Home/Operations/🏠 Roofing/Scheduling metal roof crews in zone 5 winters: why the hell do we even bother with daily slots?
Scheduling metal roof crews in zone 5 winters: why the hell do we even bother with daily slots?
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ShingleShuffler
·1mo·16 replies·16 participants
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ShingleShuffler⭐ ExpertOP1mo
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Up here in north jersey, zone 5 winters turn every roof job into a crapshoot with snow delays and frozen materials. I'm running a small crew doing standing seam installs with McElroy panels, and I've sunk $8k into Route4Me software thinking it'd optimize our scheduling around weather. But half the time, we're rescheduling GAF shingle reroofs because of ice, and the app just pisses me off with bad ETAs. Saw a thread on r/Roofing where guys swore by it for flat rates, but IMHO it's BS for variable weather like this. Guy in Roofing Contractors FB group mentioned ditching it for Google Calendar and saving a ton, but I don't know. Anyone else in cold spots dealing with this scheduling nightmare? Should I just go back to pen and paper?
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BenderBuddy⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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Screw Route4Me, it's the same garbage every PE-backed app pushing on us roofers, turning small ops into their data farms while we freeze our asses off rescheduling.
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CanvasKing6⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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Exactly, those apps track every move but can't predict a nor'easter. Switched to paper last season and actually finished jobs faster.
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BugBusterBob⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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Man, tried FieldEdge for a year on commercial flat roofs, but the constant glitches had me yelling at my phone during a hail storm job. Wasted two full days on one tear-off because the schedule didn't sync with my foreman's truck. Finally dumped it and went manual, never looking back.
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WireWizard10⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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Same here, bro. Lost a whole week on a ridge vent install because the software double-booked us with another crew.
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AmpedUpAndy⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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damn software companies are the real enemy here, charging us an arm and a leg for buggy crap that double-books jobs and leaves us standin around in zone 5 snow. lost two grand last winter chasin my tail because of some glitch in housecall pro. screw em, we need somethin that actually works for roofers, not just another cash grab.
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DuctDoctor10⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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switch to acculynx if youre doing mostly roofing, its built for crews and handles weather delays way better than housecall pro. i used it last winter in zone 5 and cut my double bookings by half, plus the mobile app lets you reroute on the fly when snow hits. setup took a couple hours but saved me from more headaches like yours.
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AmpedUp5⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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software double-booking us in zone 5? sounds like it's plotting to turn us into snowmen while we wait for the roof to thaw lol.
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HeatPumpHero⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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those damn scheduling softwares are straight up sabotaging us roofers in zone 5, turning every winter job into a frozen crapshoot while the bosses wonder why we're not billing.
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WattTheHeck24⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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man, zone 5 winters turn every schedule into a total crapshoot, dont they? i feel your pain, bosses breathing down our necks while were stuck waiting out the snow.
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DuctTapeDuke2⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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build in two buffer days per week for snow delays and use route4me to reroute crews on the fly, keeps the bosses off your back.
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DuctDoctor2⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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route4me sounds good on paper but in zone 5 when the snow hits, your crews are still sittin idle and the bosses are breathin down your neck anyway, what a waste.
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DustBunnyBoss2⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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dont waste your time with rigid daily slots in zone 5, i saw a crew get stranded in a blizzard last winter and lost $5k on equipment damage cuz the boss pushed em out anyway.
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DirtBagLandscaper8⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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route4me's saved my ass more than once in zone 5 slush, but i also add a 20% overtime buffer to the quotes so crews don't burn out rerouting all day.
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GarageGuru9⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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don't book tight daily slots in zone 5 without a 48-hour weather buffer, or you'll be scrambling to reschedule half your crews. i saw a buddy lose a full week to a freak ice storm last february, and the client was pissed about the delays. material deliveries get held up too, turning a simple metal roof job into a total nightmare. stick to weekly windows instead, saves you the headache.
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TarpTitan2⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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goddamn software thinks its smarter than mother nature, double-bookin us in this zone 5 freeze while crews sit idlin like idiots, total BS.
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CanvasKing6⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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You still using that Route4Me in NJ? What's the worst delay it's caused you so far?
