ElectricalBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Dispatch

Scheduling as a One-Van Electrician: Running Dispatch From Your Own Phone

A one-van electrical company is the owner doing everything. Answering the phone between jobs, writing estimates at night, remembering which generator customers are due, and doing the actual electrical work in between. Scheduling software built for a dispatcher in an office can feel like overkill. But the one-van electrician is exactly the person who needs the schedule to keep itself in order, because there is nobody else to do it.

Same Tools, One Person

The previous guide, Recurring Commercial Lighting Maintenance on a 14- or 30-Day Schedule, was about a bigger kind of account. This one is about the smallest kind of company. Everything in ElectricalBossPro works the same with one van as with five. The difference is that the person on the dispatch board and the person in the van are the same.

Service Days and Install Days

Bigger shops split work between vans: one on service calls, one on installs, inspections and generators. A one-van shop can make the same split by day. For example:

• Monday, Wednesday, Friday: service calls and repairs. Many short stops, auto-routed from the shop.
• Tuesday, Thursday: installs, safety inspections and generator maintenance.

When a service call comes in on an install day, it goes on the next service day unless it truly cannot wait. That keeps a panel upgrade from turning into a midnight finish because three service calls got squeezed in first. For the reasoning, see One Van on Service, One on Installs: Splitting Electrical Work Between Vans.

Building Tomorrow Tonight

For a one-van electrician, the dispatch board is usually an evening job. Ten minutes at the kitchen table:

• Look at tomorrow on the board. Add any calls that came in today.
• Open the Waiting List and pull a few due inspections or generator visits near tomorrow's route, if there is room.
• Auto-route Closest First or Furthest First from the shop.
• Move any stop that has to be first, like a customer who leaves for work early.

Night-before reminders go out based on that schedule, so customers know you are coming. In the morning, open the tech app and the day is already in order.

Working From the Same Phone

The owner-operator logs in to the tech app with the company login and a personal PIN, just like any tech. The day's calls are in route order with a navigation button, the equipment saved on each house and the access notes. Start, Skip and Complete work the same as they would for an employee. On-the-way and arrived texts go out automatically, which means the owner does not have to stop and text each customer between jobs.

When a job is complete, the invoice is created and a card on file can be charged right there. No evening of writing invoices.

Same-Day Calls Without a Dispatcher

The phone rings while you are in someone's attic. Without a dispatcher, the call either goes to voicemail or you take it with one hand. Some of that is unavoidable for a one-person shop, but the software takes some pressure off. Customers can request service through the customer app or the website request form, and those requests show up for you to schedule when you have a minute. Two-way texting lets you reply to a customer from your phone without a phone call.

When you do add a same-day call, put it on today's route and set its place in the order. The tech app updates, and the customer gets the on-the-way text when you head there.

Recurring Work Keeps Itself

The biggest win for a one-van shop is not routing. It is the Waiting List. A solo electrician with a few dozen yearly inspection and generator customers cannot keep all of their dates in their head. The Waiting List map does it, with pins colored not due yet, due now and overdue. That is money that would otherwise be forgotten.

Looking Professional on Your Own

Customers cannot tell how big your company is from a text message. A night-before reminder, an on-the-way text, an arrived text and an invoice that shows up the moment the job is done look the same whether they come from a one-van shop or a ten-van company. For a solo electrician competing on trust, that matters. The customer app adds to it, letting homeowners request service, see invoices, pay and update their card without calling you during a job.

Room to Grow

When a second van comes along, nothing has to be rebuilt. Add the new tech with their own PIN, assign them to a van, and start splitting work by van instead of by day. Plans start at $59/month on Start, with Pro at $89 and Crew at $199 per month as the company grows.

To see how scheduling works for shops of every size, visit the ElectricalBossPro electrician scheduling software page.