PressureWashingBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Routes

Crew GPS on the Office Map: Seeing Every Pressure Washing Rig During the Day

Once the rigs leave the shop in the morning, a lot of owners lose sight of the day. They know the plan, but not how it is going. To find out, they call the crew — who has wet gloves on, a running pump and no free hand. Crew GPS on the office map answers most of those questions without a call.

The Office Side of the Live Route

Customers already see their place in the route, as covered in Stop 12 of 20: Showing Pressure Washing Customers Their Place on the Route. Crew GPS is the office's view of the same day: where each crew actually is, right now.

In PressureWashingBossPro, crew locations come from the crew app on each crew member's phone and show on the office map. No extra hardware is installed in the truck. Crew members log in to the crew app with the company login and their personal PIN, work their route, and the office sees them move.

Answering “Where Are You?”

The most common use is the simplest. A customer calls and asks when the crew will arrive. Instead of putting them on hold and calling the crew, the office looks at the map, sees which stop the rig is at and how many stops are ahead of the customer, and answers.

Commercial customers ask too. A property manager wants to know if the parking garage got done before the weekend. A restaurant owner wants to know whether the crew has left so the staff can use the back door. A glance at the map, together with the Start and Complete taps on the dispatch board, answers both.

Sending the Closest Rig

Pressure washing days change. A customer down the road from Rig 1 calls asking if someone can do their driveway today. A commercial customer reports that a dumpster pad needs a second pass. A crew finishes the roof early and has a few hours free.

With two rigs on the map, you can see which one is closest. Add the new job to that rig's day on the dispatch board, set it in the right place in the route order, and it shows up on their phone. No long phone call explaining where to go, and no rig driving across town because the office guessed wrong.

Reading the Day's Progress

GPS shows where a crew is. The dispatch board shows what they have done. Together they tell you how the day is going:

• On pace: the crew is at the stop the plan says they should be at around now.
• Behind: the crew is still at the long job. Maybe the quick driveway at the end of the day should move to tomorrow, and that customer gets a text from the office.
• Ahead: the crew has finished early. Time to look at the Waiting List for something due nearby.

Making those calls early in the day is much easier than at 6pm when a crew is still three stops from done.

Rain and Mid-Day Changes

When weather turns mid-day, the map helps you decide what to do with each rig. A crew near a covered parking garage stop might be able to keep working. A crew in the middle of a residential neighborhood with no covered work nearby might head home. Skipped jobs come back to the office with the crew's note, ready to reschedule, as described in Rain-Outs and Weather Days: Moving Pressure Washing Jobs Between Days.

Setting Expectations With the Crew

Some crew members worry that GPS means being watched. It helps to be clear about why it is there: so the office can answer customers, send the closest rig to new work, and stop calling crews in the middle of jobs. In practice, GPS usually means fewer interruptions for the crew, not more. Most crews appreciate not having their phone ring every time a customer asks a question.

The time clock in the crew app records hours as they work, which pairs well with GPS. Together they give you an honest picture of the day without needing to quiz anyone about it later.

A Small Company Tool, Too

Crew GPS is not only for big operations. An owner-operator with one helper running a second rig gets just as much out of it. When you are washing a house yourself, a quick look at the map on your phone tells you whether the other rig is on schedule without stopping to call.

One Map, One Board

The office map, the dispatch board and the crew's phone all show the same day. That is what lets the office make quick, confident changes without calling around. To see how crew GPS fits with the rest of the scheduling tools, visit the pressure washing scheduling software page.