November doesn’t run out of lights — it runs out of daylight. Between early November and mid-December you get roughly 35 to 40 workable install days, and every hour a truck spends crossing town is an hour of roofline nobody’s paying for. Christmas light route planning is how the same crew, same gear, same season produces 30% more installed jobs.
This is the operations math nobody covers: jobs-per-day, clustering, crew zones, and the January takedown route.
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The jobs-per-day math
Start with the only number that matters: installed jobs per crew-day.
A practiced two-person crew on standard residential rooflines runs 3–5 installs a day when the jobs are close together. Scatter those same jobs across a metro and it drops to 2–3 — not because anyone got slower, but because 90 minutes of windshield time replaced an install.
| Clustered route | Scattered route | |
|---|---|---|
| Jobs/day (2-person crew) | 3–5 | 2–3 |
| Season (38 install days) | ~130–170 jobs | ~85–110 jobs |
| At $850 avg ticket | ~$110k–$145k | ~$72k–$94k |
Same crew, same season — the gap is drive time. That’s why routing is a revenue decision, not a logistics afterthought, and why clustering starts at the sales stage: yard signs, five-house knocks, and neighbor discounts (covered in the customer playbook) are route planning disguised as marketing.
Cluster first, sequence second
- Zone the map. Split your service area into named zones (neighborhoods or zip clusters). Every incoming job gets a zone tag the moment it’s booked.
- Assign zone-days. Each crew gets one zone per day — Monday: Fox Run, Tuesday: Heritage Park. Booking new jobs into the zone’s day keeps density compounding.
- Sequence the day. Within the zone, order stops to kill backtracking. LightQuoter’s route optimization sequences the day’s jobs and hands the finished route to Google Maps for turn-by-turn — the crew just drives the list.
- Protect a flex slot. One open slot per crew per day absorbs weather, the job that runs long, and the neighbor who walks over mid-install. A full-to-the-minute schedule breaks by Wednesday.
Running multiple crews without collisions
One crew is a to-do list; three crews is an air-traffic problem. The failure mode is always the same: two trucks in the same neighborhood on different days, or a job that silently never got assigned.
- Kanban for job state, calendar for time. Every job moves quote → signed → scheduled → installed → takedown on a kanban pipeline, while the calendar view shows which crew is where. LightQuoter runs both views for up to 5 crews on the free tier.
- Crews own zones, not jobs. Assign territory, and let the day’s route order itself. Swapping individual jobs between crews reintroduces the scatter you spent September avoiding.
- Batch by job type where you can. A day of standard rooflines flows; a two-story-plus-tree-wrap flagship in the middle of it stalls the route. Give complex installs their own morning slots.
- Weather rules, decided in advance. High wind or ice postpones roof work — the crews that thrive have a pre-agreed reshuffle rule (flex slots absorb day one; zone-days slide as a block after that) instead of a phone-tree panic.
The January takedown route
Takedown is the forgotten half of routing — every December install becomes a January stop, and it’s a different kind of route:
- Denser and faster. Takedowns run 2–3x quicker than installs, so a crew can clear 8–12 clustered stops a day. Run the same zone-day structure in reverse.
- No customer deadline pressure — but there is a business one: gear on rooflines in February is your inventory sitting in the weather, and the takedown visit is where totes get packed, condition notes get logged, and next season gets pre-sold.
- A separate view, not a cluttered calendar. LightQuoter’s dedicated January takedown scheduling keeps removal routes from tangling with renewal follow-ups and early commercial bids.
When to add a crew
Work backward from bookings, not ambition: seasonal install days × jobs-per-day = one crew’s capacity. At 3–4 clustered jobs a day, a single crew covers roughly 120–150 installs a season. Booking past 80% of that by early October is the signal — add the crew, split the map into zones, and give the new crew the densest one (density forgives a new crew’s speed). The installer income guide covers what that second crew does to the P&L, and if you’re comparing ops tools for the transition, see the Jobber comparison.
FAQ
How many christmas light installs can a crew do in a day?
A practiced two-person crew handles roughly 3–5 residential installs a day when jobs are clustered — standard rooflines, staged materials, short drives. The same crew scattered across town manages 2–3, because a season’s drive time comes straight out of install time. Route density, not crew speed, is usually the difference.
What is the best way to plan christmas light installation routes?
Cluster by neighborhood first, sequence second. Group the week’s jobs geographically, assign each crew one zone per day, then order stops to minimize backtracking — LightQuoter’s route optimization sequences the day’s jobs and hands the route to Google Maps for navigation. Keep one flex slot per crew per day for weather, add-ons, and the job that runs long.
How do installers schedule takedowns in January?
Takedown is a separate route problem: every December customer becomes a January stop, but without install-day time pressure. Batch takedowns by the same neighborhood clusters, run them dense (takedowns are 2–3x faster than installs), and use the visit to pack inventory properly and pre-sell next season. A dedicated takedown view keeps the January calendar from colliding with sales follow-ups.
How many crews do I need for my christmas light business?
Work backward from booked jobs: seasonal install days (roughly 35–40 between early November and mid-December) times jobs-per-day per crew. A single crew at 3–4 clustered jobs a day covers 120–150 installs a season; past that, add a crew and split territory by zone rather than sharing the whole map. Software that schedules up to 5 crews on one calendar keeps zones from overlapping.
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