resequence based on where he actually is now. Kaldr Tech can auto suggest a revised route in 5 seconds based on current location and remaining jobs. A midday route adjustment saves an average of 22 minutes per tech per day compared to locking in the morning plan and letting it slip.

   Pro tip: Set a daily calendar reminder for 11 AM to force the midday adjustment.

5. 5

   Step 5: Use live traffic data to reroute on long hauls

   For any call with more than 15 minutes of travel, check live traffic before dispatching. If your route goes through a 30 minute traffic jam on I-35, find an alternate route or reshuffle to visit that customer earlier or later. Kaldr Tech integrates live traffic from major providers and shows estimated travel time with current conditions, not just fixed distance. On a typical Dallas or Houston service day, this saves 20 to 40 minutes per tech because rush hour traffic can double travel time on highway routes.

   Pro tip: Avoid dispatching through downtown between 7:45 and 9:00 AM in any major metro.

6. 6

   Step 6: Track the results weekly and tune the process

   Every Friday, pull the weekly route efficiency report from Kaldr Tech: average drive time per call, calls per tech per day, and total windshield hours. Compare to last week. If a specific tech's drive time is trending up, ride along with him for a day and watch how he navigates. Sometimes the issue is a tech who still uses a paper map, sometimes it is bad sequencing from dispatch, sometimes it is an inexperienced tech who adds 10 minutes of chat per customer. Each issue has a specific fix, but you cannot fix what you do not measure.

   Pro tip: Post the weekly drive time per tech on the shop whiteboard. Peer visibility drives improvement.