ZeroDelay Academy · Field guide
Is your recurring landscaping route contributing after drive time?
A booked maintenance route can still be expensive to serve. Put collected route revenue beside service time, travel between stops, loaded labor and materials for the same period. Then repeat the worksheet in a different season rather than projecting one month across the year.
By ZeroDelay.ai · An educational framework, not a customer case study
A question to start with
Which stops use more service and drive time than their collected price supports, and how does the route change when the season changes?
Step 1
Choose one completed route period
List each completed visit in a four-week period, its customer and service type. Reconcile paid invoices and credits to what was actually collected; keep unpaid work and one-off enhancements separate. Count visits, not just contracts.
Step 2
Time the whole route
Record arrival and departure for each stop plus drive time allocated to that stop, including the first/last leg if it is paid technician work. Use one consistent allocation rule. Include paid crew person-hours at an owner-entered loaded hourly cost; do not silently price your own labor at zero.
Step 3
Bridge direct costs and seasons
Add plants, consumables and disposal used on those same visits. Subtract service-plus-drive labor and materials from collected revenue. Compare a like-for-like shoulder or winter period separately; do not assume visit counts, billing or costs scale evenly.
Fictional worked example
All figures below are made-up assumptions to show the arithmetic. They are not industry averages, customer data, achieved outcomes or a forecast for your business.
Assumptions
- Fictional four-week recurring route: eight stops per week, 32 completed visits, and $4,800 collected before sales tax. No one-off installation revenue is included.
- Each visit averages 1.25 paid person-hours on site and 0.5 paid person-hours of allocated drive time. Loaded labor costs $28 per hour; these hours are not charged again elsewhere.
- Route materials and consumables total $320. Vehicle, equipment, scheduling, insurance, owner overhead and tax are outside this illustration.
- A separate hypothetical shoulder period has 16 visits, $2,400 collected and $160 materials with the same per-visit hours and rate solely to illustrate a sensitivity check.
Simple math
- Service time: 32 × 1.25 = 40 person-hours; allocated drive: 32 × 0.5 = 16 person-hours. Total paid route time: 40 + 16 = 56 hours.
- Direct labor: 56 × $28 = $1,568. Direct contribution: $4,800 collected − $1,568 labor − $320 materials = $2,912.
- Contribution per completed visit: $2,912 ÷ 32 = $91. Direct contribution margin: $2,912 ÷ $4,800 ≈ 60.7%, before excluded costs.
- Hypothetical shoulder period: 16 × (1.25 + 0.5) × $28 = $784 labor; $2,400 − $784 − $160 = $1,456 direct contribution. This is not an annual forecast.
What this suggests checking: The example leaves $2,912 before many real costs; that is not net profit. A shorter route may have a different start/end drive burden, staffing minimum, price mix or contract billing. Check individual stops and actual shoulder-season invoices instead of treating the two fictional periods as observed demand.
Next checks using your own records
- Which completed stops have the longest paid drive and on-site time relative to collected revenue? Reconcile outliers with time sheets and invoices.
- Are long first/last legs or two-person crews missing from your hourly cost calculation?
- Does a shoulder-season contract still bill when visits fall, and what are the actual winter equipment and minimum staffing costs?
A worksheet you can repeat
1. Visit ledger
One row per completed visit: date, customer, service type, amount collected or a documented allocation of the period's collected contract payment. Record canceled or unpaid visits separately.
2. Time ledger
Service minutes, paid drive minutes and crew size by visit; multiply person-hours, not truck hours, by the corresponding loaded wage. Write down how shared travel is allocated.
3. Cost bridge
For each row: allocated collected revenue − (paid service + drive person-hours) × loaded labor rate − direct materials. Sum rows for the period and reconcile to payroll and purchasing records.
4. Season comparison
Repeat for a distinct period, labeling weather delays, visit frequency changes, seasonal contract billing and one-off jobs. Compare contribution per visit and route total separately.
5. Decision check
Review low-contribution stops for travel clustering, actual scope and contract terms. Test a route change against customer commitments and dispatch constraints before changing pricing.
What the numbers cannot tell you
- Collected contract payments may not map one-to-one to visits; document any allocation rather than pretending invoices and visits are identical.
- The example holds per-visit time constant across seasons. Real weather, crew size, drive distances, equipment and material needs vary.
- Direct contribution is not net profit and does not promise savings from rerouting or repricing.
The free calculator currently covers plumbing, HVAC and roofing—not this guide's worksheet. Explore the free Service Business Profit Leak Check. Its calculations stay in your browser.