Find out what windshield time is costing you
Most operators look at price per stop and assume the route is making money. But drive time is unbilled labor. Let's do the math.
Route inputs
Results
| Total revenue | $416 |
| Time on route | 5h 8m |
| ↳ Service (65%) | 3h 20m |
| ↳ Drive (31%) | 1h 36m |
| ↳ Setup / buffer | 0h 12m |
| Labor cost | −$128 |
| Fuel cost | −$18 |
Diagnosis: Windshield time problem
Drive time is eating 31% of your day. Healthy lawn care routes run 15–20%. Tightening the route is your highest-leverage move.
What if you...
| Cut drive time by 5 min/stop | $64.10/hr | +22% |
| Add 1 stop on the same route | $53.26/hr | +1% |
| Charge $5 more per stop | $60.32/hr | +15% |
Why drive time matters more than price
Most operators obsess about price per cut. The bigger lever is drive time. A weekly route with 30% drive percentage and a $50 average ticket nets roughly the same as a route with 15% drive time and a $40 ticket — and the second route can fit two more stops in the day. Tightening density usually beats raising prices on already-cheap customers.
What's a healthy drive percentage?
15–20% is healthy for a residential route in a normal-density area. 25%+ means you're working too hard for the revenue. Above 30% and you're effectively paying to drive — your hourly rate has cratered and you don't realize it until October when you tally the season.
How to tighten up a route
Three moves, in order of effectiveness: (1) Politely reject low-density customers. If they're 9 miles from your nearest existing stop, refer them to a closer competitor. (2) Door-hang aggressively in your dense neighborhoods. Adding the next-door neighbor of an existing customer is almost free margin. (3) Re-sequence existing stops by ZIP and street. Most operators run their routes in the order they signed up, not in the order that minimizes drive time.
FAQ
Should I include myself in labor cost?
Yes. If you wouldn't work for $25/hr at the day-job equivalent, that number goes in. The point of net $/hour is to compare against alternatives. If your route nets $32/hour and a similar W-2 job pays $40, you're losing money on the dream.
What about equipment depreciation?
The simplified model in this tool doesn't include it. A more thorough version would add ~$2/hour for equipment wear on a typical residential setup. If you're at the bubble between profitable and not, run that math by hand.
How do I measure my actual drive time per stop?
Track one full day with your phone — note start and end of each stop and the difference is drive time. Or use software with GPS clock-in (any FSM including MowNext will do this automatically).