Forecast a Technician's Whole Day, Drive Time Included
The dispatcher's hardest problem isn't the calls – it's the driving between them. SCPM Project's dispatch board now forecasts a technician's day with Google Maps travel time built in, suggests a route, and ties every service work order back to the books.
By Ed Warmoth, Founder of Conquest Consultants
If you run service work next to construction, you already know the dispatcher's real headache isn't the calls themselves. It's scheduling for the drive-time between them. A schedule that looks full and clean on paper falls apart the second three stops turn out to be forty minutes apart.
SCPM Project's dispatch board now builds the day with real Google Maps travel time baked in. The dispatcher sees every stop on a day map, actual drive time between them already calculated, and a suggested order that cuts the windshield hours. Then they stay completely in charge, and can move anything they want. It's the difference between hoping the day will fit and knowing it will before the tech ever turns the key.
And because service work orders live as their own cost objects inside SCPM Project – kept deliberately separate from your construction jobs so service dollars never distort your WIP Schedule, the whole day lands cleanly in the books. Parts pulled off the truck, the flat-rate price the office quoted (pulled directly from your history), the sign-off in the field: one record, reconciled.
Your technicians' time is your margin. Plan the drive, not just the calls.
Want to see a real service day laid out with travel times already figured in? Begin a free, no-hassle SCPM Project demo and take a look at the dispatch board.
Structure defeats chaos.
If margin is leaking through the gaps in your operation, a direct conversation is where it starts.