How far should a mobile detailer travel? Setting your service area

A mobile detailer should travel as far as the job still pays for the drive there, the drive back and the time between jobs. For most people that means a home zone you serve at your normal price, an outer zone you serve with a travel charge or a minimum order, and a line beyond which you say no. Work out where that line goes from your own costs and how full your week is.

There's no right distance that works for everyone. A detailer in a dense city might fill a day within a few miles. Someone in a rural area might drive half an hour to every job and still do well, often because fewer detailers cover the area. What matters is that you know what the drive costs and that your booking page only takes bookings you actually want.

What does travel actually cost you?

Drive time is unpaid work, and it's easy to leave out of your prices. Start with three numbers from your own records:

1. Your vehicle cost per mile or kilometre. Fuel, plus wear, tyres, maintenance and insurance spread over the miles you drive. Your fuel receipts and service bills give you a rough figure. (In the US, the IRS publishes a standard mileage rate each year for tax purposes. Some people also use it as a rough check on their own figure. Your accountant can tell you how it applies to you.)
2. What an hour of your time is worth. Take what you want to earn in a week and divide it by the hours you can really work.
3. How long the round trip takes at the times you work. Use the time it takes in traffic at 8:00 or 17:00, which can be much longer than the map suggests.

Say a job is 40 minutes away and the work takes two hours. The round trip adds 80 minutes, so you're out for well over three hours, plus the miles, for a job you priced as two. Once you've written these numbers down, you can see where the zones should go.

How do you set zones?

Zones keep this simple for you and for customers:

• Home zone. Close enough that travel is part of your normal price. Most of your bookings should land here.
• Outer zone. Further out, where you add a travel fee, ask for a bigger minimum job (for example, only full details, not a quick wash), or only go on certain days.
• Outside. Too far to be worth it. Say so clearly and, if you can, recommend someone closer.

Some detailers also group jobs by area on fixed days, for example "north side on Tuesdays", which cuts drive time without turning anyone away.

When you're starting out, a wider area can help you fill the calendar. As bookings grow, pull the edges back in, or raise the outer-zone charge, so that the drives you take on are worth it.

How do you show your area to customers?

Customers want to know two things before they book: do you come to me, and does it cost extra? Answer both on your booking page and your website. A short line is enough:

We come to you in [town and the areas around it]. Postcodes [list] are included in the price. Further out, we add [a travel charge / a minimum order]; message us first if you're not sure.

Use postcodes or ZIP codes rather than "within 15 miles", because customers know their postcode and nobody wants to measure the distance on a map.

How do you stop bookings from outside your area?

Without a check, you can find out on the morning of the job that the customer lives an hour away.

In Okayset you can set a service area on every plan: under Settings › Booking page › Service area, list the postcodes or ZIP codes you serve. The start of a code is enough, so 941 covers ZIP codes 94100 to 94199 and 10 covers Dutch postcodes 1000 to 1099. Customers enter their postcode before they see your calendar. If it's outside your area, they see your message instead (for example "Call us on [number] and we'll see what we can do"), and the postcode is checked again when the booking is made and shown on the booking.

Okayset doesn't work out distances or drive times between jobs and doesn't plan routes. Two settings take care of the time you lose on the road:

• Buffer after on each service blocks time after every job for the drive to the next one, so customers can't book you back to back. See services, buffers and prices.
• Booking questions let you ask for what you need for the visit, such as the full address, the car model or whether there's a water tap nearby. They're part of the paid plans after the beta (free with every feature during the private beta).

Okayset doesn't take payments, so it can't charge a travel fee. If you have an outer zone, set up a separate service (for example "Full detail, outer area") with a price that includes travel, and say in its description which postcodes it's for. The mobile detailing page shows how the rest of the setup fits a detailing business.

When should you look at your area again?

Check your zones every few months, or sooner if:

• you're often fully booked a week ahead (time to shrink the area or raise the outer-zone charge);
• you have gaps most weeks (time to widen the area or add a day for the outer zone);
• fuel costs change a lot;
• you take on a second van or a team member, which changes what a day of driving can cover.