Grow smart

Gary Kott, owner of Go Green Lawn & Tree Care in Michigan, uses what he calls a day to day system to assign stops to his fleet, meaning that he routes in the morning every day.

His technicians have a daily production quota, which he has to take into consideration depending on the square footage of the properties on the route and the truck capacity.

“Right now it’s easy because we’re all granular, but when we start spraying, we can only do a couple hundred thousand square feet, so I route by dollars and square footage,” he says.

Using a star pattern, meaning that there are distinct sections in a service area, he’s able to make sure his trucks are reaching all of his nearly 4,000 accounts in Oakland and Livingston counties within two days.

“That way if any new sales come in, I’ll know within two days I can get that truck out there. It’s not going to put him out of his way to be able to get back to that area,” he says. “We’re growing so quickly that it’s important to get out there right away to get that sale produced.”

Kott overloads his routes on purpose to account for possible cancellations. “If you’ve got people that are cutting grass, or the sprinklers are on or someone is working on the landscaping, guys aren’t able to produce that day,” he says.

If technicians are unable to service a property, the clients go back into the hopper and Kott will route them for the next day. “So the routes always stay nice, tight, crisp,” he says.