Frequently Asked Questions
What is a route audit and what savings can I expect?
A route audit is a review of your Route Assignments and Route Dashboard to spot stop clusters and high-mileage routes. In our example, Arturo Mendes saved 2.9 miles/day and Chuck Bartowski saved 4.4 miles/day after optimization. Your results vary by geography, fleet size, and customer density.
How do I assign or change pin colors for techs and workdays?
Go to Route Assignments, click the Ellipsis (...) on a tech or day, choose “Change Pin Color,” pick the interior color for the technician and the exterior color for the workday, then Save. Colors help you quickly visualize ownership and schedule on the map.
How do I find which routes need optimization?
Open the Route Dashboard and note daily mileage per tech. Filter to one day at a time, then visualize routes on the map to spot clustered stops or overlaps between technicians. Target the highest-mileage days and obvious clusters first.
What’s the process to reassign a stop to another tech?
Select the location on the map, click “Move,” choose the new technician by name, pick the target day, set the effective date for the change, and Save. Recheck the Route Dashboard to confirm mileage dropped as expected.
How often should I run route audits in Skimmer?
Make route audits routine: at minimum quarterly, and immediately after hiring techs, adding customers, or changing service areas. Regular checks of Route Assignments and the Route Dashboard compound small savings into meaningful time and mileage reductions.
Key takeaways
- Use Skimmer’s colored pins to assign techs (inner color) and work days (outer color) so you can filter maps day-by-day and spot inefficient overlaps quickly.
- Run a route audit from the Route Dashboard to find high-mileage days — small swaps can add up (example: Arturo saved 2.9 miles and Chuck saved 4.4 miles after optimization).
- Reassign stops right from the map: select a stop, choose “Move,” pick the tech and day, set the effective date, and save — it’s a fast way to cut unnecessary driving.
- Make route audits a routine. Regular, small improvements compound into real time and fuel savings for your pool service business.
##Key takeaways##
Skimmer’s pool software & route management tools help you set up routes in the most efficient way possible to save you time and minimize mileage. As your business grows, you'll want to regularly revisit your route configuration and make changes and improvements.
Here is a real example of the results of a "route audit" performed by a Skimmer pro:
Team Member
-Arturo Mendes
-Chuck Bartowski
Daily Miles Driven Before Skimmer Optimization
-9 miles
-14.5 miles
Daily Miles Driven After Skimmer Optimization
-6.1 miles
-10.1 miles
Total Miles Saved
-2.9 miles
-4.4 miles
Curious to see how much mileage and time you could save with a route audit? Let's get started:
Step 1: Set Up Your Pins in Route Assignments
Navigate to Route Assignments, and ensure each team member and each day of the week is assigned a color.
- The color on the inside of each pin represents a different team member
- The color on the outside of each pin represents a different day
- To change the assigned color of either a technician or of a workday:some text
- Click on the Ellipsis (...)
- Select “Change Pin Color”
- Select the new color you want to assign the tech or day
- Save the changes made
Now that we have assigned colors for techs and work days, we can optimize our routes!
Step 2: Make Note of Mileage
Let's visit the Route Dashboard and identify routes and mileage that are ripe for improvement.
We'll focus on Chuck and Arturo today, mileage on Monday is 18.5 and 44.6 respectively.
Step 3: Visualize Routes
Select just one day at a time to populate in the map so you can see team member routes. Visually identify where routes stops cluster and where potential "swaps" could be made between team members.
Step 4: Reassign Route Stops to Appropriate Team Members
- In our example we chose Monday
- Notice that Arturo (green pins) is working two locations right next to Chuck (orange pins). It would be more efficient if Arturo worked that stop instead, here’s how to reassign the stop to him:some text
- Select the location you are wanting to reassign
- Select “Move”
- Choose the new team member by name
- Pick the day of the week
- Select when the reassignment will take effect and Save
Step 5: Compare Before and After!
- Navigate to the Route Dashboard and take note of the new mileage!
Our colored pins within Skimmer's pool management software offer a simple but powerful functionality to optimize routes. Make it a habit to regularly visit the Route Assignment dashboard and these small improvements will compound over time, saving time and money for your pool servicing and repair business.
