ElectricalBossPro Blog — Commercial Accounts

A Van for the Buildings: Splitting Commercial and Residential Routes by Van

Once commercial work becomes a regular part of the week, a lot of shops find it helps to give it a home: one van, or one tech, who knows the buildings. The commercial van runs the relamping routes, the turnovers, the inspections and the after-hours jobs. The other vans stay on residential service calls and installs. It is not the only way to run a mixed shop, but it is a common one, and it works well when the setup supports it.

Why a Dedicated Van Helps

Running both kinds of work on one board is covered in Mixing Commercial and Residential Electrical Work in One Schedule. Splitting by van is one way to organize that board.

A tech who visits the same buildings over and over gets to know them: the store managers, the electrical room locations, the quirks of each property. Managers notice when the same person shows up each time. That familiarity is worth a lot to a commercial account. Meanwhile, residential techs do not get pulled off their day to deal with a front desk across town.

Setting Up Vans and Techs

In ElectricalBossPro employees are set up with a personal PIN and assigned to vans. The dispatch board shows jobs by van and day. To dedicate a van to commercial work, the office simply assigns commercial jobs to that van. There is no special mode to turn on.

A typical small-shop setup looks like:

• Van 1: residential service calls, such as outlets, breakers, fixtures and troubleshooting.
• Van 2: commercial buildings, including relamping routes, turnovers and tenant work.
• Van 3 or the owner: installs, inspections and generator work, residential or commercial.

Your shop might look different. The point is that each van has a clear job, and the office knows where to put new work.

Building the Commercial Van's Day

The commercial van's day usually starts on the Waiting List. Relamping visits on 14 or 30-day plans and yearly inspections come due on the map, and the office picks the due buildings that fit together. Then add any turnovers or service requests from managers that week. Assign them all to the commercial van for the day, and auto-route orders them Closest First or Furthest First from the shop.

Buildings with strict hours get moved by hand: the store that must be done before opening goes first, and the office building that can only be worked after close goes last. The tech's phone shows the same order, with access notes and equipment on every card. Route sheets can be printed if the tech likes paper.

Seeing One Van at a Time

The van filter on the dispatch board lets the office look at just the commercial van's day without the residential calls in the way. Saved views make that a one-click habit. When a property manager calls asking when you will be at their building, the office opens the commercial van's view and has the answer.

Crew GPS shows every van on the office map. If an urgent commercial call comes in, the office can see whether the commercial van is close or whether a residential van happens to be next door.

Staying Flexible

A dedicated van is a default, not a rule. Some weeks the commercial van is light and can pick up residential calls in the same part of town. Other weeks a big tenant improvement needs two vans. Because everything is on one dispatch board, moving a job from one van to another is easy, and the tech who receives it sees it on their phone with all the same notes.

Cross-training helps. If every tech can read a commercial job card and find the electrical room from the access notes, any van can cover a building when needed. That is the real value of keeping access notes and equipment records on the address: the knowledge belongs to the shop, not just to one tech. See Equipment Records Per Building: Three-Phase Panels, Disconnects and Meter Bases on File for more on that.

Tracking the Commercial Van's Time

Commercial work often includes early mornings, late nights and weekends. The time clock in the tech app records when each tech clocks in and out, so hours for after-hours jobs are on record. Reports help the owner see how the commercial side is going over time, and whether it is time to add another van to it.

Growing Into It

Many shops start with commercial work squeezed into residential routes, then give it its own van once there is enough of it. The setup grows with you. For more on running the commercial side of your business, visit the commercial electrical software page.