Travel distance

[exotion]

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

 

[djdicetn]

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

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)

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Ric]

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)

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.

 

[djdicetn]

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.

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.

 

[Ric]

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.

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.

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[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