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Travel distance

#1

jekjr

jekjr

What is the furtherest distance from home you have to travel to cut grass? There is a town 35 miles away I am considering advertising in to try to get work?


#2

Ric

Ric

jekjr said:
What is the furtherest distance from home you have to travel to cut grass? There is a town 35 miles away I am considering advertising in to try to get work?
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If you travel that far 70 miles round trip I can't see how you make any money. You'll spend all your profits in gas. The only way you could make it pay would be to increase your prices and at that point the locals would beat you out of work. I know it happens here that way. Generally speaking the guys that try to that 99% of the time don't return after e few trips.


#3

lawn mower fanatic

lawn mower fanatic

jekjr said:
What is the furtherest distance from home you have to travel to cut grass? There is a town 35 miles away I am considering advertising in to try to get work?
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Yeah that seems too far...for the reasons Ric mentioned.


#4

chobbs1957

chobbs1957

jekjr said:
What is the furtherest distance from home you have to travel to cut grass? There is a town 35 miles away I am considering advertising in to try to get work?
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In agricultural consulting (not much like a lawn care service, I know:wink:), I covered a territory about 70 miles across. The key is to have blocks of farms (accounts) in the area, and a very structured schedule that allows maximum efficiency and volume of work while there.


#5

M

mowerman05

I traveled 65 miles one way to cut a lawn for one of my regular customers. her son was renting a house and she didn't want anybody else on the property snooping around, I did this for the entire season. Charged her from the time my truck started till I was back home. Very good customer however we have since went our separate ways.:frown:


#6

jekjr

jekjr

chobbs1957 said:
In agricultural consulting (not much like a lawn care service, I know:wink:), I covered a territory about 70 miles across. The key is to have blocks of farms (accounts) in the area, and a very structured schedule that allows maximum efficiency and volume of work while there.
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That is what I would hope to accomplish. What I wold have to do is get enough work so that I stayed on the area preferably all day at the time. Obviously I cold not drive that far and cut one yard although I wold have to start off with what ever I could get.


#7

M

mowerman05

Does the town that you want to get work in pay more than the local area or just looking for more work?


#8

chobbs1957

chobbs1957

jekjr said:
That is what I would hope to accomplish. What I wold have to do is get enough work so that I stayed on the area preferably all day at the time. Obviously I cold not drive that far and cut one yard although I wold have to start off with what ever I could get.
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I liked being spread out in my consulting business as well. A lot of my accounts were neighbors, family, or close friends with one another. They did a lot of comparing of notes. If a recommended product went out a little late and failed, it looked like I messed up, and the others were going to find out! Being spread out was some protection from such.


#9

BHLC

BHLC

We go 32 miles to our furthest account, but it is On a day where our route has stops all the way out and all the way back. It's one of our biggest grossing days. Takes 5 gallons of gas in the truck though!


#10

S

sgmgarden

It may be personal choice but I don't think I would be keen on travelling that far, due to the reasons mentioned above, petrol etc. Would it really be worth the while unless it was a very big job?


#11

exotion

exotion

My furthest is 9 miles.. I start at the farthest out and work my way back in


#12

djdicetn

djdicetn

exotion said:
My furthest is 9 miles.. I start at the farthest out and work my way back in
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That makes sense and got me to thinking(which can be dangerous:0) I've never rendered a residential service like mowing commercially, but my analytical nature would tend to have me:

1)Limit the distance to 10 miles from my home in all directions, East; West, North & South.
2)Acquire customers in each direction beginning at the furthest point and working back to the epicenter(my home).
3)Decide upon the least dense customer base(# of yards) direction and begin servicing from my home outward.
4)At the furthest point in that direction(i.e. East), I would then travel directly to the furthest point of next adjacent least dense customer base direction(i.e. North or South) and work my way inward toward my home.
5)Once I reached the "epicenter", I would procede outward into the next adjacent unserviced direction(i.e. West).
6)Upon completion of the 3rd direction outward(Step 5 above), I would again travel directly to the furthest point of the last customer base direction(i.e. North or South would remain depending on the direction taken in Step 4) and complete my customers' servicing inward ending up back at my home.

Have any of you that mow commercially performed a similar analysis of direction travel from your home similar to this??? Would this not provide the least fuel consumption by the hauling vehicle, by never needing to "back-track" in any direction from your home? Is there a consideration that I am not including in my "travel theory"??? Of course this would not work if any customers required certain days of the week for their yards to be mowed that would not be conducive to a specific daily route as I described. So, critcize my theory and enlighten me to the "real world" of lawn maintenance and how you approach the travel route(s) to customers each day you go out:0)


#13

reynoldston

reynoldston

Its a lot more them just cost of gas. Travel time as labor, wear and tare on your moving equipment and some other expenses if you have problems and you are 30 miles away from home base.


#14

BHLC

BHLC

Considering the rural locations served, 30 miles is not bad, as I had said I mow 5 out to my furthest and then the "big one" then mow 6 back. It's not that bad.


#15

Ric

Ric

djdicetn said:
That makes sense and got me to thinking(which can be dangerous:0) I've never rendered a residential service like mowing commercially, but my analytical nature would tend to have me:

1)Limit the distance to 10 miles from my home in all directions, East; West, North & South.
2)Acquire customers in each direction beginning at the furthest point and working back to the epicenter(my home).
3)Decide upon the least dense customer base(# of yards) direction and begin servicing from my home outward.
4)At the furthest point in that direction(i.e. East), I would then travel directly to the furthest point of next adjacent least dense customer base direction(i.e. North or South) and work my way inward toward my home.
5)Once I reached the "epicenter", I would proceed outward into the next adjacent unserviced direction(i.e. West).
6)Upon completion of the 3rd direction outward(Step 5 above), I would again travel directly to the furthest point of the last customer base direction(i.e. North or South would remain depending on the direction taken in Step 4) and complete my customers' servicing inward ending up back at my home.

Have any of you that mow commercially performed a similar analysis of direction travel from your home similar to this??? Would this not provide the least fuel consumption by the hauling vehicle, by never needing to "back-track" in any direction from your home? Is there a consideration that I am not including in my "travel theory"??? Of course this would not work if any customers required certain days of the week for their yards to be mowed that would not be conducive to a specific daily route as I described. So, criticize my theory and enlighten me to the "real world" of lawn maintenance and how you approach the travel route(s) to customers each day you go out:0)
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Your six suggestions are fine and dandy, it's just to bad it doesn't work that way. My furthest client is 2 1/2 miles from my house. Setting a distance limit doesn't work because sure as you do you'll end up with a dozen clients in one direction and have 1 or 2 another and you'll spend more time on the road traveling than what there worth.

At one time I was working six different sub-divisions at once all within about ten miles and had from two to twelve clients in each, I found out it doesn't work you spend more time in the seat of your truck than in the seat of the mower. If you want to build a client base find a nice sub-division as close as possible, maybe 1500 to 2000 homes, hit it hard with business cards and stay there.

Make sure people know your exclusive to there sub-division and you go know where else and see what happens. That's what I did and I now have 76 clients in one sub-division. Thing is I listen to a lot of people when I give them an estimate for there lawn care and the number one complaint I get for replacing there lawn company is the guy doesn't show up and when I ask what company they use it's a company from 30 to 40 miles away.


#16

djdicetn

djdicetn

Ric said:
Your six suggestions are fine and dandy, it's just to bad it doesn't work that way. My furthest client is 2 1/2 miles from my house. Setting a distance limit doesn't work because sure as you do you'll end up with a dozen clients in one direction and have 1 or 2 another and you'll spend more time on the road traveling than what there worth. At one time I was working six different sub-divisions at once all within about ten miles and had from two to twelve clients in each, I found out it doesn't work you spend more time in the seat of your truck than in the seat of the mower. If you want to build a client base find a nice sub-division as close as possible, maybe 1500 to 2000 homes, hit it hard with business cards and stay there. Make sure people know your exclusive to there sub-division and you go know where else and see what happens. That's what I did and I now have 76 clients in one sub-division. Thing is I listen to a lot of people when I give them an estimate for there lawn care and the number one complaint I get for replacing there lawn company is the guy doesn't show up and when I ask what company they use it's a company from 30 to 40 miles away.
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Yep, good "in theory", but in the real world your approach makes more sense than spreading out in a 10 mile radius of your house. Even if you had to find two subdivisions in somewhat close proximity to each other, to build a customer base that would meet your target income, that would be the right way to cut down on travel time and fuel cost as well as wear & tear on your tow vehicle.


#17

Ric

Ric

djdicetn said:
Yep, good "in theory", but in the real world your approach makes more sense than spreading out in a 10 mile radius of your house. Even if you had to find two subdivisions in somewhat close proximity to each other, to build a customer base that would meet your target income, that would be the right way to cut down on travel time and fuel cost as well as wear & tear on your tow vehicle.
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I stayed in this sub-division for a couple of seasons before it all came together and now I have twenty four clients within 4 tenths of a mile from the house the rest are within in the 2 1/2 mile radius. Where ever you choose to set up it will take a while for your work to be noticed and when word of mouth takes over you'll end up with all kinds of people wanting lawns cut and flower beds done and so on.
Having things as close as possible also saves a lot miles and abuse on the truck and gas I'd be burning and all branching out would do is to cut into profits, you have to consider the bottom line.


#18

lawn mower fanatic

lawn mower fanatic

I stay in a 0.40 mile radius! :laughing: I stay in my neighborhood, and it slowed down now with not too many people going on vacation and the grass drying up, (I still have my regulars, though) but in the peak of the season I was doing +/- 25 lawns a week.


#19

exotion

exotion

Spokane is not very big and I advertise on craigslist somehow I ended up with lots close together for the most part of my day there is only a min or two between each job and I'm not picky with where I go


#20

BHLC

BHLC

If Vermont had subdivisions with 1500 to 2000 homes it may be easy to stay close by, our biggest subdivision is probably only 300 homes


#21

lawn mower fanatic

lawn mower fanatic

BHLC said:
If Vermont had subdivisions with 1500 to 2000 homes it may be easy to stay close by, our biggest subdivision is probably only 300 homes
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Mine has only around 120 homes and I have gotten over half as customers at some point.


#22

exotion

exotion

lawn mower fanatic said:
Mine has only around 120 homes and I have gotten over half as customers at some point.
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That's good the more people who know your name the better.


#23

M

mowerman05

I think Ric has got this thing mastered.:thumbsup:


#24

Ric

Ric

BHLC said:
If Vermont had subdivisions with 1500 to 2000 homes it may be easy to stay close by, our biggest subdivision is probably only 300 homes
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Hey I would think a 300 home sub-division would be good, it's small enough to work and at the same time large enough to build a good client base. Another thing you have to remember about Florida is it's 75% retirees that don't want to contend with lawn work, it inter fears with there shuffle-board.


#25

BHLC

BHLC

Ric said:
Hey I would think a 300 home sub-division would be good, it's small enough to work and at the same time large enough to build a good client base. Another thing you have to remember about Florida is it's 75% retirees that don't want to contend with lawn work, it inter fears with there shuffle-board.
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Not many retirees here, they're all there!


#26

jekjr

jekjr

djdicetn said:
That makes sense and got me to thinking(which can be dangerous:0) I've never rendered a residential service like mowing commercially, but my analytical nature would tend to have me:

1)Limit the distance to 10 miles from my home in all directions, East; West, North & South.
2)Acquire customers in each direction beginning at the furthest point and working back to the epicenter(my home).
3)Decide upon the least dense customer base(# of yards) direction and begin servicing from my home outward.
4)At the furthest point in that direction(i.e. East), I would then travel directly to the furthest point of next adjacent least dense customer base direction(i.e. North or South) and work my way inward toward my home.
5)Once I reached the "epicenter", I would procede outward into the next adjacent unserviced direction(i.e. West).
6)Upon completion of the 3rd direction outward(Step 5 above), I would again travel directly to the furthest point of the last customer base direction(i.e. North or South would remain depending on the direction taken in Step 4) and complete my customers' servicing inward ending up back at my home.

Have any of you that mow commercially performed a similar analysis of direction travel from your home similar to this??? Would this not provide the least fuel consumption by the hauling vehicle, by never needing to "back-track" in any direction from your home? Is there a consideration that I am not including in my "travel theory"??? Of course this would not work if any customers required certain days of the week for their yards to be mowed that would not be conducive to a specific daily route as I described. So, critcize my theory and enlighten me to the "real world" of lawn maintenance and how you approach the travel route(s) to customers each day you go out:0)
Click to expand...

I guess all of that is real good in theory. However for me it is 2 miles to a town of 500 people. 6 miles to a town of 5000. We live on a pretty rural area and there are lots of other people that cut grass and do other lawn work as well. To say I wold only dive 10 miles would be business suicide. Today I drove to a job that was down 8 miles of dirt road....


#27

Carscw

Carscw

If I was to stay within two miles of home I would do two yards. And waste my profit going ten miles to get gas.

(( cowboy up and get over it ))


#28

Ric

Ric

Carscw said:
If I was to stay within two miles of home I would do two yards. And waste my profit going ten miles to get gas.

(( cowboy up and get over it ))
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I don't believe I said you have to stay with in two miles of the house. I don't care where or what sub-division you you pick you should limit your coverage to that area and build your business there if possible. Keeping your clients close in one area allows for less time and gas being spent on travel and more time working, giving you greater profits.


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