GPS tracked my route for 6 months and I was cheating customers
I run a small roofing crew in Phoenix. Been doing estimates by drive time for 8 years. Last month my kid installed a GPS tracker on my work truck. Says it's for insurance. I look at the data. Turns out my usual route to a job site takes 22 minutes, not the 45 I've been billing. Did that on every job. Not on purpose. I just always rounded up because traffic. But seeing it in black and white made me sick. I had to refund three homeowners last week. Has anyone else caught themselves doing something like this without even realizing it?
Right there with you honestly. I've done the same thing before where I tell myself I'm just "rounding up" but really I'm adding a whole extra half hour or more to account for backups. There's a big difference between saying "oh it takes 20 minutes for me to get there" when it's actually 45 on a bad day. It's not really rounding up at that point, it's just lying to yourself about how long things actually take. I think we all do it because admitting the real time feels defeatist somehow. But yeah, you called it out perfectly.