Setting up a travel estimate provider

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Setting up a travel estimate provider

    Setting up a travel estimate provider in Schedule Optimization helps ServiceNow customers improve the accuracy and efficiency of travel time calculations for technician work orders. By configuring these providers for each technician group, travel planning becomes more precise, enabling better allocation of tasks based on realistic travel times between technician locations and task sites.

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    Key Features

    • Travel Estimate Providers: Schedule Optimization supports multiple providers to calculate travel distances and times:
      • Straight-line: The default backup provider that estimates travel time as the direct distance. It is modifiable but cannot be deleted.
      • Beans.ai: Offers more accurate travel time estimates by excluding invalid or unreachable locations, improving task assignment precision.
      • Third-party Providers: Allows integration with external map services, requiring pre-established connections and credentials for configuration.
    • Technician Starting Location: Determined by either the technician’s home location or the location of their most recently completed task, ensuring relevant travel time calculations.
    • Map Vendor Call Types: The mapvendorcalltypes property can be set to synchronous (default) or asynchronous calls, where asynchronous calls may improve performance by increasing outbound requests.
    • Travel Band Modifiers: Enable adjustment of travel time estimates based on time-of-day traffic conditions, such as rush hours:
      • Multipliers adjust travel times, e.g., a multiplier >1 increases time during heavy traffic, while <1 decreases time during off-peak hours.
      • Modifiers can be applied to both straight-line and Beans.ai configurations.
      • Travel bands must have defined start/end times between 30 minutes and 4 hours and cannot overlap.

    Practical Benefits

    • Improved travel time accuracy leads to better scheduling, reducing technician downtime and travel delays.
    • Flexible integration options allow customers to leverage preferred map services beyond the default provider.
    • Travel band modifiers help simulate real-world traffic conditions, enhancing the realism of scheduling and resource allocation.

    Set up a travel estimate provider in Schedule Optimization for each of your technician groups to streamline and enhance the travel planning process.

    Travel estimate providers

    Efficient allocation of work order tasks depends on accurately estimating travel time, considering both the technician's location and the task's location. The technician's starting location is determined using either their home location or the location of their most recently completed task. Schedule Optimization uses travel estimate providers, which calculate distances between technicians and task and are assigned by admins to groups.

    You can use third-party map providers in Schedule Optimization to expand your mapping service options beyond the default provider. The supported travel estimate providers are straight-line, Beans.ai, and other third-party providers.

    • Straight-line: This default configuration serves as a backup when a primary configuration isn’t available and a secondary configuration hasn’t been selected. This provider can be modified but it cannot be deleted.
    • Beans.ai: This map provider provides more accurate travel time estimates. Locations that are deemed invalid through geocoding or aren’t reachable by road are excluded from task assignments
    • Third-party map providers: Schedule Optimization supports integration with third-party providers. To configure a third-party provider, you must already have a connection and credential established for that provider.

    For more information, see Create a scheduling attribute for Schedule Optimization.

    Map vendor call types

    Property: map_vendor_call_types property

    • Sync: Default value.
    • Async: Changing the default value to async can improve performance and may result in more outbound requests.

    For more information on properties, see Schedule Optimization properties.

    Travel band modifiers

    Travel band modifiers adjust travel times based on the time of day, such as during rush hour. You can add these modifiers to either straight-line or Beans.ai configurations. A multiplier is a number used in the configuration to adjust travel time based on expected traffic conditions. When traffic is expected to be heavier than usual, a multiplier greater than 1 increases the travel time. For example, a multiplier of 1.2 adds extra time to account for delays. When traffic is lighter, such as during off-peak hours, a multiplier less than 1 reduces the travel time. For instance, a multiplier of 0.8 shortens the estimated travel time to reflect faster travel.
    • Purpose: Adjust travel times during certain times of day, such as rush hour.
    • Configuration:
      • Add travel band modifiers to your straight-line or Beans.ai configuration.
      • Modify travel time results using a multiplier or the time-of-day feature provided by a travel time provider.
      • Travel Band Details:
        • Range: 30 minutes to four hours.
        • Can’t overlap.
        • Set different start and end times for each travel band.
          Note:
          For example, to increase travel time during rush hour to simulate traffic not capture by the baseline values, you could set a travel band for your straight-line configuration between noon and 15:00 Monday through Friday with a multiplier of 1.2.