Tree service
Tree Service Route Efficiency Calculator
Measures routing, where the chip truck's capacity is a constraint people forget.
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 AuditHow the calculation works
Productive time against total time including travel, across the jobs in a day. The tree care specific constraint is that the chip truck fills, and when it does the crew drives to a disposal site and back regardless of where they were in the schedule. That means routing has to account not just for the distance between jobs but for where the disposal site sits relative to them, which is a different problem from a service route.
What moves the number
- Geographic clustering of the day's jobs.
- Chip truck capacity against the debris volume scheduled.
- Distance to the disposal site from the day's cluster.
- Number of disposal runs needed, each costing a round trip.
Where this one goes wrong
Scheduling a day whose total debris exceeds the chip truck's capacity means a disposal run mid-day, and if the jobs are far from the site that run can consume a large share of the productive hours. Estimating debris volume when scheduling, not just job duration, is what avoids it. Where a yard or a transfer site is far from the work, pairing a large removal with small jobs nearby is better than three large ones, because it keeps the truck within capacity. This is the scheduling detail that separates a profitable day from a busy one.
Before you quote
- Schedule by debris volume as well as job duration.
- Account for disposal site distance when clustering jobs.
- Count each disposal run as lost productive time.
Questions
About this calculator
Why does routing matter so much in tree work?
Because the chip truck fills. When it does the crew drives to a disposal site and back whatever the schedule says, so routing has to consider where disposal sits relative to the day's jobs rather than only the distance between them.
How should a day be scheduled?
By debris volume as well as duration, so the total stays within the truck's capacity. Pairing one large removal with small nearby jobs often produces more than three large ones, because it avoids a mid-day disposal run that can consume a large share of the productive hours.
Is clustering jobs geographically enough?
It is most of it and not all of it. A tight cluster a long way from the disposal site still costs a long run when the truck fills. The useful cluster is one that is both internally close and reasonably positioned relative to where the debris has to go.
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 3.
- Rate charged per hour ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $145.
- Cost per paid hour ($). 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 | 3 |
| Rate charged per hour | $145 |
| 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 | 185 |
| Revenue those hours would have carried | $26,796 |
| What the unbilled hours cost in wages | $6,283 |
65.0% of the paid day reaches an invoice. The rest is 185 hours a month, costing $6,283 in wages and carrying $26,796 of revenue that never happened.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only rate charged per hour, this is what happens to billable share of the day. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Rate charged per hour ($) | Billable share of the day |
|---|---|
| $73 | 65.0% |
| $109 | 65.0% |
| $145 example above | 65.0% |
| $218 | 65.0% |
| $290 | 65.0% |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Paid hours per day
- A number, between 0 and 24, starting at 8.
- Hours that reach an invoice
- A number, between 0 and 24, starting at 5.2.
- Number of technicians
- A number, between 0 and 500, starting at 3.
- Rate charged per hour ($)
- A money amount, starting at $145.
- Cost per paid hour ($)
- 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. |
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.