This Manual covers how the TripScheduler Settings interact with loading times and reservation times.
Loading/Unloading Durations
The first box you will see indicates the load and unload time per passenger per stop. It is important to understand if you are picking up or dropping off multiple passengers at one location these times will be applied per passenger per stop exponentially.
That means this number blocks off time to perform loading and unloading. One minute in those fields for 50 trips that day will block 50 minutes of loading and 50 minutes of unloading time for driver availability. If you have two minutes in those fields, it will block 100 minutes that day just for loading/unloading passengers. Another factor to consider when setting these times is by way of the Vehicle Master Page, we are giving the driver prep time once per stop to prepare to load passengers.
In brief, lower numbers work the best. If you have certain riders that take longer, you can create a schedule profile specifically for that type of rider and assign it to their rider profile under the schedule profile box.
“Average Load Duration” and “Average Unload Duration”
These times indicate the average time it takes for an ambulatory passenger to get onboard the vehicle. Typically, 0.5 to 3 minutes is sufficient.
“Additional Wheelchair Load/Unload Duration”
These times will add to the “Average Load Duration”. In our example screen, shot loading is set to 3 minutes in the wheelchair box, adding to the 2-minute average load duration for total of 5-minutes to load a wheelchair. The Wheelchair unloading duration interacts the same way. Our example shows 2 additional wheelchair unloading minutes to the average 2 unloading minutes for a total of 4-minutes to unload. Typically, it takes a minute or less to unload a wheelchair versus loading. We recommend starting with 5 load and 4 unload minutes for average wheelchair users.
“Additional Stretcher Load/Unload duration”
These times interact the same as the wheelchair settings. It only adds to the Ambulatory “Average Load/Unload Duration” It will not add the additional wheelchair time. In the example below, we blocked off 10 minutes. Our 2-minute “Average Load/Unload Duration” added to the 8-minute “Additional Stretcher Load/Unload Duration”.
Keep in mind, in the Vehicle Master Page we are giving the driver boarding prep time once per stop to prepare to load passengers in addition to the passenger loading time.
Dropoff Priority Windows
Below is a description of all the schedule profile fields and how they interact.
Dropoff Priority Rules
How Early Can Passenger Be Picked Up
Interacts strictly with the dropoff priority time of a reservation. The scheduler will not use this field if you are using the TripScheduler, have the “Use Requested Pickup Time” toggled on, and your trips have a requested pickup time in the reservation. We will cover the requested pickup time fields shortly.
In the example above, with 30 minutes in the “How Early Can Passenger Be Picked Up” box, if a reservation’s dropoff priority is 11:00am, it tells the system you can arrive to pick the person up if needed, 30 minutes prior to the dropoff priority time. If you toggle on the “Add Direct Drive To Earliest PickUp” it will include the direct drive time from point A to point B to those minutes (typically this toggle is always used). Example: For a 11:00am dropoff priority that has a direct drive time of 10 minutes, the system can arrive if needed to pick the person up at 10:20am (30 minutes plus 10-minutes of direct drive time).
How Early Can Passenger Be Dropped Off
The time in this field indicates how early a person can be dropped off prior to the drop-off priority time. Example: For a 11:00am dropoff priority with “How Early Can Passenger Be Dropped Off” set to 40 minutes, the passenger can be dropped off as early as 10:20am if needed.
Use Requested Pickup Time
If you are working with a broker such as ModivCare, MTM or other brokers that include a “Requested Pickup Time” for a Dropoff Priority Reservation. We can interact with the ‘requested pickup time they send.
With the toggle selected these fields interact with the requested pickup time of a trip. Example: If the requested pickup time is 9:00am with the 15-minute windows in the screenshot above, the passenger could be picked up as early as 8:45am and as late as 9:15am.
Pickup Priority Rules
How Late Can Passenger Be Picked Up
Interacts strictly with the pickup priority time of a reservation.
In our example above with 30-minutes in the “How Late Can Passenger Be Picked Up” box. If a reservations pickup priority time is 2:00pm, it tells the system you can arrive to pick the person up at 9:30 if needed.
How Late Can Passenger Be Dropped Off
The time in this field indicates how long a passenger can be on the vehicle, if needed, once picked up. If you toggle on the “Add Direct Drive to Latest Dropoff” it will also add the direct drive time to the maximum time a passenger can be on a vehicle.
With our settings in the example above, if a trip has a direct drive time of 10-minutes and a 2:00pm pickup priority time. The passenger can be on the vehicle for as long as 30 minutes plus the 10-minute direct drive time for a total of 40-minutes if needed.
Use Requested Dropoff Time
With the toggle selected, these fields interact with the requested dropoff time of a pickup priority trip. Example: If the requested dropoff priority time is 2:30pm with the 30-minute windows above, the passenger could be dropped off between 2:00pm or as late as 3:00pm if needed.