Route planning for shorter days: less driving, more paid time

In June a badly planned day still works, because there is light until ten. By late October it does not.

The clocks go back on the last Sunday of October. After that the light goes before five, and by December it has gone by four.

Every hour spent driving between scattered jobs is now an hour of working light gone.

• Give each area its own day or half-day.
• Start with the job nearest your materials, or load the night before.
• Outdoor and roof work between 9 and 3.
• Indoor work early and late.
• Stay off the roads at school-run time when you can.

Stop planning job by job. Plan by area.

Split your patch into three or four zones and give each one set days: north on Monday and Thursday, town centre on Tuesday, and so on.

When a customer asks for a date, offer the day you are already nearby. Most people do not mind which day. They mind that you turn up.

You drive to each area once, not three times.

Five jobs scattered across a town can mean 2 hours 30 minutes of driving in a day.

The same five grouped into two neighbouring areas might be 1 hour 15.

That is 75 minutes back each day. Over a five-day week it is more than six hours, which is most of an extra working day.

At £50 an hour, that is around £300 a week you were spending on the road.

A morning trip to the trade counter costs the best hour of light.

Check tomorrow's jobs at the end of today and load what you need. Order ahead for collection where you can.

If you must collect, make the first job the one nearest the trade counter, so the detour is on the way.

• First thing: indoor jobs, or anything that can be done under a work light.
• Mid-morning to mid-afternoon: outdoor work, roofs, anything where you need to see colour or detail.
• Late afternoon: indoor again, or admin.

An outdoor job that cannot be finished in daylight is better split across two days than rushed in the dark.

Traffic bunches at the same times every day: before 9, around 3 when schools finish, and from 4.30 onwards.

Dark, wet evenings make it slower again.

Plan to be on a job at those times, not between jobs. A late-afternoon job near home means your last drive of the day is a short one.

• Mark last week's jobs on a map and look at the pattern.
• Set your area days.
• Move next week's outdoor jobs into the middle of the day.
• Make loading the van the last task of each day.

Thanks for getting in touch. I am in [area] on [day] and [day]. I can do [day] between [time] and [time]. If that does not suit, the next day I am over your way is [day].