Service Technicians in D.C. Have Longest Drive Times in Country
Reston, VA (PRWEB) July 31, 2013 -- Customers waiting for the cable guy to show up in the nation’s capital sit at home longer than almost anyone else in the United States.
According to a study of service job travel times conducted by ServicePower, it takes technicians more than 52 minutes to drive from one appointment to the next in Washington, D.C., the highest of the top 50 metro areas. The shortest travel times for service jobs among big cities were logged in Albuquerque, N.M., at 25 minutes.
ServicePower, which provides field management software for field service organizations with mobile workforces handling jobs such as installations, repairs and deliveries, analyzed 650,000 customer appointments in thousands of cities over a 12-month period to come up with the list of best and worst driving times.
“Technicians drive an hour between appointments in Washington, D.C., spending half the day in the vehicle,” said ServicePower CIO Simon Cooper. “That wasted time contributes to customer dissatisfaction, lost revenue and wasted fuel. Field service organizations need technology to optimization tools to create the best technician schedules and driving routes to ensure business metrics are met.”
Residents in California also have to play the waiting game, with three of the top five longest metro travel times for technicians being recorded in the state. Of the 1,100 cities of all sizes with at least 100 appointments, a California town also had the absolute worst travel time in the country – technicians in San Luis Obispo drive almost two hours between jobs (116 minutes).
In contrast, it takes technicians in Urbandale, Iowa, only 13 minutes to drive between jobs, the shortest anywhere.
Here’s a look at the longest and shortest travel times for the top 50 metro areas:
1. Washington, D.C. (52.3 minutes)
2. San Jose (47.68)
3. Virginia Beach (45.78)
4. Los Angeles (44.3)
5. Long Beach (44.1)
46. Milwaukee (29.03)
47. New York City (28.69)
48. Las Vegas (26.92)
49. Wichita (25.82)
50. Albuquerque (24.94)
While New York City also ranks among the nation’s most congested cities, that distinction doesn’t always translate into long travel times for technicians. New York City landed at No. 47 on the ServicePower list of travel times for service jobs at less than 29 minutes.
The gap between Washington, D.C. and New York City demonstrates that technician travel times aren’t determined by traffic alone. Other factors include proximity between appointments, number of available roads, time of day, and other variables such as stop lights and tolls. ServicePower Scheduling software helps field service operations manage variables by enabling supervisors to map historical job data to technician coverage maps. As a result, jobs can be grouped to avoid long drive times and inefficiency.
“Scheduling technology shortens the appointment window for customers, because it chooses the best sequence of jobs based on a variety of factors, including local congestion levels.” Cooper said. “Business intelligence tools give field service organizations like cable companies, appliance retailers or insurance providers an opportunity to keep appointments, improve customer service and complete more jobs.”
ServiceScheduling pre-calculates, weights and stores in memory drive times for real time routing, also optimizing appointments based on factors such as location, nearby jobs, job duration, technician skill level and best routes. The software keeps the field service organization informed of what’s going on in the field through real time job statuses and location information through mobile solutions. For more information on ServiceScheduling, visit http://www.ServicePower.com.
About ServicePower
ServicePower Technologies Plc is the only company that can provide a complete, global field management platform that controls all elements of the service lifecycle from offering an appointment, assigning resource and dispatching work through to tracking resources, processing claims and providing business intelligence and analytical reports. With advanced intelligence-based scheduling, dispatch and open market auction software, as well as access to a global network of 86,000 repair and installation technicians, we enable companies to control and schedule work using a mixed resource pool of employees and independent contractors. ServicePower provides solutions that cross all industries. Current customers include Assurant Solutions, Mitsubishi, Farmers Insurance, and Pitney Bowes.
ServicePower is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange with the ticker SVR.L.
Kikora Mason, Walker Sands Communications, +1 (312) 648-6009, [email protected]
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