PetGroomBossPro Blog — Pet Grooming Software

Routes for Mobile Pet Grooming Vans: Ordering the Day Around Set Appointment Times

Routing for a mobile groomer is not quite like routing for a lawn crew or a pest control tech. Those trades can often visit homes in any order during the day. A mobile groomer has appointment times. The owner of the 9:00 dog is waiting at 9:00. So the route has to respect the times first and then make the driving between them as short as it can be.

After Pending Jobs Comes the Route

Tomorrow's visits were confirmed in Pending Jobs: Confirming Tomorrow's Grooming Appointments the Day Before. Once confirmed, they move to the Scheduled list, and that is where routes are built.

The Scheduled List

The Scheduled list shows every confirmed appointment by day. Each card shows its appointment time, so you can read the day the way the groomer will live it: 8:30, 10:00, 11:30, and so on. Filter by van to see one van's day on its own, which is handy once you are running more than one.

Saved views let you come back to the same filters without setting them up again, such as “Van 1 this week” or “Everything Thursday.”

Auto-Route From the Shop

For days with flexible stops, auto-route puts a van's appointments in order for you. You choose:

• Closest First from the shop, starting near home base and working out
• Furthest First from the shop, starting at the far end and working back toward home

Which one makes sense depends on how you like to run your day. Some groomers like to get the long drive out of the way in the morning. Others prefer to end the day far out and head home from there.

Set the Order by Hand

Auto-route is a starting point. On most mobile grooming days, appointment times decide the order more than distance does. You can set the route order by hand so it follows the times, then let distance settle the order of any stops that are flexible.

Whatever order you set is the order the groomer sees on their phone. If you change it, the phone follows.

Times on Every Card

The groomer app shows the set time on every appointment card. The groomer does not need a separate calendar open to know when the next stop is due. If the day is running long, the office can see that from the van's progress and give the next owner a heads-up through two-way texting.

Customers who turned on the “when they're next” alert get a text when the groomer is on the way to them, and the customer app shows a live map with their place in line. That is covered in The Customer App and Live Map: Letting Pet Owners See the Grooming Van Coming.

Building Days That Make Sense

Good routes start before the day itself. When you book repeat clients, it helps to think about neighborhoods: Tuesday on the north side, Thursday on the south side. The Pending Jobs map shows where each planned visit sits, so when a new client calls you can see which day already has a van nearby.

Over time, a book built that way gives you shorter drives without having to re-route every day. The routing tools are there to tidy up what is left.

Route Sheets for the Dash

Some groomers still like paper. You can print a route sheet for any day and van, with the appointments in order, the times and the addresses. It is a good backup for a day with bad cell coverage, or for a bather who rides along and likes to know what is next.

Van GPS on the Office Map

While a groomer works the day, the van's GPS location shows on the office map. For a solo groomer this may not matter much. For an office running two or three vans, it answers the most common phone call of the day: “When will the groomer get here?”

More Than One Van

With several vans, filtering the Scheduled list by van keeps each one's day clear. Each groomer only sees their own appointments on their phone. A groomer and a bather can share a van, so both see the same day. Running a two-van company is covered in Running a Two-Van Mobile Pet Grooming Company: Groomers, Bathers and Shared Vans.

For the rest of the guides on how PetGroomBossPro runs a grooming business, go back to the pet grooming software page.