Optimize work block travel time rating

Joshua Chen FX · ‎06-09-2025

anyone know what these options do?

SalmatO · ‎06-10-2025

Hi Joshua, so optimize work block travel time is basically telling the scheduler what type of travel to consider when scoring a block and work block is a chunk of time where an agent is available to be scheduled for tasks.

The options and their use cases

- Include travel to task - Ideal when on-time arrival is a key business metric (e.g., strict SLAs) because only travel to the task is considered in the rating and travel after the task is ignored for optimization scoring.

- Include travel after task - Ideal when the order of tasks matters and poor sequencing could increase overall route time because you want to factor in the impact a task has on subsequent travel to the next job. It Ignores how far the agent has to go to the task but includes the impact of the task on the following route.

- Include all travel - This is ideal for route efficiency and want to minimize total travel time across a technician’s day as it considers both travel to and after a task in its optimization calculations.

- Include no travel - Ideal for remote-only tasks, virtual support, or dispatch scenarios where the agent is static since travel is not a factor in work block rating

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sj2128845 · Tuesday

Thanks for sharing this Joshua. Your breakdown makes it much easier to understand how each travel option affects scheduling. I have noticed that using include all travel can really help when teams are trying to cut down overall travel time during busy days especially when jobs are spread out. Its interesting how much difference the right setting can make in balancing efficiency and on time arrivals. Do you think theres a setup that works best when the schedule keeps changing throughout the day?

Joshua Chen FX · Wednesday

@sj2128845 it really depends on your organization objectives and too many variables (distance, skills, work schedules, personal events, etc.). best is to take a small territory, and test the results for each option and see what outcome you prefer.

i think "all travel" applies to most, but i see where you are in the health industry or you get heavily penalized if late (late fees in your contract) , i might consider "include travel to task". if being late $$$ > $$$ for more travel > your technicians happiness (evening travel/overtime/ travel long distance to get back home)

- Include travel to task : Use this on-time arrival is a key business metric, . A technician must be at a customer site between 9:00 and 10:00 AM. The system only considers how long it takes to travel to the site when scoring options.

- include travel after task: You don’t mind a long first trip, but you want to avoid assignments that leave the tech far from their next stop. That minimizes big hops later in the day, reduces evening travel, and helps them get home sooner.
- Include all travel: If your goal is to keep the whole route efficient and save fuel/time, both the trip to and after each task is considered. This is best when agents have multiple stops and you want the day’s plan to be tight and logical.