I want to break down how this one truck made us over $330,000 in just one year. I’m Jonas Olson. I’ve been in the service industry for 17 years, and I’ve spent the last five years building Pest Badger. We took it from one location to 19 locations in those five years.
I use this blog to document how I think about scaling service companies and what’s actually working for us right now. I wish my mentors had documented their journey, so I’m documenting mine for you.
Let’s break down this truck.
Around 3,000 jobs a year. 60 jobs a week, 5 days a week, 52 weeks. That’s roughly 12 stops per day.
That’s not crazy. Most solid technicians can do that. I can do that. You can do that. Most everyone can do that. What they don’t have is a schedule that actually lets them do that every single day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. That’s honestly the difference.
Routing: Windshield Time Will Kill You
I talk about this all the time because it’s one of the most important things in the business. If your tech is driving all over town, his day is already shot. Too much windshield time, too much driving from town to town, and you lose a couple stops a day just by sitting in the truck behind the wheel. That’s hundreds of jobs a year.
You have to build dense routes. Same neighborhoods, same areas. You want technicians going house to house, not neighborhood to neighborhood. I see a lot of operators fail right here. They take on jobs all over the map because they want the revenue, and it ends up costing them way more than they realize.
The Technician: Hitch in Your Step
The tech doing 12 stops a day doesn’t have to be superhuman. He just doesn’t waste time. He knows the flow. He’s been properly trained from day one. He pulls up, talks to the customer, does the job, takes customer notes, and moves on. He’s not standing around. He’s not sitting in the truck after the job for 25 minutes. He’s not pulling up to a job and scrolling Instagram or Facebook for 20 minutes before getting out.
One of my original mentors told me you have to have a hitch in your step. Look for technicians who have that little giddy up, that hitch in their step, who always look like they’re producing forward.
Callbacks Will Eat Your Day
I don’t talk about callbacks a lot, and I probably should, because this is what kills revenue throughout the day and across the year. You’re never going to completely get rid of callbacks. They happen. But too many callbacks will destroy you.
You think you have a full day. The tech opens the app and sees 12 stops, but three or four of them are callbacks. So now you’re doing two to three jobs for free. The technician still gets paid, but the company is already $150 to $450 down before the day starts. That’s costing real money on your P&L, especially in the hot summer months when callbacks spike.
Doing the job right the first time matters way more than people think. Slow down a little in the critical areas. Treat everything properly the first time so you’re not driving back out for a reservice that blows up your whole day.
The Truck Itself
I should be able to climb into any one of my trucks at any time of the day, any time of the year, and chart that day without doing a thing. The truck should be clean, stocked, organized, and ready. That’s how I set up our trucks. I’m not hard to work for. I just have high expectations for vehicles and how we represent ourselves out there.
When trucks aren’t stocked well and there’s clutter everywhere, technicians are constantly digging through job boxes searching for products they can’t find or tools they need. It slows them way down. You don’t notice it on one stop. It’s two minutes here, five minutes there. But over a full day of 12 stops, and over 60 jobs in a week, that downtime adds up to five, six, ten missed jobs a week. Just from a messy truck.
Take the time. Get the trucks ready. Make sure they’re stocked, prepped, and organized so the tech can produce as efficiently as possible.
Supplies: The Gate at 8
This drives me absolutely bonkers, and I’ve done it myself, and I’m sure you have too. The tech gets to the first job and realizes he forgot a battery for the backpack sprayer. Or he forgot the pump sprayer. Or he forgot the right equipment. So he turns around, drives all the way back to the shop, and the day is already off the rails. Or halfway through the day he runs out of product and has to restock. Now the next jobs are getting pushed back, and it’s a cluster.
Make sure all the trucks are ready, not just for the day, but for the entire week. You or the manager should be checking the trucks before techs leave. One of my mentors did something I really like, and a couple of my friends do this now too. They have all the trucks line up at the gate at 8 AM. The manager stands at the gate with a checklist. Each tech goes through the checklist, confirms he has everything, and then he rolls out for the day.
Yes, it takes a little more time on the front end. But it saves you way more time than driving all the way back from a job an hour out of town because someone forgot a tool.
Software and Scheduling
Your systems matter. If routing and scheduling are messy, the whole day feels messy. Keep it simple. Whether you have a CSR, a scheduling manager, or a VA, make sure they’re using the right scheduling software. Routes need to be tight. Techs can’t be driving all over.
Here’s something to watch for: what looks good on a computer screen and what looks good on the road are two different things. A VA in a home office, or a dispatcher running schedules for multiple locations, will look at the map and see jobs that look an inch apart. On the screen, that looks tight. When you actually drive it, it’s 25 minutes.
Make sure your drive score is low. Talk to the managers in the area. Have them review the schedule, add notes on which jobs cluster, and pack as many jobs as you can in the same area. The technicians shouldn’t be bouncing all over.
Marketing: The Real Lever
In my opinion, the number one factor behind routing, scheduling, and job efficiency is marketing. If your routes aren’t full, nothing else matters. This specific truck stayed full year-round. That’s the whole game.
Whether you’re running Facebook ads, Google ads, EDDM, door hangers, or door knockers, keep everything in the same area. Don’t have your marketing bouncing around either. If you’re doing quarterly mailers, hit the same neighborhoods at the same times. Target your perfect avatar in those specific neighborhoods. Keep everything tight.
You want one or two technicians pulling into an area and staying there for one, two, three days, doing 50 stops with as little drive time as possible. That’s how technicians make the most money. That’s how the company makes the most money. And it stays efficient.
The Cost of Inefficiency
For me, it comes down to three things: tight routes, a technician who moves with efficiency, and a full schedule. The clean truck and the rest of it all fall under those.
Most operators don’t fix this. They buy another truck instead. They hire another technician. They spend more money and add more overhead when the trucks they already have aren’t even close to maxed out.
If I were you, I’d look at how many jobs your best truck actually ran last year. Not what it could do. What it actually did. Then go clean up your operations from there.
Three Things, Not More Trucks
Here’s the part that surprised even me. Everything I broke down here is the technician’s revenue. $330,000. The truck itself actually did double that. I’ll save that breakdown for another article.
The short version is this: the truck isn’t special. The way we run it is.
One Last Thing
Here’s the part that surprised even me. Everything I broke down here is the technician’s revenue. $330,000. The truck itself actually did double that. I’ll save that breakdown for another article.
The short version is this: the truck isn’t special. The way we run it is.
