A wash truck only earns while it’s parked in a customer’s yard with the guns running. On the road between yards the crew’s on the clock, the fuel’s burning and nothing’s being billed. Route density is how much of the night goes to washing and how much goes to driving.
Measure route density first
You need three numbers from your own records.
- Units per stop. Units washed divided by stops. The higher it is, the more each drive brings in.
- Revenue per wash hour next to revenue per paid hour. The gap between them is what driving and setup cost you.
- Share of the shift on site. Time inside customers’ yards divided by the length of the shift. A vehicle tracker with a geofence around each yard gives you this with no forms to fill in.
Schedule by area
Thin routes usually come from history. A yard got added to whichever night had room when the customer signed. A few years of that and one night zig-zags across the whole territory. Cut the week up by area, with one night for the industrial park on the east side and one for the corridor out to the next town. A lot of customers care that it’s every week and don’t much mind which night. Ask them.
To do this you need every yard’s regular visit in one place, with its day, time, time on site and frequency. Then you can look at a whole week and move a yard to a better night.
Sell where you already drive
A new customer next door to a stop you already make is worth a lot more than the same customer forty minutes away. Point your sales effort at the industrial parks and corridors your trucks already pass. When you quote, look at where the yard sits against your routes. Price the far one with a trip charge or a per-visit minimum. There’s more on minimums in how to price fleet washing.
Your website can help. A page for each town you already serve tells nearby fleet managers you’re in their area every week. See SEO for fleet washing companies.
Raise units per stop
- Wash the whole yard. If you’re only on a customer’s tractors, ask about the trailers, the yard trucks and the service vans.
- Sell add-ons on the same stop. An undercarriage or a brightening adds revenue to a drive you’ve already paid for.
- Combine small visits. Two half-visits a week might work better as one full one.
- Set a minimum for small stops. With a per-visit minimum, a two-unit stop pays for the drive.
Cut the time on site too
Density covers the drive between stops. Minutes per unit covers the time inside them. Gate codes and contacts in the crew’s hands before they pull in, the customer’s chemical rules and excluded units known ahead of time, units parked where the crew can reach them. Each one takes minutes off every visit. A yard that goes from twelve minutes a unit to nine frees up a quarter of the crew’s time there.
Common questions
What is route density in fleet washing?
How much of a shift the truck spends washing in customers’ yards compared with driving between them. Denser routes have more units per stop and less road time for the same revenue.
How do you measure route density?
Units per stop, revenue per wash hour next to revenue per paid hour, and the share of the shift spent on site. A vehicle tracker with a geofence around each yard gives you time on site.
How do you make a fleet wash route more profitable?
Group yards by area so each night stays in one part of the territory, sell to fleets near stops you already make, raise units per stop, and set a per-visit minimum for small stops.
How The Wash Book helps
The Wash Book keeps every yard’s regular visits on one schedule and works out units per stop and time on site from what the crew log. Book a demo and we’ll show you a week of it, or start free with unit tracking.