Windshield time is the trade’s name for hours spent behind the wheel. It is paid, it burns fuel and it cannot be billed as repair work. Some of it is unavoidable in a business that goes to the customer. A surprising amount is not, and trimming it is one of the cheapest ways to add capacity without adding a truck.
Measure it first
For two weeks, record each technician’s drive time per day. Vehicle GPS reports give this directly. If you do not have GPS, arrival and departure times on job tickets will do. Divide by paid hours to get drive time as a share of the day.
The technician utilization calculator shows drive hours next to job hours, and the travel time cost calculator turns them into dollars.
Where drive time comes from
- Routes that cross the service area and double back
- Trips to the supply house in the middle of the day
- A drive to the shop every morning and evening
- Return visits for parts or because the wrong technician was sent
- Calls to customers who were not home
- A service area wider than the business can cover efficiently
Ways to reduce it
Schedule by zone
Divide the service area into zones and build each technician’s day inside one of them. Offer customers appointment days that match when you are in their area.
Put jobs in a sensible order
Look at the day on a map before it starts. Swapping two appointments often removes a cross-town drive. Routing software does this automatically once you have several trucks.
Stock the trucks
Every avoided supply run saves most of an hour. Base your stock on the parts that caused runs in the last quarter. See what to keep in a service vehicle.
Have parts brought to the technician
A parts runner, a supplier delivery or a pickup arranged for the next morning costs less than a skilled technician’s hour.
Dispatch from home
If technicians take vehicles home and receive their first job remotely, the daily trip to the shop disappears. Check how this affects paid time under the wage rules. Our article on overtime pay explains when drive time counts as hours worked.
Confirm appointments
A reminder the day before and a message when the technician is on the way reduce no-shows.
Send the right technician the first time
A second visit doubles the driving for that job. See first-time fix rate.
Look hard at the edge of your service area
Jobs an hour away can cost more than they earn. Either price them with a higher trip charge or decline them.
What it is worth
Suppose a technician drives two hours a day. Over a five-day week that is 10 hours, and over 50 weeks it is 500 hours. At a loaded labor cost of $45 an hour, the driving costs $22,500 a year in wages alone, before fuel and vehicle wear.
Cutting that by 30 minutes a day saves 125 hours a year. That is more than three working weeks returned to paying work, from one technician.
Do not cut the wrong things
- Never pressure technicians to speed or skip breaks.
- Leave a buffer for traffic. A schedule that assumes clear roads will run late every day.
- Do not judge a technician on drive time alone. The schedule usually decides it, and the schedule comes from dispatch.
Keep measuring
Review drive time per technician each month, next to jobs completed. If drive time falls and completed jobs rise, the changes are working. For the dispatch side of the picture, see how dispatch affects technician productivity.
Related guides
- The Real Cost of a Callback and How to Reduce Them
- On-Time Arrival Rate: How to Measure and Improve It
- Revenue per Technician: What It Shows and How to Use It
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