u/theslowleak1

Was talking to a shop owner this week who pulled up the GPS on his trucks from the day before. Two of his guys drove past each other going opposite directions at least three times. One heading north for a tune-up while the other was heading south for a replacement lead. If they had just swapped those two calls, he said they would have saved an hour of windshield time between them. And the replacement lead went to the junior tech while the senior closer was doing tune-ups across town. His dispatcher assigns based on who's available, not who's closest or who's the best fit for the call. And he doesn't blame anyone because they are juggling multiple trucks and the phone doesn't stop, right?

How does your dispatch manage & coordinate this work flow?

I've got 7 guys on the road and I'm still running at least 1 service call a day myself. I can't not do it because that's revenue I can't afford to lose. But I looked back at last week and realized I didn't send a single quote, didn't return a vendor call, didn't look at the numbers, didn't follow up on anything. The business ran, but only the parts that happen by themselves. Everything that needs me thinking about it just sat there. I keep telling myself I'll hire someone for the office but the math doesn't work yet. So I'm back on the truck today.

How did you guys break out of this cycle? Or is this just what it looks like until you hit a certain size?

So I rode along with my lead tech on Friday. Four calls, pretty standard stuff. But I started paying attention to what happens after he finishes the actual repair. Every stop, he's sitting in the truck for 15 to 20 minutes typing up notes, taking photos of equipment tags, logging parts, filling out the service form in the app, waiting for it to sync.

Last call of the day I timed it. 22 minutes of admin on a 30 minute repair. On a $280 ticket. That's a guy I'm paying upwards of $35 an hour to do data entry in a driveway.

I've got 7 trucks. If even half my guys are losing that kind of time on every call, that's a pretty ugly number over a year, right?

How are your guys handling the paperwork side of things without it eating the whole day?