ElectricalBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Dispatch

Furthest First Routing: Driving Out Early and Working Back Toward the Shop

Every electrical company has a few customers at the edge of the map. The subdivision forty minutes out, the lake houses, the small town past the county line. Somebody has to drive out there, and the only real question is whether that long drive happens at the start of the day or the end.

The Other Half of Auto-Routing

The first auto-route option is covered in Closest First Routing: Building an Electrician's Day Outward From the Shop. Furthest First is the reverse. It starts the van's day at the stop furthest from the shop and works back toward it, so the last call of the day is the closest one to home base.

Like Closest First, it is one click on the dispatch board for a van and a day, and the new order shows on the tech's phone in the tech app.

Why Drive Out First

The long drive has to happen at some point. Furthest First puts it in the morning for a few practical reasons:

• The tech ends near the shop. Restocking the van, dropping off old fixtures and swapping out equipment at the end of the day is a short drive instead of a long one.
• A late call is easy to absorb. If a same-day call comes in at 3pm near the shop, a van working its way back is already heading in that direction.
• Overtime is less likely. If a job runs long, the tech is not stuck an hour from the shop when the day should be ending.
• Far customers get the morning. Customers at the edge of the territory are often the ones who waited longest for a slot. Getting them first keeps them from being bumped when the day slips.

When Closest First Is Better

Furthest First is not always right. On a day with a lot of same-day calls expected near the shop, a van that spends its first hour driving out is not available for them. If the tech lives out past the far end, finishing out there saves them a drive home. And if the morning drive crosses town at rush hour, starting close and heading out later may be faster.

The choice depends on your territory, your shop and your techs. Many shops pick one option for each van and stick with it: Furthest First for the maintenance van running generator visits in outlying areas, Closest First for the service van that needs to stay close for urgent calls.

Furthest First for Recurring Visits

Recurring work tends to spread across the whole territory. Yearly generator maintenance customers are often in the bigger homes on the edges of town. Yearly safety inspection plans can be anywhere. When they come due on the Waiting List map, the office can pull a cluster from one outlying area onto a single van and day.

Furthest First then sends the van to the farthest due visit first and brings it back through the rest. One trip out covers several due visits, and the tech ends the day near the shop with the van ready for tomorrow.

Adjusting After Auto-Route

Auto-routing does not know everything. A customer who has to be first, an install that must start early, or a commercial account with an after-hours window all need a human touch. After auto-routing, the office can move individual stops up or down by hand. The next guide, Setting Route Order by Hand When the Auto-Route Needs a Human Touch, covers that.

If the day changes partway through, the office can auto-route again. Crew GPS on the office map shows where the van is right now, which helps decide whether a full re-route makes sense or whether it is simpler to slot the new stop in by hand.

Keeping Customers in the Loop

Whatever order the van runs, customers with alerts turned on hear about it. The night-before reminder, the text when they are next and the arrived text all follow the route order the office set. The customer app shows the live route with their place in line. When the far customer is first, they get a morning visit and a clear heads-up instead of a vague “sometime today.”

Pick the Direction, Then Go

Furthest First and Closest First are two ways to answer the same question in one click. Neither one replaces the dispatcher's judgment, but both beat numbering addresses on a whiteboard. To see how routing fits with the dispatch board, the Waiting List and crew GPS, visit the ElectricalBossPro electrician scheduling software page.