Forty minutes each way with the drill
A customer ten miles away wants twenty acres drilled. The drill and tractor take forty minutes on the road each way, on narrow lanes behind traffic. That is well over an hour of operator and machine time for a small job. Do you charge for it? The answer on most contracting businesses is 'sometimes'. Some customers pay road time, some are within a free radius, some have never been charged it because nobody raised it.
Across a season, road time adds up to a lot of hours, fuel and wear. But because it is not recorded separately, nobody knows how much, and nobody knows which customers it comes from.
Why road time is invisible
Road time sits between jobs, and records are kept per job.
- Operators record hours on each job, and the time between is lost or lumped in.
- Moves between two customers' farms belong to neither, or to both.
- Moves back to the yard for fuel, repairs or a change of implement are mixed in.
- Charging rules, where they exist, are applied by memory when invoicing.
- Distances vary with the route, and nobody checks them.
Some contractors charge per mile, some per hour, some a flat fee over a distance, and some absorb it into the rate. Which approach to take is your decision. The problem is not knowing what road time is costing, so the approach cannot be judged.
What unmeasured road time costs
Road hours are paid hours for operators, fuel for the tractor, and wear on tyres and machines. If they are not charged, they come out of your margin. If they are charged inconsistently, customers notice.
Operators feel it as well. A day that is a third travelling is a long day with little to show for it, and on busy roads in summer, moving wide kit is slow and tiring work. Knowing how much of the week is spent on the road is part of planning a fair rota, not just a charging question.
Road time also shows where planning could be better. Crossing the county twice in a day because jobs were booked in the order they came in is a cost you could avoid, but only if you can see it.
Measuring road time and applying your rules
What we build is a record of each move between jobs, split and charged according to rules you set.
- When an operator finishes a job and sets off, they tap 'on the road', and tap again when they arrive at the next field. Where tractors have telematics that can be accessed, moves are taken from the machine's location data instead.
- Each move is recorded with start and end, time, and distance by route.
- Moves are assigned to customers by your rule: the customer being travelled to, split between the two customers, or to the yard if it is a return for fuel or repairs.
- Your charging rules are set once: per mile, per hour, a flat fee above a distance, or a free radius, per operation or per customer.
- Road charges are added to jobs automatically, and shown on invoices as separate lines, so customers see exactly what they are paying for.
- A report shows road time per week, per operator, per machine and per customer, including time not charged.
| Move | Assigned to | Charged? |
|---|---|---|
| Yard to first customer | First customer | By your rule |
| Customer A to customer B | Customer B, or split | By your rule |
| Back to yard for repairs | Yard | Not charged |
| Back to yard at end of day | Last customer or yard | By your rule |
Reviewing road time after the autumn
After autumn drilling, the road time report shows the drill spent a noticeable share of its hours on the road, much of it to a group of small customers in the next valley. You decide to book those customers together on the same days next year, and to apply a road charge above a certain distance, which you explain in your terms.
On the invoices, road time now appears as a clear separate line, measured, not guessed.
Is road time eating your margins?
- Road time is charged to some customers and not others.
- Nobody knows how many hours kit spends on the road.
- Operators' hours on jobs do not add up to their paid hours.
- Small jobs far away feel unprofitable but you cannot show it.
- Jobs are booked in order of calls, not by area.