Crew Scheduling Best Practices

Effective scheduling maximizes revenue and minimizes windshield time.

Daily capacity planning:

A 3-person crew can complete 3-5 jobs per day depending on complexity

Target 6-7 billable hours out of an 8-hour day (allowing for travel, setup, breaks, safety briefings)

Build 15-30 minutes per job site for pre-job safety briefing and setup

The anchor job method:

Schedule the largest/highest-revenue job first as your "anchor"

Fill smaller jobs around it, clustered geographically

Keep windshield time under 20% of the workday

Emergency capacity:

Reserve 15-20% of crew capacity for emergency calls (they pay 2-3x standard rates)

During storm season, increase reserve to 30-50%

Designate one crew as the emergency response team on rotation

Seasonal adjustments:

Summer: 10-12 hours of daylight allows longer schedules

Winter: Tighter scheduling, but dormant pruning work fills the gap

Offer 10-20% winter discounts to maintain year-round crew employment