Showerthought: found out the average cable installer walks 8 miles a day doing this job

I was looking up something about knee pads on my phone last Tuesday and stumbled on some random industry stat from 2021. It said the average cable installer walks about 8 miles per shift. I had to laugh because I never really thought about it, but yeah, I'm basically hiking every day. Between going up and down ladders, running lines through attics and crawl spaces, and walking from the truck to the house thirty times, it adds up fast. My phone's step counter confirmed it - I hit 9.2 miles on a rough day last week. Made me wonder if any of you guys actually track your steps or if you just know your knees are screaming by Friday. Has anyone else looked into this and found a similar number for their average day?

2 comments

2 Comments

kellymurphy18d ago

8 miles is a stretch, my last job had me doing maybe 3 tops with the truck parked close.

pat36017d agoProlific Poster

Kelly's right, 8 miles seems high. My last place we were lucky if we hit 4 miles total in a day, most of it was just walking to and from the truck for the next batch of tools.