What counts as a failed truck roll, and what does it cost?
A truck roll fails when a technician is dispatched and the job cannot be completed: nobody is home, the subscriber cancelled without telling anyone, access to the building is missing, or the visit was booked for the wrong work. The cost is the crew's time and drive, plus the second visit, plus a subscriber who is still waiting.
Count reschedules separately from failures. A visit moved the day before is a success of the process; a crew standing at a locked door is not.
The obvious cost is the crew's time and the drive. The less obvious costs are larger: the slot that could have gone to another subscriber, the second visit you now have to book, the install that starts billing a week later, and a new subscriber whose first experience of your company is waiting at home for a truck that came when they were out.
For repair visits, a failed truck roll also extends an outage for someone who is already unhappy, which makes it a retention problem as much as an operations one. Track failed visits by type (install, repair, disconnect) so you can see which of these costs you are paying most often.
Why do installs and repair visits fail?
- No confirmation
- The appointment was booked days ago and never confirmed again.
- The window stopped working
- The subscriber's day changed, and there was no easy way to say so.
- Reschedule friction
- Moving a visit means calling dispatch during business hours, so people just don't show up.
- Wrong job
- The visit was booked as a repair when it needed a new drop, or the equipment is not on the truck.
- Access
- Gate codes, building managers and MDU access nobody collected in advance.
What confirmation cadence works?
Keep it short and predictable. Each touch should let the subscriber confirm or move the visit in one reply.
| When | Channel | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| At booking | SMS | Confirms the date and window, with a way to change it |
| Day before | SMS, then voice if no reply | Reconfirms the visit; collects access details |
| Morning of | SMS | Sends the technician's arrival window |
| On the way | SMS | Tells the subscriber the crew is en route |
The day-before reconfirmation does the most work. A visit that nobody reconfirms should be flagged to dispatch before the route is built, not discovered at the door.
How should rescheduling work?
- 1.The subscriber replies that the window does not work.
- 2.Available windows are offered from crews already scheduled in that area.
- 3.The subscriber picks one; the visit and crew assignment update automatically.
- 4.Dispatch sees the change on the board and only steps in for exceptions.
The goal is that moving a visit is easier than not showing up. If rescheduling requires a phone call during business hours, many subscribers will skip it.
How do you plan technician windows and building access?
- Offer windows you can keep. A narrow window that is missed does more harm than a wider one that is honored.
- Group visits by area so a reschedule can use a crew that is already nearby.
- Check equipment before the route is built: the ONU, router or radio should be on the truck.
- Collect access details during the day-before reconfirmation, especially for MDUs.
- Leave room in each route for same-day reschedules and urgent repairs.
Zone 07 flagged. Ninety-four contacts from one service area in nine days, clustered before a single one was filed as an outage.
Access is the most avoidable cause of a failed visit. A technician who reaches a building without a gate code, a property manager's contact or permission to enter the telecom room cannot finish the job, however well the appointment was confirmed.
Ask for access details in the day-before reconfirmation, not at booking, when the subscriber may not know them yet. For multi-dwelling units, keep building-level details such as the manager, the riser location and access hours on the building record, so every visit to that address starts with them instead of rediscovering them.
- Gate or door codes and parking instructions.
- Property manager or superintendent contact for MDUs.
- Pets, alarms or anything the technician should know before knocking.
- Whether an adult will be present for the whole window.
What should you measure?
| Metric | Why it matters |
|---|---|
Failed truck rolls as a share of dispatched visits The headline number: visits that did not complete. | The headline number: visits that did not complete. |
Visits completed on the first attempt Shows whether the job, equipment and access were right the first time. | Shows whether the job, equipment and access were right the first time. |
Reschedules made before the day of the visit Moves that happened in time are the process working. | Moves that happened in time are the process working. |
Visits with no reconfirmation The leading indicator for tomorrow's failures. | The leading indicator for tomorrow's failures. |
Dispatcher time spent on confirmation calls Time that could go to exceptions instead. | Time that could go to exceptions instead. |
Where does Inerxia fit?
Inerxia's field operations agent confirms appointments, reconfirms every visit the day before, reschedules no-shows and coordinates technician windows over SMS and voice, handing exceptions to dispatch. Inerxia publishes these figures for the agent: −41% failed truck rolls, +22% visits completed on the first attempt and 2.4× confirmations per dispatcher.
AI agents start at $500 each — see pricing.