Backtracking is when a technician's route for the day crosses back over territory it already covered, for example going from downtown to the north side and back to downtown before lunch.
How to measure backtracking
A simple daily check per truck:
Backtracking day = A day where the truck returns to an area it already left, with no job requiring that order
To size it, compare actual driving with the driving the same jobs would have needed in a sensible order:
Backtracking drive = Actual drive time − Drive time of the shortest reasonable order
Say a technician has jobs at 8:00 downtown, 10:00 forty minutes north and 11:30 back downtown. The day's drive is roughly 80 minutes. Booked as downtown, downtown, north, the same jobs need about 45. The 35-minute difference is backtracking.
Across a team, the useful number is the share of truck-days with at least one backtrack. It points to where the drive is coming from.
Why it matters for scheduling
Backtracking is the most avoidable drive time on the board, and it tells you where the problem started. If trucks drive reasonable distances in a sensible order, booking is fine. If trucks cross their own path, the drive was created when the jobs were promised.
That happens because most bookings are made one call at a time. Each customer is offered whatever block is empty, with no check on where the truck will be before and after. Three calls later the day zig-zags.
Route optimization cannot remove backtracking when it is locked in by promised windows. The fix is at booking: checking the drive from the previous job before the slot is offered. That is travel-feasible scheduling, and it is how CrewLink works. It builds live travel time into availability, so a slot that would send a truck back across town is not offered. The windshield time post uses backtracking as its main diagnostic.
A common mistake
Blaming technicians or traffic. A technician handed a zig-zag day will drive a zig-zag. Look at the order the jobs were booked in, and when, before looking at how the day was driven.
Related terms
- Route optimization reduces backtracking only where windows allow reordering.
- Zone scheduling prevents it with a fixed geographic rule.
- Windshield time is where the cost of backtracking accumulates.
Common questions
Is all backtracking avoidable?
No. Emergencies, a customer who can only be home at one time, or a part pickup can all justify it. The problem is backtracking with no reason except the order calls came in.
How do I find backtracking in my schedule?
Plot a few trucks' days on a map in job order. Days that cross their own path stand out at a glance.
Does zone scheduling eliminate backtracking?
It reduces it within a day, at the cost of flexibility about which days each area can be served.