How to estimate daily capacity for a small field crew

Calculate crew capacity from the time actually available for work after travel, setup and other necessary activities. Keep elapsed crew time separate from person-hours used for costing. Both are needed to plan a realistic day.

Explore the wider scheduling and dispatch guides for the steps around this decision.

A transparent example

For an illustrative two-person crew with an eight-hour day:

Input	Elapsed crew time
Total day	8 hours
Planned travel	1.5 hours
Setup and cleanup outside the job allowances	0.5 hours
Available on-site time before other allowances	6 hours

Six hours with two people gives twelve available on-site person-hours if both are present throughout. Check that breaks and other activities have been treated consistently. These inputs are examples, not an employment-law rule or productivity benchmark.

Match capacity to the job

A job requiring two people for three hours occupies half that modelled on-site day and uses six person-hours. A one-person task cannot necessarily fill an apparent gap if the other person, van or equipment is committed elsewhere.

Review actual work durations and distinguish agreed extras from estimating errors. Add buffers based on your own records rather than a fixed percentage claimed to fit every trade.

JobDiary can keep assignments and recorded hours with the work. The app does not make an unrealistic workload achievable. Use the calculation to decide what can be promised and then compare it with the completed day to improve future planning.

Connect this to the next step

Continue with Route ordering vs automatic route optimisation. If the next issue is elsewhere in the workflow, use WhatsApp vs a shared job record for field crews.

See JobDiary crew scheduling to check how the product supports this work. Use the current product description and a trial to verify the fit for your business.