Racing the shutters
The high street round starts early. The bakery opens first, so it goes first. The estate agent does not mind when. The phone shop wants the glass done before the shutter goes up, but the shutter goes up when the manager arrives, which varies. The chemist needs the inside of the door done, so someone has to be there. There is a loading bay where the van can stop until a certain hour, then a warden walks the street.
On a good day, it works. On a bad day, one shop has a delivery lorry outside, you lose time waiting, and by the time you reach the last few shops their doors are open and customers are walking through your water. A shop manager complains to their head office, and that complaint arrives at yours.
The round runs on times and rules that live in your head
A residential round cares about area and frequency. A shop front round cares about the clock. The information that decides the order, such as opening times, shutter times, parking rules and who needs to be there, is rarely written down.
- Opening and shutter times are remembered, not recorded.
- Parking and loading restrictions shape the order but are not planned for.
- Some shops need a key holder or someone present for inside cleans.
- Frequencies differ: weekly for some, fortnightly or monthly for others.
- Shops rarely know when you came, so managers assume you did not.
Late finishes and complaints from head office
Cleaning after opening annoys shop staff and customers and can mean you are asked to come back another day. Parking tickets eat into thin commercial margins. Chains with head office contracts collect complaints from branch managers, and those complaints decide whether the contract is renewed. And covering the round when you are ill is almost impossible, because nobody else knows the order.
A timed route with each shop's rules
We build a commercial route planner for your high street and retail park work.
- Each shop has a record: opening time, shutter time, frequency, inside and outside tasks, whether someone must be present, and your parking notes.
- For each round day, the planner orders the shops by the times they must be done by, walking and parking positions, and the frequency due that day.
- Your phone shows the next shop, the time it should be done by, and whether you are ahead or behind, so you can reorder if a lorry is blocking a doorway.
- Shops that need someone present get a text the evening before with your expected time.
- When a shop is done, you mark it on your phone and the shop, or its head office, gets a short confirmation with the time.
- Shops missed because of access or weather are listed for a return, and the reason is recorded for the client.
| High street constraint | Where it is handled |
|---|---|
| Opening and shutter times | Shop record, used to order the route |
| Parking and loading limits | Notes and position in the route |
| Someone must be present | Text the evening before |
| Mixed frequencies | Only the shops due appear each day |
| Manager says you did not come | Timed confirmation on the day |
Glass done before the doors open
The route is planned around the clock, so you finish the time-sensitive shops first and leave the flexible ones for later. Shop staff see a confirmation, so the "did the window cleaner come?" question goes away. When a manager does complain, you can show the time the shop was cleaned. And if you need someone to cover, the route and each shop's rules are written down for them.
On a normal early start, you open the route, follow it shop by shop, glance at the clock indicator, and by the time the high street wakes up the only work left is on shops that do not mind customers walking past.
Is your shop front round like this?
- You sometimes finish shops after they have opened.
- Opening times and parking rules are in your head.
- Shop managers complain that you did not come when you did.
- Only you could do the round.
- Head office contracts ask for proof of cleans.