Two vehicles, forty visits, one whiteboard
Your mobile patrol service has two vehicles on nights, each covering a list of sites: vacant properties needing two visits a night, retail units needing a lock-up at 9pm and an unlock at 6am, builders' yards wanting random visits, and a school needing an external check after the caretaker leaves. The night supervisor plans each vehicle's order on a whiteboard and a printout.
At 11pm vehicle 1 is sent to an alarm activation. The rest of its route falls behind. The supervisor rings the officer and suggests skipping two sites and picking them up later. Two sites get one visit instead of two. The officer fills in the visit sheet at the end of the shift, and nobody can say exactly when he was at the vacant pub. The client for the vacant pub wants proof of visits for their insurer.
Why route planning is so manual
Mobile patrol is a different job from static guarding. The work is a set of visits with rules: time windows, minimum number per night, randomness so visits are not predictable, and priority when an alarm comes in. Planning that by hand is possible for a few sites and very hard for many, and it breaks as soon as the night does not go to plan.
| Visit type | Rule | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Lock-up and unlock | Fixed time window | Must be on time whatever else happens |
| Vacant property checks | A set number of visits per night | Spread through the night |
| Random patrols | Unpredictable times | Hard to make truly random by hand |
| Alarm response | Immediate, as it comes in | Disrupts the whole route |
| Keyholding visits | Client request | Added at short notice |
What manual routing costs
Missed or late lock-ups, which clients notice straight away. Visits bunched together, so a vacant property is visited at 11pm and 11.40pm and not again. Wasted mileage and time from inefficient ordering. Visit proof that insurers and clients do not trust. And a supervisor who spends the night on the phone rearranging routes instead of supervising.
Route planning with proof of every visit
- Each site is set up with its location, visit rules, time windows, number of visits per night, checks to carry out on site and checkpoint tags.
- Each evening, the planner builds a route for each vehicle that meets the rules, uses mapping for travel times, and varies the timing of random visits from night to night.
- The route goes to the officer's phone as an ordered list with navigation links, site notes and key tags needed.
- At each site, the officer scans the checkpoints and completes the site's checks, with photos of anything found. Arrival and departure times are recorded.
- When an alarm is dispatched, the planner reorders the rest of the route, keeping fixed time windows and flagging any visit that can no longer be made in its window, so the supervisor can move it to another vehicle.
- Missed or late visits alert the supervisor during the night, not in the morning.
- Each client gets a visit report showing every visit with times, checks and photos.
- Fixed lock-up and unlock times take priority in the route.
- Key tags needed for the night are listed before the vehicle leaves.
- Mileage and time per route help price new contracts.
A night with route planning
At 6.30pm both officers have their routes on their phones and the key tags they need. At 11pm vehicle 1 is dispatched to an alarm. Its route is reordered, and one vacant property visit is flagged as at risk; the supervisor moves it to vehicle 2 with two taps. The 6am unlocks are protected. In the morning, the vacant pub's client gets a report showing two visits with scan times and photos, which is what their insurer asked for.
Is your mobile patrol planned by hand?
- Routes are planned on a whiteboard or spreadsheet each night.
- Alarm callouts throw the rest of the route out.
- Visit sheets are filled in at the end of the shift.
- Random visits happen at similar times every night.
- Clients ask for proof of visits for insurers.