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What's a truck roll, and how can you reduce its costs?

Truck rolls can be expensive and wasteful

If your business sends out technicians to install equipment, investigate and solve problems, or perform maintenance, you know the term truck roll.

Even though the word "truck" is right there in the term, it doesn't only refer to technicians driving in trucks; it actually includes all kinds of transportation—trains, flights, and even buses. What really matters is that it involves sending a technician to a different site to help a customer.

And there's no getting around it. Truck rolls are expensive.

To make the most of truck rolls, smart planning, efficient scheduling, and using technology to make things easier are key. By doing this, companies can boost the productivity of their technicians, reduce customer wait times, and create a better overall service experience.

Smarty's address products can help your business save serious cash, time, and frustration regarding truck rolls. You can also check out our cost breakdown here.

At any point, take the APIs for a test drive (we're so funny), or keep reading to see how address data helps you save big.

Try US Address Verification live Try International Address Verification live Try US Rooftop Geocoding live Try US Address Autocomplete live

Now, let's roll right along (😉) with what we'll be covering:

What are truck rolls?

Different names for truck rolls

A "truck roll" or a "truck dispatch" occurs when a technician visits locations to resolve network issues, install devices, repair equipment, upgrade services, etc. The technician uses a company vehicle, often a truck, hence the name. The longer version is called a field service truck roll and comes from the idea that a company is "rolling a truck" to a site.

These rolls can be beneficial and even essential for your customers. They can also be quite pricey.

The average cost of a truck roll

What's the actual cost of your truck rolls? It's varies depneding on what costs you include. According to SightCall most companies estimate individual truck roll costs between $150-$500 each. However, CareAR reports it's closer to $200-$300.

Let's use $200 - $300 so you calculate some rough estimates of your truck rolls per month.

In this example, we're assuming the average telecom company technician completes 2-5 truck rolls per day. (depending on company size and industry).

They have 2 – 36 technicians working daily, depending on schedules.

Here's the formula to calculate the cost per month:

Conservative end: $200 (conservative cost per truck roll) x 2 (number of technicians) x 20 (average number of weekdays in a month) = $8,000/month or $96,000/year

Medium cost breakdown of truck rolls

Little less conservative: $300 (cost per truck roll) x 36 (number of technicians) x 24 (average number of weekdays plus Saturdays) = $259,200/month or $3,110,400/year.

High cost breakdown of truck rolls

Eek! Those are some big numbers, and they most likely are too conservative overall. The Technology and Services Industry Association estimates truck roll costs closer to $1,000 per roll.

Why such a big difference between the estimated average truck roll cost? Companies using the lower numbers are not factoring in all the direct and indirect costs.

To see how much money you're really losing on wasted truck rolls, you need to make sure you're accurately calculating all the contributing costs per truck roll.

The hidden costs of truck rolls

So why are truck rolls so expensive?

There are direct costs, such as the labor cost of sending technicians out, administrative scheduling costs, and technical certifications and training.

Fuel and vehicle maintenance costs include depreciation, oil changes, tire replacements, insurance and registration fees, and fleet management costs. Each truck roll adds wear and tear to the truck, causing faster value depreciation and reduced company assets. In 2020, AAA estimated that operating a work truck 15,000 miles per year costs over $11,000. Yikes.

Hidden costs of truck rolls

Don't forget about how expensive tools and parts are. Replacing tool kits and testing equipment that goes kaput, restocking truck inventory, and even replacing stolen equipment (booooooo thief!).

"What about us?!" your lawyers and compliance people shout from behind. Yes, you, too, contribute to some direct costs, like ensuring the OSHA giants don't crush your company in its sleep. That means paying for safety equipment (like PPE) and training and certificates so your staff doesn't inadvertently get injured on the job.

That's normal and expected, but there are many hidden costs to be wary of, too, and many revolve around your technicians getting lost due to bad address data.

Labor cost (hidden)

When a technician gets lost, you may need to pay them overtime or after-hours specialized pay. Poor routing and dispatching increase the likelihood of your technicians getting in an accident while driving (increasing your liability and insurance costs in the long run). You're paying more gas and extra wear and tear on the company truck. Arriving late to a customer's home can also brew frustration for everyone involved and lead to negative customer reviews.

Opportunity costs (hidden)

The number of truck rolls companies complete in a day varies. For this example, you average 10 service calls daily and charge $150 per appointment. Your maximum daily net profit is $1500.00 as long as every call goes as efficiently as possible. But what if it doesn't?

Relying on lousy address data causes your technicians to wander around, looking for an address that doesn't exist or knocking on the wrong front door. Whoopsie.

Opportunity cost (the potential benefits lost by choosing one option over another) comes knocking on your door when your technician is driving around looking for the right house instead of checking completed jobs off the list.

Not being able to attend to those other jobs can have an incredibly negative impact on your business. You're losing money, adding extra wear and tear to your vehicles, and your customers are most likely extremely annoyed with your company. They might even start looking for a new provider.

Impact on customer churn (hidden)

Slow response times and repeated truck rolls frustrate customers. If your field service technician is given an inaccurate or incomplete address, they'll be late for their appointments.

On top of that, now, a usually simple fix for your technician may feel difficult to solve, and they're more likely to make a mistake, further frustrating the tech and your customer. Then, an additional (normally unnecessary) truck roll will be required, further damaging your reputation with that customer who may leave a negative review, making it harder to win new business.

This is all assuming your technician finally arrives for the truck roll. What happens if, instead, they never arrive because the address in your database is invalid? How many more hours are required to fix the mistake, find the correct address, and send another truck-roll technician? Don't forget to add the time it takes for customer service to de-escalate the situation with an angry customer.

Plus, that first truck roll was just a big, fat waste for everyone involved.

Isn't there a better way?!?

You can take a deep breath because the answer is yes.

Truck rolls are expensive, and they'll happen, but you can reduce your wasted truck roll count and time spent at a truck roll by ensuring your address data is up-to-date and accurate.

Strategies to reduce truck rolls costs

We can't make sure your technicians always bring the right tools and equipment, but we can help them arrive at truck roll locations on time. With best-in-class address autocomplete, address verification, and rooftop geocoding, your field service agents will love efficient routing, and customers receive a higher quality of service.

Working with up-to-date and accurate data

Example of address autocomplete

Accurate customer addresses are key data points you need to optimize business, especially when it comes to truck rolls. By obtaining valid and verified addresses in your database from the start, your team can onboard customers easily and quickly. How can you do this? Just use address autocomplete.

Address autocomplete

Instead of forcing your customers to fill out each number and letter in their address, an address autocomplete will begin predicting relevant addresses as they type.

Smarty's US Address Autocomplete and International Address Autocomplete tools suggest customer addresses from the very first keystroke, suggesting only verified addresses in the correct USPS postal format standards (referred to as standardization) as selectable options.

This capability speeds up customer form fills and service requests and helps your internal teams input data correctly from the first contact. Having address autocomplete tools built into your existing forms can keep your address database sparkling clean, eliminating the potential for wasted truck rolls and additional operational and opportunity costs.

Address verification and standardization

Another tool to ensure you always have address data you can rely on is address verification (also called validation). Address verification checks an address's validity against a reliable and authoritative address database.

You may be asking yourself, "But… You just told me that using autocomplete will keep my database clean."

You are correct. You're much more likely to have clean addresses if you use address autocomplete.

However, an address autocomplete can't fix human error, meaning your customers may accidentally add an extra number or letter into the address field even after they've selected their address from autocomplete.

Whether making typos or entering their suite, avenue, or boulevard incorrectly according to USPS postal standards, the result of this data entry mistake is the same. That address is no longer valid and, if used, will result in a wasted truck roll.

Raise your hand if you know all the nuances of USPS standardization.

If your arm is up, good for you! (And are you looking for a job? We love address experts!)

For the rest of you (or if you want to learn all the ins and outs of addressing standardization), check out this article: Address standardization, What it is & how to do it, or keep reading along for the shorthand version of this process.

Implementing address verification at the time of input is an easy way to give yourself peace of mind and be confident that your teams can effectively act on your address data.

The process would look like this:

  1. First, a customer has selected their address from the autocomplete suggestions.

  2. Next, if a typo or incorrect formatting has snuck in, the address verification checks the address against authoritative databases, fixes typos, and correctly formats the address to USPS standards.

  3. Bonus points: you can program a pop-up window to appear with the corrected address, asking your customer, "Did you mean this address?" or "Use this address instead."

You can choose whatever wording best fits your brand's voice, but the most important part is that now your customers can select their updated, verified address. Yahoo!

Your customer will be glad you caught the mistake without hindering their experience. Now, you're empowered with address data you can trust to plan and dispatch your truck rolls efficiently.

Great, that takes care of the addresses at the entry point, but what about the older addresses in your database? It's a best practice to clean your database periodically. The frequency depends on what works best for your processes, but a good place to start is to run your addresses through verification at least once a quarter to catch and fix any straggling or new mistakes.

There's even more you can do with address verification. Have you ever found multiple profiles for your customers? Maybe they forgot they already had an account or got frustrated and forgot their password and created a new one. No matter the reason, this is confusing for your teams, wastes space, and can hinder your marketing efforts, especially if you share your data with other partners.

So, what's the answer? Use address verification to remove the duplicate info by deduplicating your database records to have one address to rule them all regarding your customers and make matching your records with those of third-party data sources simpler.

One last exciting point on address verification. When you use Smarty's address verification, you get 55+ points of metadata (additional information) about the address, such as vacancy status, whether it's residential or commercial, the county it's in, etc. Use this information as you desire. Many companies like knowing whether a building is commercial vs residential for appropriate planning because parts, processes, and installations can vary depending on whether the customer is a business or a home.

Smarty provides both US Address Verification and International Address Verification tools that you can test out completely free of charge and live on our site. Our records are updated monthly to provide you with the most up-to-date information. Also, we won't ask you for your email address, let alone your credit card. When we say free, we mean free. Try it!

Once your database is standardized and validated, you will be able to identify invalid addresses and follow up with customers to obtain updated or more correct addresses before potentially sending a technician on a truck roll to Nowheresville, USA. Your customers will be impressed with your thoroughness and communication and, hopefully, tell their friends about their positive experiences with your company.


Rooftop-accurate geocoding

You have accurate address data from autocomplete and verification. Now, how do you effectively plan routing for your technician deployments? Enter geocoding.

According to Geotab, optimized routes increase on-time arrivals by up to 98% and the number of jobs your team can complete daily. They also make it easier to communicate in real-time with your customers so they know when a service technician should arrive for a superior customer experience. You can also reduce fuel costs by up to 30%.

So, it's worth your time and energy to find the best geocoding data for your GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to reap the potential savings for the benefits of effective truck dispatch, field service efficiency, and reduced customer churn.

Geocoding is obtaining the geographic longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates of an address. There are many levels of geocoding accuracy you can obtain for an address. In order from least precise to most, there are:

Different types of geocoding
  1. ZIP+4 Code geocodes represent a postal delivery route segment within a larger ZIP Code that generally contains 10-20 addresses. The base of the ZIP+4 level geocode is simply the approximate center of that route.

  2. Interpolated geocodes are estimated locations based on nearby known points, usually along a street. Instead of pinpointing the exact building, interpolation guesses where an address might be by spacing out points between known addresses, which isn't necessarily how homes and businesses are built.

  3. Parcel centroid geocodes are calculated by taking the known boundaries of a property. Then, you approximate the geocode in the center of the parcel. Hence, the name "parcel centroid." Parcel centroid geocoding tends to be more expensive than ZIP+4 or interpolated due to the additional city and county data needed to calculate the geocodes, but it still lacks precision.

  4. Rooftop-accurate geocodes are ones that will place the pin directly onto the roof of the address. Integrating this with your mapping tools and services is the best way to ensure that your techs get exactly where they need to be in rural areas (where the address is on a far corner of the land) or in a packed city with numerous apartment complexes and condos.

Your field techs rely on address accuracy. Sending them to the wrong house, wrong building, or even the wrong side of the street costs time and money. That's where rooftop geocoding comes in clutch. By getting exact location data, you can precisely map out serviceable areas and send service technicians directly to the correct service point, reducing unnecessary travel time and fuel costs and increasing daily job completion rates.

Adding Smarty's US Rooftop Geocoding to your infrastructure is easier than you might think. You can integrate it with GIS platforms like ArcGIS and Field service management (FSM) software to optimize routes.

A smooth installation means happier customers and fewer rescheduled appointments. Rooftop geocoding ensures that your techs arrive at the exact building, reducing installation time and improving first-time completion rates.

You can also use rooftop geocodes to map out serviceable areas precisely to help you expand your network efficiently, avoid misallocated resources, and prevent serviceability errors that frustrate customers. Win-win-win.

The importance of tracking truck rolls

Importance of tracking truck rolls

Truck rolls can be among your business's biggest expenses, and they are likely costing more money than you think.

The average cost of a truck roll ranges from $200 to $300. However, others claim it's $300 to $500. These costs vary depending on location, complexity of the work, and the technician's skill and salary. In addition to those, if a truck roll takes place during the night, the costs can jump due to overtime pay for technicians. The three main areas companies use to track their truck roll costs are:

  1. Labor cost. This is usually the biggest chunk of the overall cost. It covers the time spent preparing for the trip, transitioning to the job site, and any non-billable time, plus overtime. It's also worth noting that union contracts might require technicians to be paid for a minimum number of hours for each truck roll, regardless of how long the actual visit takes.

  2. Truck/Transportation cost. This part includes expenses for maintenance, fuel, and whether the truck is rented or owned, along with insurance and depreciation. The more the trucks are used, the quicker they depreciate, which means more maintenance is needed to keep them in good working condition.

  3. Competitive issues/Mean time to repair (MTTR): For mobile network operators, costs are closely linked to the reputation of their network. When businesses are choosing a network, reliability often plays a crucial role. A key metric here is the mean time to repair (MTTR), which indicates how long a site stays non-operational after a fault occurs. This is especially vital for public safety networks, where any downtime could have serious implications.

These categories include the obvious costs, but have you considered there could be other costs associated with truck rolls?

You're most likely experiencing revenue leakage if you're not actively tracking every expense associated with your truck rolls. Find those leaks and stop the cash flow loss to get the highest revenue possible by measuring the all the real costs of your truck rolls.

Measuring true costs of truck rolls

Measuring truck rolls

When calculating the true real costs of a truck roll, you need to account for and measure both direct and indirect costs.

We've broken down all the associated expenses you should consider to calculate the cost of truck rolls (monthly and annually) in 5 steps.

If you're old school, we've created a worksheet to help you calculate your truck roll cost monthly and annually. We also made a version to use in a spreadsheet program.

Here's a little visual assistance to help you see this in action with some conservative sample numbers.

Company information

Cost factor Cost
Number of field service technicians 50
Available hours 40,000 hrs
Total technician cost per 2000 truck rolls $140,000
Average truck rolls per month 2000 rolls
Average miles per truck roll 30 miles
Average miles per gallon 15 MPG
Average cost per gallon $4.00
Average equipment cost per roll $15.00
Dispatch labor $25 per hr
Scheduling time 0.5 hours per roll
OSHA Training cost $10,000 per year
Safety equipment cost $500 per technician
Insurance cost per roll $20 per roll
Compliance team salary $100,000
Legal fines $5,000 fines
Customer churn 50 customers
Customer lifetime value $2,400
Rework percentage 10% rework
Loss of productivity 3,000 hours
Customer service cost per truck roll $10.00
Number of delayed truck rolls/installs 100 delays

1. Direct costs (tangible expenses)

Cost factor Formula Calculation Total
Technician labor ($35/hr × 2 hours/roll) × 2,000 rolls ($35 × 2) × 2,000 $140,000
Vehicle costs ((30 miles ÷ 15 MPG) × $4/gallon + $0.10/mile) × 2,000 ((30 ÷ 15) × $4 + $0.10) × 2,000 $28,000
Equipment & Tools $15 per roll × 2,000 rolls $15 × 2,000 $30,000
Dispatch & Scheduling ($25/hr × 0.5 hours/roll) × 2,000 ($25 × 0.5) × 2,000 $25,000
Regulatory Compliance (($10,000 OSHA Training + $500 Equipment ÷ 50 techs) ÷ 12) + ($20 Insurance × 2,000 rolls) (($10,000 + $500 ÷ 50) ÷ 12) + ($20 × 2,000) $40,500
Legal Compliance ($100,000 compliance team ÷ 12) + $5,000 fines ($100,000 ÷ 12) + $5,000 $13,333
Total direct costs The sum of all direct costs $276,833

2. Indirect costs (operational inefficiencies)

Cost factor Formula Calculation Total
Customer churn (50 lost customers × $2,400 customer lifetime value) 50 × $2,400 $120,000
Rework costs (10% of direct costs) 10% × $276,833 $27,683
Lost productivity and opportunities (3,000 wasted hours ÷ 40,000 available hours) × total labor cost (3,000 ÷ 40,000) × $140,000 $10,500
Customer support (2,000 calls × $10/call) 2,000 × $10 $20,000
Total indirect costs The sum of all indirect costs $178,183

3. Lost revenue due to bad address data

Revenue loss factor Formula Calculation Total
Incorrect address data (50 lost customers × $2,400 CLV) 50 × $2,400 $120,000
Delayed Installations (100 delays × $100 Monthly Recurring Revenue) 100 × $100 $10,000
Total lost revenue The sum of all lost revenue $130,000

4. Total truck roll cost (before Smarty)

Revenue loss factor Formula Calculation Total
Total truck roll cost (Total monthly direct costs + Total monthly indirect costs + Total monthly revenue loss) ÷ Average truck rolls per month $276,833 + $178,183 + $130,000 = $585,016 $585,016 ÷ 2,000 $292.51 per truck roll
Monthly truck roll cost (Cost per truck roll × Number of truck rolls per month) $292.52 × 2000 $585,040 per month
Annual truck roll cost (Monthly truck roll cost × 12) $585,040 × 12 $7,020,480 Per year

That's a loss of approximately $300 per truck roll, $585,040 per month, and $7,020,480 Million per year. That's a lot of money. Here are some ways you can cut that number down with address data.

Analyzing cost drivers

How much money can be saved by implementing address data solutions? Let's find out.

Address autocomplete savings potential

The customer is always right—except when they're not. Alexander Pope wrote the now famous line, "To err is human," all the way back in 1711, long before the world ran around completing tasks on their tiny phone keypads. Imagine how many more mistakes are made today with busy schedules, crying children, and constant multitasking. How do you proactively keep human error in check?

Your customers' main objective is to fill out your form as fast as possible so they can move on to the next item on their to-do list. In their hurry, they may mistype their addresses, forget apartment numbers, or fat-finger their city name without notice, providing you with inaccurate information that you don't want to rely on for your truck roll dispatch.

Likewise, if your form filling is too complicated, 67% of site visitors will abandon ship and look for a different provider. Address autocomplete solves this by instantly suggesting your customers' accurate, standardized addresses as they type, making sure they pick the right one. This speeds up form fills, increases conversions by 25%, and ensures you capture clean, usable data from the start.

Truck roll error rates

Customers aren't the only ones that make mistakes. Your internal teams are people, too, and are, therefore, also prone to mistakes. In fact, Magellan Solutions found that 18-40% error rates were common in simple spreadsheet management, and 100% error rates were present with complex data spreadsheets.

Now, think about your internal processes. How often are people interacting with your data? How many chances are there for typos, misplaced commas, or periods to accidentally appear?

Address autocomplete helps your internal teams save time and effort and allows your teams to have faster customer interaction times by reducing the need for manual address input. An autofill feature in your CRM system streamlines address entry while minimizing errors and improving data accuracy during customer exchanges, especially when taking orders or updating shipping details. Nice.

Even with autocomplete, knowing humans have access to your data invites the possibility of address inaccuracy. That's why address verification is necessary for a database you feel confident to work from, whether it's truck roll dispatch, truck routing, or network expansion.

Address verification saving potential

On top of humans unwittingly entering mistakes into your database, other challenges arise when addresses change without your knowledge (and sometimes, the person living or working from that location will be none the wiser, either.) City boundaries are redrawn, street names change to honor local heros or artists, and ZIP Codes are regenerated for expanding cities or changing mail carrier routes, and more.

That's a lot of data to keep on top of, let alone figure out how you're going to incorporate these address changes. You may be tempted to manually enter the updates, but as we've talked about ad nauseam, you'd have to make sure every human who interacts with addresses is not only entering them correctly but also standardizing them every. single. time. Never fear; this is where address autocomplete really shines.

Implementing address verification in your operations isn't just about fixing bad addresses and making sure they're standardized according to USPS formatting—it's about making everything in your business run smoother, saving more money, and keeping your employees and customers happy. When addresses are incorrect, technicians get sent to the wrong locations, leading to failed truck rolls that waste time and resources, with angry customers asking, "Where is the technician?"

By verifying addresses before a truck ever rolls out, you'll send your technicians to the right place the first time. This means you'll see cost savings through fewer wasted trips, faster installations, and happier customers. Internally, your scheduling and dispatch teams spend less time dealing with address issues, rerouting technicians, and handling frustrated customer calls. Your technicians get to focus on actual installations and repairs rather than driving around trying to find the right house.

Accurate address data means no more delayed installations or rescheduled appointments. Customers get their internet set up when they expect it, without the headache of waiting days for another appointment. A good customer experience leads to higher retention rates—because when customers get fast, reliable service, they're far more likely to stick with your company rather than switch to a competitor.

Autocomplete and verification work best together for you and your customers. Together, you get a seamless, error-proof system that reduces failed truck rolls, improves customer experience, and saves some serious money.

Autocomplete helps customers enter the right address upfront, and verification ensures that address is actually valid and serviceable before you schedule an install. Without autocomplete, you risk bad input from customers and employees. Without verification, you risk scheduling jobs at non-existent or unattainable addresses.

Rooftop-accurate geocoding savings potential

A customer successfully filled out a form, you verified their address, and now you've scheduled the installation appointment for the middle of the day.

To make the most of each technician's time and energy, you need to plan your truck roll routes effectively, and the best way to do that's with rooftop geocoding. Use the pinpoint precision you only get from rooftop geo coordinates to make sure your technicians don't end up at the wrong end of a long rural road or outside the back entrance of an apartment.

With better operational efficiency, the amount of monthly dispatches will increase. You'll also be able to give your customers more accurate installation times and cut down on wasted emissions.

Now you know how important rooftop geocodes are, but some may argue, even more important, is knowing when your geocodes are not rooftop accurate, (which many providers do not do).

If your provider claims to provide rooftop geocoding (and sometimes they don't), you'll be in an expensive pickle after you pair those geocodes with your mapping services and dispatch your trucks. Your field service efficiency is shot while your technician wastes time finding an address. Each appointment gets pushed back or rescheduled, causing frustration for everyone involved.

Smarty's gives you the most accurate geocoding data possible, so we'll let you know even if the coordinates ARE NOT rooftop exact. This rarely happens, but if it does, we'll always tell you.

Knowledge is power, and once you know coordinates are not rooftop accurate, there are a few things you can do to eliminate wasted labor costs with unnecessary dispatches.

  1. Check serviceability with a network planning tool: Before sending out a truck roll, verify that the address is actually within your serviceable area. As we mentioned before, customers can make mistakes. They have contacted the wrong service provider, and you don't want to lose time dispatching trucks to locations that turn out to be unserviceable due to inaccurate or incomplete geocoding.
  2. Contact the customer to confirm their location: A quick call to the customer can help clarify directions or landmarks. Your customers will often know helpful details, like "The driveway is off the side street" or "It's the second house past the red barn." Yes, this does add to your customer service costs, but a quick call is far less expensive than a truck roll.
  3. Use dispatch notes for future reference: If your field technician successfully finds the location, have them update the system with notes and a more accurate geocode to help with any future visits. Over time, this process builds a more reliable address database and should eliminate a wasted truck roll down the road.

Inaccurate geocoding is a contributing cost driver (see what we did there?) in your truck roll time and gas costs. Having rooftop-accurate geocoding (and a process in place for when they aren't) will ensure your tech makes it to the structure on time and can accurately route from one location to the next.


Summary of address data saving potential

Your day can get pretty hectic (and expensive!)—between truck rolls, installations, scheduling, support teams, etc, there's a lot to manage. But what if you could cut down on wasted trips, improve customer satisfaction, and boost your bottom line? By incorporating accurate address autocomplete, verification, and rooftop geocoding, you can do just that.

Here's how accurate address data can make a big difference in your operational efficiency:

  • Reduce failed truck rolls by using highly accurate address data to decrease wasted trips.
  • Lower customer churn with faster, more reliable service and communication with field service technicians and customers.
  • Increase first-time installation success rates from verified addresses and make sure technicians go to the right place the first time.
  • Reduce support calls and frustration from fewer "Where's my technician?" calls to save time and money.
  • Increase revenue by using accurate addresses you'll have "unserviceable" classifications.

Here's another little visual assistance to show you the savings (percentages based on conservative industry averages):

Total savings = Reduction percentage × Total truck roll cost

Factor Reduction % Savings per month
Failed truck rolls 15% $292.51 × 300 = $87,753
Customer churn 15% $120,000 × 15% = $18,000
Delayed installs 15% $10,000 × 15% = $1,500
Support calls 20% $20,000 × 20% = $4,000
Total monthly savings $111,253
Total annual savings $1,335,036

Implementing address data solutions like autocomplete, verification, and rooftop geocoding can make a huge difference in your day-to-day field service operations. Improve your failed truck roll rate, decrease the number of frustrated customers, delayed installations, and endless support calls. Here's how:

Fewer failed truck rolls

Sending technicians to the wrong address is more than just annoying—it's expensive. In fact, 25% of truck rolls are considered non-value-added or completely avoidable, costing time, fuel, and labor.

With accurate address verification and rooftop geocoding, your technicians go exactly where they need to the first time. That means fewer wasted trips, lower costs, and a more efficient team.

Happier customers, less churn

Nobody likes waiting around for a technician who never shows up—or finding out their installation can't happen because of an address error. When customers experience these kinds of delays, they're more likely to cancel and look for another provider.

Address autocomplete and verification tools ensure you get the right address upfront so installations happen on time. Happy customers stick around longer, which helps reduce churn and boost loyalty.

Faster, smoother installations

Incorrect address data can turn a simple install into a wild goose chase. Technicians may waste time circling neighborhoods, calling customers for directions, or rescheduling appointments.

Rooftop geocoding provides pinpoint-accurate location data, giving your techs everything they need to do the job efficiently. No more guesswork—just smooth, streamlined installations.

Fewer support calls

Bad address data doesn't just mess with installations; it also clogs up your support lines. Customers call in wondering where their tech is, why their service is delayed, or why their billing address is wrong.

When you verify addresses at the start, these calls drop dramatically. Your support team can spend less time fixing address-related issues and more time helping customers with real problems.

Real ROI you can see

Investing in address data solutions pays off. Industry data shows that companies save hundreds of dollars per failed truck roll avoided. When you reduce failed rolls, improve first-time install rates, and decrease churn, the savings add up pretty fast.

Conclusion

Being in the telecom industry comes with plenty of challenges, and truck rolls are one of the biggest. You send technicians out to install, repair, or troubleshoot—but when address data is off, those truck rolls can turn into expensive, frustrating failures. That's where you can make a big difference with Smarty.

Our best-in-class address autocomplete, verification, and rooftop geocoding tools aren't just nice to have—they're total game-changers for your operations. With accurate, reliable address data, you'll send technicians to the right location the first time, cutting down on wasted truck rolls, delayed installs, and customer churn. Plus, when customers know their technician will show up at the right address on time, you'll get fewer "Where's my technician?" calls and more happy, loyal subscribers.

So, what's next?

Well, if you're the outgoing type, give our friendly sales team a call. Prefer a quieter approach? Shoot us an email, hop online to sign up for a free trial, or just go ahead and buy some of our terrific products. No matter how you decide to reach out, we're here to help you put your address data to work.

Check out Smarty's address verification solutions today, and see how accurate addresses can make your truck rolls—and your business—run smoother than ever.

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