How Many Pools Can One Tech Service Per Day?

You will hear all sorts of numbers for this, and none of them know your route. The real answer depends on how long you spend at each pool, how far apart the stops are, and how long you want your day to be. You can work out your own number in a few minutes.

If you want to skip the arithmetic, the pool route pricing calculator lets you enter your own times.

The formula

Stops per day = available working minutes divided by minutes per stop (at the pool plus driving).

That is it. The work is in getting honest numbers for each piece.

A worked example

These numbers are made up to show the steps. Replace them with yours.

1. Say you work from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. That is 8 hours, or 480 minutes.
2. Say you take a 30 minute lunch and spend 30 minutes loading the truck and buying supplies. That leaves 420 minutes.
3. Say a typical stop takes 25 minutes at the pool.
4. Say the drive between stops averages 10 minutes.
5. That is 35 minutes per stop. 420 divided by 35 is 12 stops.

So on those numbers, 12 pools a day, 60 a week on a five day schedule. Change any input and the answer changes. If your drive averages 5 minutes, you get 14 stops. If your stops average 40 minutes with 15 minutes of driving, you get about 7.

Measure, do not guess

Most people underestimate. For a week, write down your arrival and leave time at each stop. Also note the drive time to the next one. Use the average, not your best day. If you keep a visit log, add the time to it and the data builds itself.

What makes stops take longer

• Pools with heavy leaf fall.
• Pools that need a filter cleaning or an extra brushing.
• A pool that is out of balance and needs a second test.
• Locked gates and dogs.
• Customers who want to talk. That one is part of the job, but count it.

An average hides the extremes, so it helps to know which stops run long. Those are the ones to look at when you check your pricing.

Drive time is the lever

You usually cannot do much about time at the pool without cutting corners. Drive time you can change. A tight route, with stops in the same few neighborhoods on the same day, can add stops without making your day longer. That means building days around geography. Your route sheet should be sorted by day first and then by drive order.

When you take on a new customer, ask which day already has a stop nearby. A pool two streets from an existing stop is worth more to you than one across town at the same price.

Count the work that is not at the pool

Service time is only part of your week. There is also invoicing, customer calls, ordering supplies, truck maintenance, and equipment repairs. If you are a one-person business, that time comes from somewhere, often evenings. If you plan a full 12 stop day every day and ignore the office work, the week runs over. Many owners leave one lighter day for catch up and extra jobs.

Seasonal swings

A pool in peak swim season or after a storm can take far longer than the same pool in a quiet month. Pick the stops-per-day number you can hold in a busy period, not one that only works in an easy one.

What to do with your number

Once you know how many stops fit in a day, multiply by your days per week to get your route capacity. Compare that to your current customer count. If you are full, price accordingly and consider whether the next customer should replace a low-paying one. If you have room, you know how many more you can take on before you need help.

Tracking it

PoolServiceBook groups customers by service day into a daily route with a stop order, so you can see how many stops each day holds at a glance. It is built for owner-operators and does not do multi-tech dispatch. The trial is 14 days with no card, at the signup page.