ElectricalBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Dispatch

Setting Route Order by Hand When the Auto-Route Needs a Human Touch

Auto-routing is good at one thing: putting addresses in a sensible driving order. It does not know that the homeowner on Elm Street has to leave for work at 9:30, that the gym across town can only have the lights worked on before it opens, or that the panel upgrade needs the tech on site first thing so the power can be back on by dinner. The dispatcher knows those things. That is why route order can always be set by hand.

Auto-Route First, Then Adjust

The two auto-route options are covered in Closest First Routing: Building an Electrician's Day Outward From the Shop and Furthest First Routing: Driving Out Early and Working Back Toward the Shop. The best habit is to use one of them to get a reasonable starting order, then move only the stops that need to move.

On the dispatch board, filter to the van and the day, then set each job's place in the route. The new order saves to the schedule, and the tech app shows the same order on the tech's phone.

Reasons to Move a Stop

In an electrical shop, the common reasons are predictable:

• Customers who must be first. Someone is taking the morning off work to let the tech in. Put them first and they will not lose the whole day.
• Long jobs that need an early start. A panel upgrade or a generator install is often best started first thing, so any power-off time ends while there is still daylight.
• Commercial windows. A retail store or an office that wants the work done before opening or after closing has to go at the start or end of the day, not wherever the map puts it.
• Material runs. If the tech needs to stop at the shop or the supply house partway through, the stops on either side of that run can be arranged around it.
• Follow-ups. A return visit to finish something from yesterday is often best done first, while the details are fresh.

Write the Reason Down

A stop that was moved by hand should say why. A short note on the job such as “Customer leaves at 9:30, must be first” or “Store opens at 10, work before open” tells the tech the order is deliberate. Without the note, a tech who sees a strange order may decide to “fix” it and run the stops the way they would drive them.

For anything that applies every visit, like a commercial account that always needs early access, put the note on the address instead of the job. Access notes on the address show on the tech's job card every time that location is on the schedule.

Changing the Order Mid-Day

Route order is not locked once the day starts. A customer calls to say they will not be home until noon. A same-day call comes in that needs to go right after the current stop. The tech finds a problem that will take an extra hour.

In each case, the office changes the order on the board and the tech's phone follows. The stop the tech is on stays where it is. The rest of the day shifts around it. For urgent additions, see Fitting Same-Day Service Calls Into an Electrician's Route.

Crew GPS on the office map helps here. It shows where the van is right now, which makes it easier to decide whether the new call should go next or after one more stop.

What Changes for the Customer

Customers with alerts turned on get a text when they are next and when the tech arrives, and the customer app shows their place on today's route. Those follow the route order the office set, so when a stop moves, the customer's place in line moves with it. If a change will make a customer much later than they expected, a quick two-way text from the office is the courteous move.

Don't Over-Manage It

The temptation, once you can set the order by hand, is to set every stop by hand. That turns a one-click job back into a whiteboard job. A good rule: let auto-route do the work, and only move a stop when there is a reason you could write in a note. If you find yourself moving the same address to the front every single visit, that is a sign the reason belongs on the address, where every future dispatcher will see it.

Order Is a Promise

The route order on the board is what the tech will follow and what the customer will be told. Getting it right is the difference between a day that runs and a day of apology calls. To see how route order fits with auto-routing, the tech app and customer texts, visit the ElectricalBossPro electrician scheduling software page.