How to Make Money on Your Mobile Patrols

Trackforce

June 10, 2015 · 8 min read

Featured image for How to Make Money on Your Mobile Patrols

On today’s episode, we take a look at what it takes to make money on mobile security patrols. We dive into some of the big mistakes that hold operators back in this area, and we take a look at resources that can help you maximize the profit potential of these patrols.

Key takeaways

Costs decide mobile patrol profit.
Price is set by the market, so margin comes from keeping vehicle, fuel and labor costs under control.
Skip the flashy vehicle.
An economical or leased vehicle usually does the job just as well, with lower insurance and fuel costs.
Never overpromise coverage.
Stretching one driver across too many sites leaves you choosing between losing money and losing the client.
Plan routes and costs before you bid.
Route and cost planning tools show what you can really deliver and what it will cost.
Route density is the biggest profit lever.
TrackTik mobile patrol optimizes routes, tracks every run and turns each stop into a customer-ready report.

Common Mistakes

One of the biggest mistakes security operators make is not keeping a tight enough lid on costs. This is especially true when it comes to cars for mobile patrol units. It’s tempting to go out and buy a big flashy car with a lot of lights to impress customers, but is it really worth the cost?

Most of the time, you’ll be able to do your job just as effectively with a cheap model, or even with a leased vehicle rather than one you own. Big expensive vehicles also tend to cost more to insure and fuel. The goal is to make money, not drive around in a sweet ride.

Another mistake we see is that many operators tend to overpromise to customers and overextend their staff. This might mean assigning one driver to a larger area than they can feasibly cover, or taking on properties too far outside your area of expertise. Many operators feel they have to overpromise in order to win contracts, but ultimately they just hurt themselves and the industry.

“It’s not sustainable,” I tell Chris. “It’s not growth or contracts you can really count on long term. It’s just destined to fail when you overextend yourself.”

Ultimately, going down this route means facing two bad options at the end of the month. You can either A) commit enough resources to carry out the job, and by doing so not make much if any money, or B) do a poor job with not enough guards or resources and risk angering and losing the customer.

Useful Tools

The key to avoiding those two scenarios is to have a detailed plan in place ahead of time. There are a number of useful tools out there that help you budget your costs and plan routes so that you have a definite accounting of your capabilities and profitability.

With most properties operating on a tight security budget, route management software allows you to tangibly justify your costs to customers and set realistic expectations. Ultimately, customers are happier when you set realistic expectations and explain your process rather than promising the world. These tools also allow you to better communicate your activities with customers. Here are a few useful resources for mobile patrol operators:

“You’re going to have to go with the budget that the property, or the community, or the commercial site has set,” says Chris. “They’re not going to say ‘hey, we believe you’ll provide a better service, let us go ahead and give you the extra dollar.’ They’re going to ask you to prove it out.”

That means showing how you can deliver the services they need on their budget. On your side, you then have to find a way to deliver those services at a high level while keeping costs low.

One cost cutting tool we discuss is using Silvertrac’s inspection tool to allow one supervisor to do all the vehicle inspections at once and make the information available to everyone. That way, instead of each driver inspecting their vehicle before their route, they can start their routes immediately and hit more locations.

Ultimately, the security industry is incredibly price competitive, which means profits come from keeping costs low and maintaining good relationships with customers.

Where Mobile Patrol Profit Leaks

Most security firms lose patrol margin in the same places. Here is where to look and what to do about it:

Profit leak	How it hurts margin	How to fix it
Expensive vehicles	Higher payments, insurance and fuel	Choose economical or leased vehicles and track lifecycle cost
Drive time between sites	Paid hours with no billable stops	Group clients by area and optimize routes
Overpromised coverage	Too many hits for one driver to complete	Price and schedule hits based on real route times
Unbilled extra stops	Work you deliver but never invoice	Log every stop and tie invoices to completed hits
Manual reporting	Admin hours spent rebuilding reports	Generate customer-ready reports automatically
Missed or late hits	Client complaints and credits	Track run sheets live and fix delays in real time

How to Price a Mobile Patrol Contract

Know your cost per patrol hour. Include driver wages and burden, vehicle costs, fuel, insurance, equipment and overhead. Here is how to calculate the lifecycle cost of a patrol vehicle.
Measure time per hit. Include drive time to the site, time on site and time to the next stop.
Agree on hits per night. Match the number and timing of hits to the client’s real risk and budget.
Price per hit or per month. A simple starting point is your cost per patrol hour multiplied by the hours each hit really takes, plus your target margin.
Check route density. A new client close to existing stops is worth more to you than one across town.
Review quarterly. Compare planned and actual route times and adjust pricing or routes when they drift.

Route Density: The Biggest Profit Lever

Every minute a patrol officer spends driving between sites is a minute you pay for but may not bill. Winning clients near your existing routes, sequencing stops efficiently and building in just enough unpredictability to stay effective can raise margin without raising prices. See 5 essential steps to optimizing a security mobile patrol route.

How TrackTik Helps Mobile Patrols Make Money

Optimized routes. TrackTik mobile patrol builds efficient routes with configurable schedules and grace periods.
Live run sheets. Supervisors see patrol progress in real time and fix delays before clients notice.
Customer-ready reports. Every completed stop becomes a report you can share with the client.
Bill for every stop. TrackTik contracts and invoicing ties invoices to the work actually performed.
Protect margin. TrackTik Margin Insight flags overtime and coverage gaps while the period is still running.
Respond fast. TrackTik security guard dispatch sends the nearest patrol unit to alarms and calls for service.

Book a TrackTik demo to see how it works on your routes.

Frequently Asked Questions

By controlling costs and keeping routes dense. Prices are usually set by what the property will pay, so profit comes from economical vehicles, efficient routes, realistic coverage and billing for every stop. TrackTik mobile patrol helps with routing, tracking and reporting.

Driver wages and burden, vehicle payments or leases, fuel, insurance, maintenance, equipment and the drive time between sites. Drive time is often the most overlooked cost because it is paid but not directly billable.

Start with your cost per patrol hour, estimate how much time each hit takes including drive time, agree on the number of hits per night and add your target margin. Price new clients near existing routes more competitively, since they cost less to serve.

It depends on your cash flow, mileage and how long you keep vehicles. Leasing lowers upfront cost and can simplify maintenance, while buying can cost less over a long life. Compare the full lifecycle cost, including insurance, fuel and resale, before deciding.

If one driver is assigned more hits than they can complete, you either add resources and lose money or miss hits and risk losing the client. Pricing and scheduling based on real route times avoids both outcomes.

Optimized routes cut drive time between sites, so each officer completes more billable hits per shift without extra hours or vehicles. Grouping clients by area has the same effect.

TrackTik optimizes patrol routes, tracks run sheets live, creates customer-ready reports, ties invoices to completed stops through contracts and invoicing and flags overtime with Margin Insight. Book a TrackTik demo to see it in action.