how many other guys live an hour from the major population center's of there service areas , thanks to robb russell and his web efforts for me i've been able to break into some larger markets but i spend a fair bit of road time in doing so , but i sure could not move my family any closer to the city then we already are lol

anyone else driving like this ?

I can't remember for sure but I think I wrote an article on just this problem. When we finally realized that this was a real job and not one of my silly schemes to goof off, we sold our house and built a new one right in the center of our preferred territory.
The only thing I could have done that would have been smarter would be to marry Kim Kardashian and live off the alimony!

At today's gas prices you could probably live in a penthouse and still have a greater profit than having long drives. We built a brand new home but at today's prices for existing homes you should make out like a bandit. If I wasn't as old as dirt, I guarantee you I would probably have another home in either Florida or Arizona.

I'm driving around 200 miles a day now covering two county's , like I was just telling my buddy and compation , drive all day is driving all day if I drive 200 around the block or in a big round trip around two county's there no difference I'm still driving all flipping day , now if my truck brakes down big difference , gas price really doesn't mader to me because I get paid just to drive there , what it does is hold people off from getting there problem fixed because there pump shocked , there's guys around here that cover a lot ore county's than me , lots of compation around , there's also people that do it for free or pretend to so they can get donations

paul moving is not in the cards for me or my family , i like the small town life too much , seriosly considering a different vehicle right now though

I cover a HUGE territory.

In my general area there is a lot of competition and in my prefered area there is little competition so I did the best thing ever. I expanded.

I now work in a total of 8 counties divided up between two people.

The farther you are away the more I charge. This helps make up for the extra windshield time and gas prices.

I know what you mean. Been a small town guy my whole life and still am, but my small town is next to some big ones. The best vehicle for mileage and still being able to carry everything is my Transit Connect. Go to Ford and drive one. They aren't for everyone but I sure like mine. If you drive sensibly ( unlike me ) you should get close to 30 mpg.

I live in a small small town and only have around 45,000ppl
Within a 50 mile circle! But same as you can't live in a city!

Coonwild,

How many miles away are you in that hour of drive time? I'm 35 miles outside the major city where most of the work comes from but its interstate at 65 MPH (legal speed is 75 but sprinter van gets 20+ MPH at 65 so I stick to that). The next big city means from home I'm 1hr 30 min again at 65 MPH. We have gone far beyond these areas this year (our first year in business) including 3 hr. plus for bat work that was full exclusion and worth the time and drive.

Like Nate we have worked in what we need to in order to help with gas/time on the road. I think it also depends on your business model. If you are selling and doing lots of exclusion where the dollar per job is higher than it might be for trap/removal work only the distance may be worth going further.

Paul's situation is the logical one for those willing and able to relocate inside the biggest human population near them. We've thought about buying an old warehouse downtown and converting it though we both love the country, we live in suburbia even in our small town so city wouldn't change things up much for us other than shorter commute.

Most folks would probably say it depends on many things. The biggest of which is if you can pay all your overhead, grow your business and accomplish your goals in that size area, than it is the right one. If you feel too stretched, can't pay for all the drive time, etc... then maybe it would be better to work more local if you can.

I don't mind driving myself, so as long as someone is paying me, I'm going where the work is and whistling as I go!

Justin

http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?msid=21689...580889,7.064209

here is a map of the area i work in , kitchener-waterloo,guelph.cambridge, london and stratford are the major population centers , lakeshore work is mainly cottage stuff along with smaller centers

pretty much all 50 mph driving and smaller highway and secondary roads

it's been getting tougher the last little while here as gas is running 5 bucks a gallon and increasing every day it seems , like i said earlier my days of a full size pickup for a service vechile may be numbered

Switch to natural gas like the rest of the world has

have been through your country just once. nice area, drove from northern michigan to attend my grandads funeral in arlington.
also the first time (growing up in NY have been in canada a ton of times no issues) i was stopped from re-entering the states. almost
had to stay overnight just outside michigan coming back!

the 50 mph is tough, most roads where i grew up were 50, makes going anywhere an hour away a bit tougher. I feel blessed to have
interstates right in my back yard for business sake.

is your work seasonal due to lake properties or at least spike during the summer/fall?

justin

I am blessed, I have a farm, and I am only 20 miles from my main service area Bloomington IN the home of IU, about 100,000 people, lots of wealthy people, college work, condos, lake homes, then theres tons of commercial work in factories, and warehouses. Then there are another 100,000 people within 20 miles on each side of Bloomington, seldom do I drive more than an hour to the farthest job, most jobs are in and around Bloomington. Having my farm as home base makes carcass disposal easy, as well as simplifying dispatch. How do you all handal disposal issues in town?

Animals are released in the yards of people that owe us money.

I like that, Ive had a few owe me money they have refused to pay, might consider that

My mole trapping service area covers 9 counties...Larger animals 5 counties.
Not many want to travel that far...

I often do 200-400 miles a day...day in. day out...

Matt that really is a big area lol

Here is mine........ if it shows up properly.

My map

thats pretty neat Nate... how did ya do that?

mapquest then the option to create your own map. Then I just used the line tool that is on the left side the map.

Nate has been known to cross those lines on occasion.