Most of a water treatment company's visits are predictable. A softener customer needs salt every so often. A filter needs changing on a cycle. A reverse osmosis system needs its pre-filters and membrane replaced on a longer one. You know these are coming months ahead.
The unpredictable part is everything else: the softener that stopped regenerating, the new install sold last week, the water test a homeowner asked for after a neighbour's well came back bad. Those calls land on the same trucks that run the routes.
So the scheduling job has two halves. Keep the recurring routes dense, so each stop is a short hop from the last. And fit the one-off work in without tearing the routes apart.
The work, by how it schedules
Each kind of visit has its own scheduling character. Treat them differently on the board.
| Visit type | Timing | Flexibility | Duration | Scheduling risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salt delivery | Recurring cycle | Days to a week | Short | Scattered stops if added one by one |
| Filter or cartridge change | Recurring cycle | Days to weeks | Short to medium | Drifting off-cycle when bumped |
| RO service | Longer cycle | Weeks | Medium | Forgotten until the customer calls |
| Repair call | When it breaks | Low (no soft water, no drinking water) | Uncertain | Cascades into the rest of the route |
| New install | Sold, then booked | Customer's choice | Long | Pulls a tech off route for half a day |
| Water test or consult | On request | Medium | Short | Easy to place badly |
The recurring work is your base. It's also the work most likely to be booked carelessly, because it's flexible. A salt stop that could go on any day this week tends to go on whatever day the customer mentions, which may be the one day no truck is near them.
Build routes by area first, then by date
The classic mistake with recurring service is to schedule each customer on their own cycle: every six weeks from their last visit. Over time, each customer drifts to a different day, and the route that used to be one tight loop becomes visits scattered across the week.
The fix is to anchor routes to areas:
- Split the territory into route areas that one truck can cover in a day with short hops.
- Give each area a regular day or days in the cycle.
- When a customer's cycle comes due, put them on the next visit to their area, not on their exact due date.
You trade a little precision in the interval for a lot of schedule density. For salt and most filters, a few days either way rarely matters. For anything where it does, note the latest acceptable date and treat that as a hard edge.
Pool companies run almost the same model with weekly routes; see pool service scheduling. Pest control's quarterly routes are another close cousin; see pest control.
Where repair calls fit
A softener that's stopped working isn't an emergency in the way a burst pipe is. But a customer without working treatment, especially one relying on it for drinking water, doesn't want to wait for their area's next route day.
There are two honest ways to place a repair:
- Insert it into a route day where the truck will already be close. The extra time is the job itself plus a short detour, not a cross-town drive.
- Send a separate truck if no route is near enough today. That's a full truck roll, so it costs more, and it should be a choice, not an accident.
What goes wrong is the third way: inserting the repair into a route day without checking the drive, then discovering at 2 p.m. that the rest of the route won't fit.
A worked example: one repair inserted into a route
This is an illustrative example. The numbers are made up to show the method; use your own route times.
A technician has a route day of 12 salt and filter stops, each about 15 minutes, with about 8 minutes of driving between them. A repair call comes in. The customer is near stop 7, about 6 minutes off the route. The repair is expected to take an hour.
Same repair, same technician, same day. Putting it where the truck already is costs 12 minutes of driving. Tacking it on at the end because "that's where the gap is" costs an hour. That hour is either a stop pushed to tomorrow or paid time on the road.
Installs and the half-day hole
A new install takes a technician off the route for a large block. That's fine if the route stops for that day are moved, not left to crowd the afternoon.
Two ways to handle it:
- Book installs on a dedicated day for the install tech, so route days stay route days.
- If one tech does both, book the install in the morning near the start of that day's route area, and move the outer stops of the route to the next visit to the area. Recurring stops are the flexible ones; let them move.
Either way, give installs a realistic job duration estimate built from your own past installs, including plumbing changes and drain runs, not the best case.
How CrewLink handles water treatment scheduling
CrewLink builds live travel time into availability. When a repair call or install request comes in, the slots it offers are ones a technician can physically reach, with travel computed from where they'll actually be (the previous stop) rather than the shop. That's the check that tells you whether a repair can go after stop 7 or needs its own truck.
On the dispatch board, drive time sits next to each stop instead of being hidden inside it. When a route looks full, you can see whether it's full of work or full of driving. For how to think about route efficiency across a fleet, read windshield time.
Be clear on what it doesn't do. CrewLink doesn't track salt inventory, filter part numbers, water test results or equipment warranties, and it doesn't generate recurring visits from a service contract or send invoices. If you need those in one product, a full field service management suite may suit you better. CrewLink is a scheduling and dispatch tool built for companies running 5 to 50 trucks, and a walkthrough uses your own territory and service times.
What to take away
- Water treatment is mostly a route business. Density is what makes recurring stops profitable.
- Anchor routes to areas and move due customers to the next visit to their area.
- Insert repairs where a truck already is, and treat a separate truck roll as a deliberate choice.
- Let recurring stops move when an install takes a half-day; they're the flexible work.
- Check the drive before inserting anything into a route day.
Common questions
How do I schedule salt delivery routes?
Divide the territory into route areas a truck can cover with short hops, give each area a regular day in the cycle, and put each due customer on the next visit to their area. Note a latest acceptable date for anyone who can't run low, and treat it as a hard limit.
How many water treatment stops can a technician do in a day?
Add average time on site and average drive between stops, then divide your working hours (minus breaks and the drive out and back) by that number. Run it separately for salt-only stops and filter or RO service, because their durations differ. The jobs per day calculator does the arithmetic.
Should repair calls go on route days or separate trucks?
Put a repair on a route day when the truck will already be nearby and the rest of the route still fits after you add the job and the detour. Send a separate truck when no route is close today and the customer can't wait. Check the drive both ways before deciding.
How do I stop recurring customers drifting onto scattered days?
Schedule by area first and cycle second. Each time a customer's visit comes due, place them on their area's next route day instead of an exact interval from their last visit. Review area boundaries a few times a year as your customer base grows.