SolarCleaningBossPro Blog — Recurring Cleanings

Routing Recurring Solar Cleaning Visits: Homes on One Truck, Arrays on Another

Plans give you something one-time work never does: a say in when each cleaning happens. A twice-a-year home that comes due this week can be done Tuesday or Thursday, whichever puts it next to other due homes. That flexibility is what makes recurring routes so much tighter than routes built from whoever called. Here is how to use it.

From Due to Driven

Panel Details That Carry Over to Every Recurring Solar Cleaning Visit showed what the tech sees at each stop. Routing decides which stops go together and in what order.

In SolarCleaningBossPro, the path from plan to route is short:

• Plans come due on the Waiting List, a live map colored not due yet, due now and overdue.
• The office picks due work in one area and assigns it to a truck and a day.
• On the Scheduled List or dispatch board, the office auto-routes Closest First or Furthest First from the shop, or sets the order by hand.
• The tech's phone shows the jobs in that order, with a navigation button on each card.

Why Split Homes and Arrays

A typical setup is one truck on homes and one on commercial arrays. The two kinds of work are different enough that mixing them usually makes both worse:

• Time. A home might take an hour. A carport over a parking lot or a warehouse roof can take most of a day.
• Equipment. Commercial sites may need longer hoses, more water, a lift or a different pole setup.
• Hours. Carports often need cleaning before the lot fills. Homes are usually fine mid-day.
• Contacts. Commercial stops involve check-ins and property managers. Homes involve gate codes and dogs.

Putting a large commercial array in the middle of a residential route wrecks the timing for every homeowner after it. Keep them apart, and each truck runs a predictable day. On the dispatch board, filter by truck to see each one's day on its own.

Building a Residential Plan Route

For the homes truck, start on the Waiting List map:

• Put any overdue homes on the schedule first.
• Look for clusters of due homes in the same area and give each cluster a day.
• Check panel details on each pin. Mixing a few easy 1-story homes with a steep 3-story job keeps the day realistic.
• Fill gaps with nearby not-due-yet homes if the customer is happy with an early visit.
• Auto-route from the shop.

Over time, homes cleaned together come due together, and residential routes start repeating themselves.

Building a Commercial Plan Route

For the commercial truck, think in sites rather than stops. A quarterly client with three buildings in one business park is a natural single day. Group a client's sites when they come due and schedule them together, which also keeps their monthly statement tidy.

Use access notes for check-in details, and send the night-before reminder to whoever on the account needs to know. More on commercial plans is in Quarterly Commercial Solar Cleaning Plans for Arrays, Carports and Rooftops.

When One Truck Is All You Have

Plenty of companies run a single truck, often with the owner on it. The same idea applies with days instead of trucks. Make Mondays and Tuesdays residential plan days and give commercial sites their own day, or do commercial early in the morning before residential customers expect you.

During the Day

Once routes are running, crew GPS shows each truck on the office map. When a stop is skipped for rain or no access, the tech taps Skip with a note and the office sees it right away. Customers get automatic on-the-way and arrived texts, and can watch the route in the customer app: “You're stop 12 of 20 — the crew is 5 stops away.”

When the tech taps Complete, the invoice is created, the card on file can be charged, and the plan starts counting toward its next visit.

Review routes once in a while with the techs who drive them. They know which neighborhoods have tight driveways, which commercial sites are easiest early in the morning, and which homes always take longer than the card suggests. Their notes make next season's routes better, and putting those notes on the job means every future visit benefits.

As your plan base grows, the same review tells you when a truck is consistently overloaded and it is time to split a route or add a truck day.

Tight Routes, Steady Plans

Recurring work gives you control over when cleanings happen. Use it to build tight routes, with homes on one truck and arrays on another. For how routing fits with plans and billing, visit the recurring solar cleaning software page.