Calculator
Second trip calculator
A second trip costs the crew's time for the return visit plus the vehicle, every time a job cannot be finished on the first visit. Multiply your monthly return trips by the cost of one trip to see what they cost in a year.
How this is calculated
- Each return trip: 2.5 hours × 2 people × $55, plus $45 for the vehicle = $320.
- 25 a month is 300 a year.
- Not counted: the paying work that crew could have done in those hours, or the customer's patience.
Reading the result
Each return trip is a job paid for twice and billed once. The reasons behind them are usually the same few, which is good news: fixing the top reason often removes most of the trips. The handoff gap page explains why information that exists somewhere still fails to reach the truck.
Questions people ask
Which second trips should I count?
Returns caused by something the company controls: the wrong part, missing information, no access arranged, a scope nobody passed on. Not planned multi-visit jobs.
How do I find the number?
Look at a month of jobs and mark those that took more than one visit when one was planned, with the reason.
What does the calculator leave out?
The paying work the crew could have done in those hours, and the customer's patience with a second appointment.
What causes most second trips?
Usually information that existed somewhere, a site visit note, a customer's description, a sales promise, but did not reach the crew before they rolled.
What reduces them?
Making sure the crew leaves with what the job needs. The guides linked below list what to check first.