Landscaping
Landscaping Route Efficiency Calculator
Work out how much of the day is spent driving and what tightening the route would be worth.
Result
Not all unbilled time is waste. Travel, restocking, training and warranty calls are necessary and will never be zero. The useful question is whether the share is drifting, not whether it reaches 100%.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- Distance and time between consecutive properties.
- Whether the round is sequenced geographically or by customer preference.
- Truck and trailer cost per mile, which is higher than a car.
Where this one goes wrong
Letting customer day preferences dictate the route. A round scheduled around what each customer asked for rather than around geography can spend more of the day driving than working.
Questions
About this calculator
How much is route density worth?
In maintenance landscaping it is frequently the difference between profit and loss. Travel is unbillable time on short visits, so the same crew on a tighter round services more properties for the same cost.
Should customers choose their day?
Within a zone rather than freely. Offering a day per area keeps the round tight while still giving the customer a choice.
What does a truck and trailer cost per mile?
More than most owners assume once maintenance, tyres, fuel and depreciation on both are counted. Working it out from annual spend divided by miles is worth doing once.
The formula
utilisation = billed hours / paid hours
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How to use this calculator
- Paid hours per day. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 8.
- Hours that reach an invoice. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 5.2.
- Number of technicians. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 6.
- Rate charged per hour ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $72.
- Cost per paid hour ($). Wage plus burden.
- Working days per month. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 22.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to billable share of the day, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Paid hours per day | 8 |
| Hours that reach an invoice | 5.2 |
| Number of technicians | 6 |
| Rate charged per hour | $72 |
| Cost per paid hour | $34 |
| Working days per month | 22 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Billable share of the day main result | 65.0% |
| Unbilled hours per month | 370 |
| Revenue those hours would have carried | $26,611 |
| What the unbilled hours cost in wages | $12,566 |
65.0% of the paid day reaches an invoice. The rest is 370 hours a month, costing $12,566 in wages and carrying $26,611 of revenue that never happened.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only rate charged per hour, this is what happens to billable share of the day. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Rate charged per hour ($) | Billable share of the day |
|---|---|
| $36 | 65.0% |
| $54 | 65.0% |
| $72 example above | 65.0% |
| $108 | 65.0% |
| $144 | 65.0% |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Paid hours per day
- A number, between 0 and 24, starting at 8.
- Hours that reach an invoice
- A number, between 0 and 24, starting at 5.2.
- Number of technicians
- A number, between 0 and 500, starting at 6.
- Rate charged per hour ($)
- A money amount, starting at $72.
- Cost per paid hour ($)
- Wage plus burden.
- Working days per month
- A number, between 0 and 31, starting at 22.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Billable share of the day | The headline result. A percentage. |
| Unbilled hours per month | A number. |
| Revenue those hours would have carried | A money figure. |
| What the unbilled hours cost in wages | A money figure. |
Seasonality is not in this
Coverage and material figures assume the area you enter. Slope, access for machinery, existing growth and the time of year all affect both quantity and labour, and none of them appear in a calculation like this.
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.