In field service, the success of a working day depends not only on how many appointments are scheduled but also on whether the time between the individual appointments is realistically planned. If the travel time between two customer visits is underestimated, subsequent appointments slip, customers wait unnecessarily long and staff are put under time pressure. Often a schedule that is too tight only becomes apparent once the field service employee is already on the road. Reliable display of travel times directly in appointment scheduling prevents this problem at the dispatching stage.
Travel times per employee and day at a glance
The resource plan in 1Tool calculates and displays the travel times between consecutive appointments for each employee and each day. Dispatchers therefore do not have to estimate the distances between job sites themselves or look them up in a separate map application; they see the relevant information right where the daily schedule is created. This saves time during planning and reduces the risk of badly misjudging travel times. Especially for teams with several field service employees visiting different customers in different locations throughout the day, such an overview is an essential building block of workable day planning. The travel times are displayed automatically in the context of the appointments already scheduled, so they fit straight into the daily dispatching routine without causing additional manual work.
Spotting unrealistic schedules early
The real benefit shows when too little travel time has been planned between two appointments. Because the travel time is visible right next to or between the appointments concerned, the dispatcher can see at a glance whether a planned day is feasible at all. Instead of a schedule that looks complete on paper but turns out to be too tight in practice, planning can be corrected in advance by moving or swapping appointments or distributing them differently among the available staff. This reduces delays in day-to-day business and ensures that customers can be visited more reliably within the agreed time window. For companies with recurring field service rounds, it also means that over time a more realistic picture emerges of how many appointments per day and employee can actually be scheduled sensibly.
Daily schedules at hand on the road
Not every field service employee has continuous access to an app or a mobile device while driving or at the customer's site. For this reason, daily schedules in 1Tool can be exported as PDF or printed directly. The finished schedule, including the calculated travel times, can thus be taken along on paper, for example as a fallback in case there is no stable internet connection on the road. For dispatching, this means additional flexibility, as the same schedule can be viewed digitally in 1Tool as well as passed on on paper or as a PDF file, for example by email to the employee concerned.
Frequently asked questions
Are travel times calculated automatically or do they have to be entered manually?
The travel times between consecutive appointments are calculated and displayed automatically in the resource plan.
Who is the travel time display in the resource plan intended for?
It is aimed primarily at dispatchers who create daily schedules for field service employees and want to check whether the planned sequence of appointments is realistic in terms of time.
Can I also use a daily schedule outside 1Tool?
Yes, daily schedules can be exported as PDF or printed directly, so they are also available without continuous app access.
How often did your field service staff have to reorganise an overly tight daily schedule on the spot in recent weeks?