cyphering

[HOMER]

I did some cypherin' today to see what it would take to meet my schedule for next month. I would like to know how everyone else comes up with their cutting schedule, especially if it's mixed like mine. I have some that are weekly, some every 10 days, and some that are every 2 weeks (yes, it can be done down here).

Based on my figures I will have 198 mow's or trips next month with 130 being residential and 68 being commercial. These are not all small properties, some are 2 and 3 acres so those of you who cut postage stamp lawns will have a hard time relating.

The way I figured it I will need to do at the minimum 10 yards every day to ensure I complete every cut if I try and work Mon. thru Friday and leave Saturday open. If I include Saturday as a work day I will need to do no less than 8.25 per day.

I'm sure this sounds simple to some but the mixture is terrible.

I have developed a route that SHOULD work out OK but there will be times when I have to leave the route to do a weekly yard and then get back on it to do my 10 day yards.

I'm about to reach a point that I either need to cut weekly or bi-weekly and get rid of the 10 day thing. It really caused problems last year and it probably will again.

Give me some input on how ya'll schedule yours and how you stay on track. I'm still planning on keeping it in the family and not hire anyone.

[1MajorTom]

Homer,

I don't think there is one simple answer to give.

There is always someone out there that is going to throw a glitch in things.

Last year we had one customer that wanted their lawn cut every five days. And shame on us because sometimes we just couldn't there that often. We could have cleaned up on that account. But our route wasn't going that way every five days so we would fall behind.

I like your idea about keeping it in the family. That works out well for us.

So in conclusion, I know I haven't helped ya out any, but I don't think anyone out there has the perfect route, except maybe Eric :D

[skyphoto]

Homer,
I saw (cyphering)
This wont help your sched. but I honestly thought you were gonna have some funny story about a scrub or somebody sucken gas outta the mower to get home with!

Probably cause Ive thought I may have to do this b4!

Sorry to interupt this post for that but just thouhgt it was funny.

[Richard Martin]

Mixing weekly and bi-weekly isn't hard at all. You probably already know that. The hard part is when you try to mix the 10 day cuts into the schedule. What you can try to do is get all of the 10 day cuts onto the same days and then split them in half. Say you have 4 10s and you do them on Tuesday and Friday. One week you do 2 of them on Tues and the other 2 on Fri. The next week you alternate them. I know it doesn't fix your routing problem but at least this way it balances out you schedule.

[lawnnut]

If you find the answer patent it. We have the same problem
here Homer. All weekly cuts want thurs or fri.
It is a great problem to have though we could have no yards
to cut.

[bob]

Weekly and bi-weekly aren't bad. It's those 10 day cuts that throw a monkey wrench into you schedule. Most of the time the schedule will work itself out.