Working Radius
A working radius is the distance worth traveling for a job. It changes with the size of the job. The same drive is small on a large job and costly on a small one.
What it means
Most owners set a working radius as a flat mile limit, such as "I don’t go past 20 miles". That rule ignores the size of the job at the other end. Job size decides whether a trip pays. A 30-mile drive hardly matters on a two-day job. It can cost more than a two-hour job pays.
A radius that scales with the job needs two numbers first. One is the van’s cost per mile. The other is the target rate that prices the drive time. Add a job’s price and hours, and those numbers give the longest distance worth driving for that job. Each job gets its own figure.
Take a $250 job with 2 hours on site, a $45 target rate and a $0.65-a-mile van. It can carry a round trip of roughly 75 miles before the drive costs more than the job pays. A smaller job with the same rate and van cost carries far less.
Quoting the same fixed mile limit for every job. The radius should shrink for a small job and stretch for a large one.
See also
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