PlumbingBossPro Blog — Dispatch & Scheduling

Setting Plumbing Route Order by Hand: When the Dispatcher Knows Better Than the Map

A map knows where houses are. It does not know who is home, which job will take four hours, or which restaurant will turn your tech away if he shows up during the lunch rush. A good plumbing route uses the map for the first draft and the dispatcher's knowledge for the final version.

Auto-Route First, Then Adjust

The first draft comes from auto-routing, covered in Auto-Routing Plumbing Calls: Closest First or Furthest First From the Shop. This article is about the second pass, the one where you move stops up or down because you know something the map does not.

In PlumbingBossPro you can set the route order for a van's day by hand on the dispatch board. Whatever order you end up with is the order the tech sees on their phone.

Reasons to Move a Stop Up

• The long job. A water heater swap or a repipe section should usually start early. If it runs long at 9am, the day can absorb it. If it starts at 3pm and runs long, the customer goes without hot water overnight.
• Active leaks. A dripping supply line under a sink can go after a routine faucet, but a leak that is staining a ceiling should not.
• Early-only customers. The customer who has to leave for work by 10am, or the business that needs you before opening.
• Restaurants. Grease-line jetting and kitchen drain calls usually need to happen before or after service, not during it.
• Emergencies. A burst pipe or backed-up sewer added midday usually goes to the next spot.

Reasons to Move a Stop Down

• Afternoon-only customers. The homeowner who can only be there after noon, or the tenant who needs advance notice.
• Jobs that need a part picked up. If the tech needs to grab a specific valve or a water heater on the way, put the job after the pickup makes sense.
• Flexible maintenance. Yearly flushes and softener service pulled from the Waiting List fit well late in the day, where they can be pushed if something runs long.
• Estimates and inspections. Often flexible, and easy to move to the end when an emergency takes the morning.

Notes Beat Memory

Most hand-ordering decisions come from something the customer said on the phone: “I'm only home after 1,” “the tenant works nights, please don't come before 11.” Write it on the job. Better yet, if it is always true for that address, put it in the access notes on the property so it shows every time.

That way the order makes sense to anyone who opens the board, not just the person who took the call. It also makes sense to the tech, who sees the note on the job card and understands why the route looks the way it does.

Arrival Windows and Order

If your shop promises arrival windows, like morning or afternoon, route order is how you keep them. A customer promised a morning window should sit in the first part of the route. A customer promised the afternoon should not be stop one.

Arrival windows are your policy, not a software setting. The software's part is making sure the order you set is the order the tech works, and that customers get the night-before, when-they're-next and arrived texts they chose. More on that in Arrival Windows and Call-Ahead: Setting Plumbing Customer Expectations.

Don't Over-Tune

It is easy to spend twenty minutes fiddling with order for a gain of five minutes of driving. A few rules keep hand ordering useful:

• Move stops for a reason. Availability, job length, urgency. Not because a different order looks tidier.
• Accept a little zigzag. A slightly longer drive to keep a customer's window is worth it.
• Trust the tech's feedback. If a tech keeps saying “that order made me double back,” listen.

Changing Order During the Day

Order changes during the day are normal. A customer calls to say they will be home earlier than expected. A job finishes early and the tech can grab a nearby stop. Move the stop on the board and the tech's phone shows the new order.

Watch for one thing: if you move a customer later after they already got a “you're next” text, send them a quick note through two-way texting. The automatic texts follow the route, but a heads-up from a person goes a long way.

Should Techs Reorder Their Own Day?

Some shops let experienced techs work their list in whatever order they think best. Others want the office to own the order so customer texts and the live route map stay accurate. Either works, as long as everyone knows which way your shop does it. If techs do reorder in the field, ask them to tell the office so the board matches reality.

The Map Plus the Dispatcher

Auto-route does the heavy lifting. Hand ordering adds the knowledge only your office has. Together they give the tech a day that flows and the customer a time they can count on. To see how route order fits with the board, crew GPS and customer texts, visit the PlumbingBossPro plumbing dispatch software page.