HVACBossPro Blog — Tech App

Repair Van and Tune-Up Van: Two Kinds of Days in the HVAC Tech App

Many small HVAC companies run their vans the same way: everyone does a little of everything. Tune-ups in the morning, repairs when they come in, an estimate wedged in somewhere. It works, but it makes for messy days. Tune-ups get bumped by repairs, repair calls wait behind tune-ups, and no one's route makes much sense by 2pm.

Splitting the Work

The office sees every call come in as it is completed, as covered in What the Office Sees When an HVAC Tech Completes a Call. That view makes it easier to see how differently repair and tune-up days behave.

A common fix is to split the work: one van on repair calls, one van on tune-ups. The repair van handles no-cool, no-heat, leaks and diagnostics. The tune-up van works through maintenance agreement visits in a tidy route. Each tech has a day that makes sense for the kind of work they do.

In the HVACBossPro tech app, both techs use the same app, the same buttons and the same equipment card. What changes is how their day behaves.

The Tune-Up Van's Day

The tune-up van's day is planned. Maintenance agreements in HVACBossPro come due on their own, based on the minimum days between visits, 180 for spring and fall or 365 for yearly. Due visits land on the Waiting List map. The office picks a part of town, assigns those tune-ups to the tune-up van for a day and auto-routes them Closest First or Furthest First from the shop.

On the phone, the tune-up tech sees a steady list of calls in order. The day rarely changes. They can:

• Scroll the list in the morning and stock the right filters from the filter sizes on each card.
• Pace the day, knowing how many tune-ups are ahead.
• Follow the same tune-up order at every house.
• Use past notes to follow up on anything flagged at the last visit.

Customers on the tune-up route get night-before reminders and on-the-way texts, and can watch their place in line on the live map in the customer app.

The Repair Van's Day

The repair van's day moves. It starts with a few booked calls, and more come in as the phone rings. On a hot July day, the list may double by lunch.

On the phone, the repair tech sees new cards show up as the office adds them. A habit that matters a lot here: look at the next card before leaving the driveway. The call order may have changed while the tech was in an attic.

The repair tech leans on the equipment card even more than the tune-up tech. Walking into a no-cool call already knowing it is a 2016 heat pump, 2.5 ton, air handler in the garage, with past notes that mention a weak capacitor, cuts the diagnosis time.

Dispatching Between the Two

The split is not a wall. On a slow repair day, the repair tech can pick up a few tune-ups. On a brutal day, the tune-up tech can take a repair that is right on their route. The office makes those calls on the dispatch board by dragging work between vans and days. The crew GPS map shows which van is closest.

When a call moves from one van to another, it disappears from one tech's phone and appears on the other's. Nobody has to text an address.

When the Split Makes Sense

A few signs it may be time to split:

• Tune-ups keep getting bumped by repairs, and agreement customers notice.
• The Waiting List shows a lot of overdue tune-ups in spring or fall.
• Repair calls are waiting because every tech is mid-tune-up.
• One tech is better at diagnostics and another at steady, careful maintenance.

Some companies run the split only in peak season and go back to mixed days in the shoulder months. That is easy to do, since the vans and routes are set on the board each day. Nothing about the app has to change when the plan does.

The Same App for Both

The repair tech and the tune-up tech do very different days, but they use the same tech app in the same way. Navigation, the card, Start, photos, Complete. That means anyone can cover for anyone. If the repair tech is out sick, the tune-up tech can run the repair van tomorrow without learning anything new. For more on what both techs see on their phones, visit the HVAC technician app page, or read The HVAC Tech's Day in Route Order: Working the Call List Top to Bottom.