Technician backtracking is when a truck's day crosses back over territory it already covered. You can find it from one day of job records: list each truck's jobs in time order, mark each job's area, and look for any area that appears, disappears and appears again. If you find it, the cause is almost always booking, not driving.
The glossary entry on backtracking defines the term. This Field Note is the practical version: how to run the diagnostic on your own board tomorrow morning, how to put a number on it, and what the answer tells you about where your drive time comes from.
Why backtracking is a booking problem
A tech handed jobs in the order north, south, north will drive north, south, north. They can't reorder the day, because each customer was promised a window. By the time the truck leaves the shop, the drive is locked in.
That's why backtracking is such a useful diagnostic. Traffic makes every drive longer, but it doesn't make a truck cross its own path. Bad luck doesn't either, mostly. Backtracking is the fingerprint of jobs booked one call at a time, each into whatever slot was empty, without anyone checking where the truck would be before and after.
The windshield time post uses the same idea: the drive was created when the jobs were promised.
The one-day diagnostic
Pick yesterday. You need, for each truck, the jobs in time order and each job's address. A printout of the board is enough.
Step 1. Label areas. Give each job a coarse area: a ZIP code, a neighborhood, or a zone name if you use zone scheduling. Coarse is fine. You're looking for big jumps, not blocks.
Step 2. Write each truck's day as a string of areas. For example:
Truck 3: N, N, S, N, E
Step 3. Look for returns. An area that appears, then a different one, then the first again, is a backtrack. Truck 3 above backtracks once: N, then S, then back to N.
Step 4. Check for a reason. For each backtrack, ask whether there was a constraint: an emergency, a customer who could only do that time, a part pickup. Some backtracks are justified. Mark those.
Step 5. Count. The headline number is:
Backtrack share = Truck-days with at least one unjustified backtrack ÷ Total truck-days
If one day isn't representative, run the same check on a week. It takes about ten minutes per day once you've done it once.
Putting a number on it
To size the cost, compare the drive the day actually had with the drive the same jobs would have needed in a sensible order, keeping the windows that were truly fixed.
These numbers are invented. Use your own. The cost here is labor only. It leaves out the job that didn't fit at the end of the day, because 40 minutes went to crossing town twice, which for many companies is the bigger loss.
Estimate drive times from a map at the hour of each leg. They don't need to be exact. The comparison matters, not the precise minutes. The drive time entry covers how to think about the hour-of-day effect.
Reading the result
The backtrack share tells you where to look.
Under about 10% of truck-days. Your booking is mostly fine. Remaining drive is probably territory size or genuine constraints. Look at service areas and truck count instead.
Between 10% and 30%. Booking is leaking. Typically one or two people book in phone order, or certain days (Mondays, the day after a storm) fall apart. Find which booker or which day and fix the habit.
Above 30%. Booking is the main source of avoidable drive. Training helps a bit, but this is a mechanism problem: whoever offers times can't see where each truck will be.
These bands are a rule of thumb for reading your own data, not an industry benchmark.
What fixes it
Route optimization reorders jobs that are already booked. It can't remove backtracking that is locked in by windows the customer was promised. The fix has to happen earlier, at the moment a time is offered.
By hand, the rule is: before offering a slot, look at the truck's job before and after, and only offer it if the new address sits sensibly between them. That works for a few trucks and one booker. It breaks down when calls come in fast or several people book.
The mechanical version is travel time scheduling: the booking page offers only start times a qualified tech can actually make, counting the drive at that hour from the previous job. CrewLink works this way, in early access. A slot that would send a truck back across town to a job it can't reach in time isn't offered in the first place.
Then rerun the diagnostic a month later. The backtrack share should fall. If it doesn't, the problem is somewhere else.
What to take away
- Backtracking is a truck crossing territory it already covered. It is the fingerprint of jobs booked in phone order.
- Diagnose it from one day: write each truck's day as a string of areas and look for returns.
- Size it: actual drive minus sensible-order drive, times backtrack share, trucks, days and loaded cost.
- Routing can't undo backtracking locked in by promised windows. The fix is checking the drive when the time is offered.
Common questions
What causes technician backtracking?
Usually booking. Jobs are promised one call at a time into whatever slot is empty, with no check on where the truck will be before and after. Emergencies and fixed customer times cause some, but most is avoidable.
How do I find backtracking without software?
Take a day's board, label each job with a coarse area, write each truck's day as a sequence of areas, and look for an area that comes back after the truck left it. It takes a few minutes per day.
Is crossing territory twice ever the right call?
Yes, when there's a real constraint: an emergency, a customer available only at one time, or a part pickup. Mark those as justified and leave them out of the count.
Will route optimization fix backtracking?
Only when windows are loose enough to reorder the jobs. Once specific times are promised, routing can't move them, so the backtrack stays. Preventing it at booking is more reliable.