Setting Capacity and Fill Rate

Capacity and fill rate are the two inputs Route Simplified uses to determine when a generator is due. Getting these right is the single most important thing you can do for scheduling accuracy.

Capacity

Capacity is the total volume the generator's container can hold — not the most it has ever had pumped, and not an estimate of what it usually fills to. Set it to the physical size of the tank.

If capacity is set too low, the generator will trigger for service before the tank is actually worth visiting. If set too high, the generator will be skipped when it's full.

Get capacity right first. Once you're confident capacity is correct, fill rate becomes your tool for fine-tuning the schedule timing.

Fill rate

Fill rate is the gallons per month the generator produces. Route Simplified thinks in monthly units.

Two ways to set fill rate:

• Fixed — you enter a number manually. Use this for new generators or any generator with limited service history.
• Calculated from collection data — Route Simplified averages the gallons collected across the last several pickups. Switch to this once a generator has enough completed services (typically 5 or more) to make the average reliable.

Converting from a weekly interval: if you know the pickup interval in weeks and trust it, convert using: Fill Rate (gal/month) = (Capacity ÷ Interval in weeks) × 4.3

Due date types

• Fill Rate — the default and preferred setting. Projects the due date from capacity, fill rate, and last service. Use this wherever you have enough data to support it.
• Service Interval — fixed days between services. Use as a starting point for brand-new generators with no history, then switch to Fill Rate once data accumulates.
• Always Set By User — no automatic calculation. Use only for locations that call in on demand and have no predictable recurring schedule.

Avoid fixed-interval scheduling wherever possible. The purpose of Route Simplified is to move from "visit every X days" to "visit when the tank is actually due."

Lowering the target fill level for volatile accounts or competitive risk

There's another lever beyond capacity and fill rate: the target fill percentage you're scheduling to. If an account has volatile or unpredictable output — the kind that leads to a customer phone call when it overflows — lower the target from a typical 95% down to something like 80%. That gives you a much bigger margin of error to absorb the account's natural variability.

The same lever works defensively. If you suspect an account is being poached or already serviced by a competitor, consider dropping the target down to around 50% full. Servicing well ahead of when it's truly due helps you front-run the competition for that account.