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Round-robin scheduling simulator
Round-robin keeps job counts even; territory routing keeps drives short. Adjust your reps and a week of leads to see exactly how each strategy splits the work — and what plain round-robin costs you in cross-town drives.
Territory demand (relative)
Territory routing (by location)
Plain round-robin (ignores location)
Out-of-area jobs under round-robin
10/wk
Leads sent to a rep beyond what their own area generates — i.e. cross-town drives.
Load gap under territory routing
15 jobs
Busiest minus quietest rep. Cartoply round-robins within a territory to even this out.
The fair answer is both: route by territory first so nobody drives across town, then round-robin among the reps who cover that area. That is exactly how Cartoply distributes bookings.
Try it free →Worked example: 60 leads, four reps, uneven territories
Sixty inbound leads a week across four reps whose areas do not generate equal demand. Rep 1 covers the dense metro core, Rep 2 an inner suburb, and Reps 3 and 4 the two outlying areas — so the natural split is roughly 42 / 25 / 17 / 17.
Territory demand
- Leads per week
- 60
- Rep 1 — metro core
- 42% of leads
- Rep 2 — inner suburb
- 25% of leads
- Rep 3 — outlying area
- 17% of leads
- Rep 4 — outlying area
- 17% of leads
Leads per week, each method
- Territory routing
- 25 / 15 / 10 / 10
- Plain round-robin
- 15 / 15 / 15 / 15
- Out-of-area jobs under round-robin
- 10 per week
- Load gap under territory routing
- 15 jobs
Plain round-robin looks fair on the board and is not fair on the road: it hands Reps 3 and 4 10 jobs a week their own area never generated, which means cross-town drives. Territory routing removes those drives but leaves the metro rep 15 jobs busier than the quietest one. The answer is both — route by territory first, then round-robin within the reps who cover that area, which is how Cartoply assigns bookings.
Run your own numbers in the calculator above — these figures are the tool’s output for the inputs shown.
It is not either/or
Plain round-robin is fair on paper and expensive on the road. Pure territory routing keeps drives short but can leave a busy area's rep swamped while a quiet area's rep idles. The answer most field teams want is territory-aware round-robin: send each booking to the reps who cover that location, then rotate evenly among them.
Map your areas first in the territory map builder, then see the drive-time impact in the drive-time calculator.
Frequently asked questions
What is round-robin scheduling?
Round-robin assigns incoming leads to reps in rotation, so everyone gets a roughly equal number. It is simple and feels fair on volume, but it ignores where the customer is — so reps regularly get jobs outside their area.
Round-robin vs territory routing — which is better?
They solve different problems. Round-robin balances job counts; territory routing keeps each rep in their own area to cut drive time. The best setup combines them: route by territory first, then round-robin among the reps who cover that area so the load stays even without cross-town drives.
Why does plain round-robin create extra drive time?
Because it hands a rep their "turn" regardless of location. If a lead in one rep's backyard is given to someone across town just because it was their turn, that is a long drive that a territory-aware assignment would have avoided. The simulator estimates how many of these out-of-area jobs you would create.
Does Cartoply support round-robin?
Yes. Cartoply does territory-aware round-robin: bookings are routed to the reps who cover the customer's location, and distributed evenly among them. You get balanced workloads without sending techs out of their area.
Fair distribution without the cross-town drives
Cartoply routes by territory, then round-robins within it. Balanced loads, short drives. 14-day free trial, no card.
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