Service area targeting for trades: drive time is the real cost

Aug 27
3 min read

Updated: 5 days ago

Introduction

Almost every trade business defines its service area optimistically. The radius on the website is wider than the one that makes money, because turning work down feels like losing.

But drive time is the largest hidden cost in a van-based business. An hour on the road is an hour of paid labour producing nothing, and a service area drawn on ambition rather than arithmetic quietly converts busy weeks into unprofitable ones.

1. Service area targeting for trades starts with costing an hour on the road

Work out what an hour of van time actually costs: technician wage, vehicle running cost, fuel, and the margin you would have earned had that hour been billable.

Now apply it to a job forty minutes each way. That is well over an hour of cost before anyone picks up a tool, and on a small repair it can exceed the entire margin. Most owners have never run this calculation on their furthest routine jobs.

2. Map where your jobs actually come from

Plot last year's jobs by postcode along with their value.

The pattern is usually tighter than the advertised area, and often lopsided — a cluster in two or three neighbourhoods and a scatter of distant one-offs. The scatter is where the money leaks, and it is invisible until it is on a map.

3. Set the radius by job value, not by distance alone

A single radius is the wrong tool, because a large installation justifies a drive that a small repair does not.

The practical rule is two zones: a core area where you take anything, and an outer band where you only take work above a value threshold. That keeps you available for the big jobs without filling the schedule with distant small ones.

4. Make the profile match reality

Your business profile's service area is a targeting instrument, not a wish list.

Set it to where you genuinely go. Listing half the county produces enquiries you decline, which wastes the caller's time, wastes yours, and — because visitors who bounce are a signal — can weaken the local visibility you actually want.

5. Price the edges rather than refusing outright

Distance does not have to mean no.

A stated travel surcharge beyond your core area lets you accept outer-band work at a real margin, and it converts more often than owners expect because the customer at the edge usually has fewer options. State it on the phone before dispatch, never on the invoice.

6. Cluster the schedule geographically

Two jobs in the same neighbourhood on the same morning cost far less than the same two jobs on opposite sides of town.

Book by area where the customer is flexible: offer the day you will already be nearby. Most people accept a suggested day if it comes with a tighter arrival window in exchange, and the gain in productive hours is substantial.

7. Say no in a way that still earns something

A declined enquiry is still a person who now needs a recommendation.

Refer them to someone you trust in that area, and ask the same in return. A reciprocal arrangement with a competitor in the next town is worth more than either of you driving an hour into the other's patch, and it converts a dead lead into goodwill.

8. Revisit the boundary as capacity changes

The right area for one van is not the right area for four.

When you add a technician, the core can expand, and when someone leaves it should contract. Review it whenever headcount changes rather than treating the map as permanent — a boundary set two vans ago is usually wrong in both directions at once.

9. Track revenue per hour, not revenue per job

This is the number that exposes drive time.

A distant job with a healthy invoice can produce a poor hourly figure once travel is counted, while a cluster of small local jobs looks unimpressive per job and excellent per hour. Split it by zone for a month and the boundary decision usually makes itself.

Conclusion

Cost an hour of van time properly and apply it to your furthest routine jobs, then plot last year's work by postcode and value to see where revenue actually comes from.

Run a core area plus an outer band with a value threshold, set the profile's service area to reality rather than ambition, price the edges with a stated travel surcharge, cluster bookings geographically, refer out what you decline and build reciprocal arrangements, revisit the boundary whenever headcount changes, and judge zones by revenue per hour rather than per job.