How can I use Travel Time to help me assign Employees to Visits?

The Travel Time feature on the Employee Finder allows schedulers to see the time it takes for caregivers to travel from one Visit to another by car, taking into account traffic. Here's a summary of how it works:

• Data is obtained directly from HERE Maps.
• Travel information is calculated using the specific time of day and considers real-time traffic delays.
• Commute time (displayed in minutes) is calculated based on the address of the caregiver's previous Visit and the Start Time of the Visit currently being scheduled. If the Service address is different from the Client's address (meaning that Use Client Address was not checked when creating the Service), the Service address is used instead. 
• If the Employee does not have a Visit scheduled for the three hours prior to the scheduled Start Time, Travel Time is calculated from the Employee's home address.
• The only mean of transportation available currently is by car.
• If Google cannot locate an address, the system will show an error message to the user.
• If the current Visit overlaps with another Visit, Travel Time between the two cannot be calculated. The system will look at the closest non-overlapping Visit. 
• Employee Unavailability is not taken into account when calculating Travel Time. 

Travel Time can be seen in the Employee Finder. To access it, simply click on the Find Employee button from within the Visit dialogue. 

 Metrics Tab in Employee Finder

At the top of the Metrics tab, you will see a toggle called Display Travel Time, which is disabled by default to maximize performance. To view Travel Time for each Employee, click to turn on this feature. The Travel Time column will then load in the Finder grid. 

The Travel Time column shows the number of minutes between the Employee's previous Visit and the Visit currently being scheduled. Click on the arrows to sort the Employees by shortest Travel Time. 

When Travel Time cannot be calculated by Google, the error message Invalid Address will be shown. Make sure to verify that the Employee, Client, and/or Service address is valid.

If the Employee has no Visits for the three hours before the Visit being scheduled, the home icon will appear to indicate that Travel Time is being calculated from the Employee's home address.

Important note: If you are scheduling a Recurrence, the calculated Travel Time will be for the first Visit of the Recurrence. Further information will be available in the Calendar tab.

Calendar Tab

The Calendar tab in the Employee Finder uses the same logic as above to calculate Travel Time. At the top of the Calendar tab, you will see the Display Travel Time toggle, which is disabled by default to maximize performance. To view Travel Time for each Employee, click to enable this feature. An additional tile type representing Travel Time will appear around the Visit being scheduled. 

This view allows users to visually determine if an Employee will have enough time to travel from the previous Visit (or home) to the Visit being scheduled and from that one to the next scheduled Visit. If Travel Time overlaps with the previous or following Visit, that Employee would not be able to make it on time. 

 When Travel Time for an Employee cannot be calculated, a red bar will appear around the Visit tile. Make sure to verify that the Employee, Client, and/or Service address entered is valid. 

If the employee has no Visits for three hours before or after the Visit being scheduled, the home icon will be shown when hovering over the Travel Time to indicate that Travel Time is being calculated from or to the Employee's home. 

When moving a Visit to change its time (on creation only), Travel Time will be recalculated.