Short answer: an account is worth what it pays per hour of everything it takes, and for a pool route that includes the drive into the stop and the callbacks nobody pays for. A $125.00 a month pool 35 minutes off the route can earn a quarter of what a $120.00 pool in a tight cluster does. Work out every account's hours and cost, divide, and compare with the hourly you need. The calculator does it for your whole route and exports a CSV.
Everything below is arithmetic on invented numbers. The prices, minutes and costs are illustrative, not market rates, not a price survey and not advice. Replace them with your own tracked numbers. To price one account from scratch see pool route pricing; for other route trades see the route account pruner.
The arithmetic
Hours a month = visits x (minutes on site + drive minutes) / 60, plus callbacks a year / 12 x minutes per callback / 60. Weekly service is 4.33 visits a month.
Cost = chemicals + truck cost per driving hour x (drive hours + callback hours) + callback parts / 12 per callback + any helper pay x hours.
Price that clears your target = cost + target hourly x hours.
Move: keep if it already earns the target; reprice if the increase needed is within what you would actually ask; otherwise consider dropping.
Route hourly if dropped = the route's net and hours without that account.
A worked route
Ten pools, weekly service (4.33 visits a month), truck cost $14.00 per driving hour, 45 minutes and $15.00 of parts per callback, a $40.00 target and a largest increase of 15 percent. The route takes 29.9 hours a month for $1,390.00 and earns $30.46 an hour after chemicals, truck and callbacks; 31 percent of the hours are driving.
Foster (Far Rd): $125.00 a month, 25 minutes on site, 35 minutes of drive, 2 callbacks a year. 4.5 hours, $73.61 of cost, $11.53 an hour. It would need $251.81 to clear target, 101 percent more.
Hart (Hillcrest): $95.00, 24 minutes on site, 24 of drive. $13.22 an hour; needs $189.43.
Dunn (Hillcrest): $115.00, 22 minutes of drive, 3 callbacks a year. $14.86 an hour; needs $210.44.
Chen (Cedar Ct) earns $38.94 and needs $163.03, under 2 percent more: reprice. Ellis (Lakeshore) earns $39.71 and needs $211.06: reprice.
The other five clear $40.00; Brooks (Oak Lane) earns $49.01.
Foster, Hart and Dunn together net $154.41 a month and take 11.8 of the route's 29.9 hours. Without them the other seven accounts earn $41.73 an hour over 18.1 hours. Those 11.8 hours are only worth something if you fill them: at the $40.00 target they are worth about $472 a month, but an empty hour is worth nothing, which is why the tool assumes they are not refilled and shows the route hourly either way.
Route density: what a stop 15 minutes away does
Take a new pool at $140.00 a month, 25 minutes on site, $30.00 of chemicals and one callback a year. The only thing that changes is the drive into it:
5 minutes of drive: $46.16 an hour, needs $126.28, lifts the route to $31.55.
10 minutes: $37.77 an hour, needs $145.76.
15 minutes: $31.44 an hour, needs $165.25, route $30.55.
20 minutes: $26.49 an hour, needs $184.73, route $30.07.
30 minutes: $19.24 an hour, needs $223.70, route $29.13.
The same pool at the same price is a good stop next door and a bad one across town, because each extra minute of drive costs you twice: in time and in truck cost. Quote the far stop at what its drive demands, or pass.
What to feed it
Minutes you actually tracked on site and between stops, not the minutes you assumed.
What chemicals really cost you per account per month, not the average.
Callbacks per account per year from your own records, and what a repair trip costs you in time and parts.
Your service agreements, what each customer will accept and local rules come first. This is arithmetic, not a view on what a customer should pay or whether one will cancel.
Questions
How do I know if a pool service account is profitable?
Add up every hour it takes: visit minutes, the drive into the stop and the unpaid callback trips. Subtract chemicals, truck cost and callback parts from the monthly price and divide by those hours. On the worked route, Foster on Far Rd pays $125.00 a month but takes 4.5 hours and earns $11.53 an hour.
Should I drop a pool customer who is far from the rest of my route?
Check the route's hourly without the account. On the worked route of ten pools, dropping the three weakest accounts lifts the route from $30.46 to $41.73 an hour and frees 11.8 hours a month, at a cost of $154.41 a month in net income.
What should I charge for a new pool stop 15 minutes away?
Cost plus your target hourly times the hours the stop takes. On the worked route a stop with 25 minutes on site, $30.00 of chemicals and one callback a year needs $165.25 a month at 15 minutes of drive, but only $126.28 at 5 minutes.