How far is too far?

Distance is the wrong unit

A radius drawn on a map treats twenty minutes of motorway and twenty minutes of town traffic as the same thing, and they are not remotely comparable.

Drive time is the honest unit, and it changes by hour of day. A job that is thirty minutes away at ten in the morning can be an hour at four in the afternoon, which turns an efficient afternoon into a single job.

The practical version of this is that a mobile fitting coverage area should be shaped rather than circular. It follows the roads that move quickly and stops short where they do not, and it will look nothing like a clean circle.

Set the edge from job value, not goodwill

At the boundary the question is simple: does this job cover the time it takes, including both directions and the risk of it not going ahead?

A minimum job value at distance answers that without needing a decision each time. So does a rule that distant jobs are only offered on days you are already working that direction, which costs the customer a wait and costs you almost nothing.

What does not work is deciding case by case out of goodwill. Every individual yes looks reasonable and the pattern is a van doing long unpaid drives.

Clustering beats coverage

A smaller area worked densely earns more than a large one worked thinly, and this is the counterintuitive part for anyone growing.

• Two jobs in the same street are close to one job in cost terms.
• A tight area produces repeat customers and referrals that reinforce each other.
• Short gaps between jobs absorb overruns, where long drives amplify them.
• Stock decisions get easier when the vehicle mix in your area is familiar.
• A reputation builds faster where the same neighbours keep seeing you.

Expanding the boundary is the obvious growth move and it is usually the wrong one before the existing area is full.

Say no clearly, and early

The worst outcome at the edge is not declining a job. It is accepting one you should not have, or leaving the customer to discover the problem at booking.

Coverage should be visible before somebody invests time in a booking. A customer told immediately that they are outside the mobile area, and offered a workshop option instead, is a customer you may still keep. One who gets to the last step and is then refused is not.

Declining well is also a marketing act. Being told honestly that someone is too far away, with a suggestion of who is not, is remembered better than a long silence.

Let the edge move with the day

A fixed boundary is a simplification, and the more useful version flexes.

If the van is already working a direction, jobs further out that way cost far less than they would on a different day. A booking system that understands where the van will be can offer those slots and decline others, without anyone doing the arithmetic each morning.

That is the difference between a coverage area as a marketing claim and a coverage area as an operational rule. The first is a number on a page; the second decides what the customer is offered.

Review it with real numbers

Most operations set a radius once and never revisit it, which means the boundary reflects an assumption from the first month of trading.

The numbers worth checking twice a year are the drive time per job by area, the proportion of jobs at the edge that turned out to be worth taking, and the share of enquiries you declined and why.

That last one usually surprises people. A pattern of declines from one direction is either a market you should serve properly or a boundary you should redraw honestly, and both are better than continuing to say no by accident.