Operations
Route Profitability Calculator
Factor in drive time and service visits to see your route's real effective hourly return, not just its gross profit.
Free tool
How to use this number
The "effective hourly return" is the number that keeps vending honest. It's easy to look at gross profit and feel good about a route that's actually paying you less than a part-time job once your own time is counted.
- If the effective hourly return is lower than you'd want to work for, that's real information. Not necessarily a reason to quit, but a sign the route needs either stronger locations, fewer wasted stops, or both before it scales further.
- Tightening drive time and consolidating visits usually moves this number more than chasing higher-margin products does. Try lowering minutes-per-stop and watch the effective hourly return move. That's the leverage route planning actually has.
- This is also the number that tells you when hiring help makes sense. Once the route is generating comfortably more than what a driver would cost per hour, paying someone else to run stops usually nets you more than doing it all yourself.