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Lawn Crew Windshield Time Cost Calculator

Reviewed for 2026, updated September 8, 2026.

Estimates how many paid hours and dollars a lawn care operation spends driving between stops each week, and what tighter routing would save in cost and extra billable visits.

Your numbers

Results update as you type.

Your estimate

Paid drive hours per week...
Weekly cost of drive time...
Weekly savings at target drive time...
Extra visits the recovered time could serve...

Estimates only. Assumptions are listed below, and you can change every input.

Drive time is the cost most lawn care owners feel but rarely measure. The crew is on the clock, the truck is burning fuel and nothing is being invoiced. A route that grew one customer at a time, wherever the next lead happened to live, can hide several hours of paid driving every single day. Before deciding whether it is worth re-routing, clustering customers by zone or turning down out of the way work, it helps to see what the windshield time actually costs.

The estimate is straightforward. Stops per day across all crews times the average drive minutes between stops times route days per week gives the weekly drive minutes, which are converted to hours and multiplied by the hourly cost of a rolling crew, meaning loaded labor plus truck cost. Enter a realistic target drive time after tighter routing and the calculator shows the weekly savings in dollars, then divides the recovered minutes by the time one full stop takes to show how many extra visits that time could serve. There are no hidden benchmarks; if you change no inputs, you get only your own numbers back.

How to use this tool

  1. Count the stops your crews complete on a normal day and find the true average drive time between stops from a week of GPS or timestamp data.
  2. Enter the hourly cost of one crew on the road, including truck costs, along with route days per week and average time on site.
  3. Set a conservative target drive time, then read the weekly cost of driving today, the savings from tighter routing, and how many extra visits the recovered time could serve.

What the math assumes

  • Every stop carries the same average drive time; the calculator does not model the long first leg from the shop or the drive home, so add those into your average if you want them counted.
  • The hourly cost of a rolling crew is applied to every drive minute at the rate you enter; there is no separate idle or fuel rate.
  • Savings only count when the target drive time is lower than the current one; if the target is higher, savings and extra visits are reported as zero.
  • Extra visits are computed by dividing recovered minutes by on site minutes plus the target drive time, rounded down to whole visits, and assume you have customers to fill them.
  • All results are per week; multiply by the number of route weeks in your season for a seasonal figure.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the calculator count drive time at the full crew cost?

Because everyone in the truck is being paid whether the mower is running or not, and the truck costs money to move. Drive time is a real cost of serving the route, so it is priced at the same rate as any other crew hour.

Is it realistic to expect drive time to drop by a third from re-routing?

It depends entirely on how scattered the current route is and how much freedom you have to move service days. A route built one lead at a time often has more slack than a route that was zoned from the start. Start with a modest target and adjust once you have measured a few re-sequenced weeks.

Does the savings figure mean I will see that much extra cash?

Only if the recovered hours are either removed from payroll or filled with billable work. The dollar figure is the cost of the time, and the extra visits output shows what that time could produce if you sell into it.

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More free tools from LawnCadence

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  • Recurring Mowing Plan Price Calculator: Estimates what a lawn care business needs to charge per visit and per month on a recurring mowing plan to cover crew labor, equipment and overhead while keeping a target profit margin.

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