Paid travel time between jobs is overhead that must land somewhere. Allocating it across the day’s jobs — by count or by job size — keeps each bid covering its share.
The example
$48 travel cost, 4 jobs.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Item | Value |
| 2 | 48 / 4 | — |
| 3 | Per job | → $12 |
The formula
The formula:
How it works
How it works:
- Daily travel cost = drive hours × burdened wage + mileage.
- Spread it evenly per job, or weight by job size for fairness.
- Add the allocated travel to each job’s cost before markup.
- Tighter route density lowers travel per job — and raises margin.
Unallocated travel is invisible margin loss. If drivers are paid between stops but that time never enters a bid, every job quietly under-recovers cost. Spreading the day’s travel across its jobs — evenly, or weighted by size — makes each quote carry its share. And because route density shrinks the travel pool, clustering jobs geographically directly improves the margin on all of them.
Try it: interactive demo
Drive hours, burdened wage, mileage cost, jobs.
Variations
Daily travel cost
Time + mileage:
Weighted by job size
Bigger jobs absorb more:
Travel % of revenue
Overhead share:
Pitfalls & errors
Allocate it. Travel must land in a bid, not vanish.
Even vs weighted. Spread evenly or by job size — pick a fair rule.
Zero jobs. No jobs gives #DIV/0!.
Practice workbook
Frequently asked questions
How do I allocate travel time across cleaning jobs in Excel?
What's the daily travel cost?
How do I weight by job size?
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