How to Price a Recurring Route Stop
Price a recurring route stop from revenue per road hour, not per stop: total the drive time, on-site time, and consumables for the stop, apply your target hourly rate, and hold a minimum charge that covers the trip regardless of how small the work is. Give density discounts only for stops at the same address or adjacent addresses, never for a customer's total volume across a territory, and write a fuel or annual escalator into every agreement. A route's profit lives in geography — the same work priced identically is profitable in one zip code and a loss two towns over.
Price the hour on the road, not the stop
- Drive time to the stop — from the previous stop, not from your shop
- On-site time — the actual work
- Consumables and disposal
- Target hourly rate applied to (1) + (2)
- Minimum charge — the floor when the work is small
A twelve-minute service with twenty-five minutes of driving is really a thirty-seven-minute job. Price it as one.
Density is the only discount that’s real
| Situation | Discount? |
|---|---|
| Second unit, same address | Yes — the drive happened once |
| Adjacent addresses, same visit | Yes — modest |
| Ten sites scattered across a county | No — that’s ten drives |
| High annual volume, one distant site | No |
Volume without density doesn’t save you anything, and agreeing otherwise is probably the most common way route businesses price themselves into unprofitable territory.
Hold the minimum charge
The minimum is what protects the stop that’s quick, small, or half-cancelled. Set it to cover the trip and publish it, so a small job never quietly turns into a free one.
Build the escalator in at signing
The increase everyone agreed to in year one is never argued. The one introduced in year three always is.
A fixed annual percentage or a fuel surcharge tied to a published index. One clause, written once.
Route mapping beats price increases
Reordering a route by geography often adds more margin than a 10% price rise, and it costs nothing, upsets nobody, and takes an afternoon.
Do that first, then raise prices where the map can’t help you anymore.
Prune deliberately, once a year
Every route accumulates outliers — a stop forty minutes past the last one, kept around out of loyalty to a customer who’s been paying the same rate since 2019.
Just quote the correct price. Most will take it. The ones who don’t hand you back an hour you can sell three times over closer to home.
Frequently asked questions
Why is revenue per stop the wrong measure?
Because it ignores the drive, which is usually the largest cost in the day. A $40 stop ten minutes away beats a $70 stop forty minutes away, and any route priced on stop revenue alone slowly fills with the second kind.
Should I discount for a customer with many locations?
Only where the locations are actually adjacent. Volume across a scattered territory saves you nothing — it's the same number of drives. Discount density, never volume, and say so in those words when negotiating.
How do I handle rising fuel costs?
Write a fuel or annual escalator into the agreement at signing — a stated percentage, or a surcharge tied to a published index. Renegotiating mid-term is difficult; applying a clause everyone agreed to is administrative.
When should I drop a stop?
When it's outside your density and won't accept a price that makes it pay. Ask for the correct price first — many outliers accept it. The ones that don't are freeing an hour you can sell nearer to home.