Service time

Service time is the time it takes to drop off the goods in addition to the actual driving time between addresses. There are two different types of service times, manual and automatic. The manual one is a simple time that is added for each stop on the route. The automatic one can be set for many different factors and can be adjusted in detail.

The choice of whether to use manual or automatic service time can be made under Service time in the route optimisation settings.

The total service time and the time for additional stops are displayed in the Service time and Additional fields in the sender and receiver addresses in order reception. It is also possible to overwrite the times there with a manual value that applies to that particular order.

The times in the Service time and Additional fields can be exported/imported via EDI.

Manual service time

In the Route optimization settings window, the estimated duration of each stop can be entered in the Service time per stop field. This time is taken into account in the calculation of subsequent delivery times. The maximum value is 23.59.59.

There can be different sets of route optimisation settings (configurations) with different manual service times. You can choose which configuration to use in the Route optimization window while doing the route optimisation.

Automatic service time

If you choose to use automatic service times, the value in the Service time per stop field in the Route optimization settings window is not used when calculating subsequent delivery times. Instead, you fine-tune the route optimisation by entering service times for different factors, and extra time can be added if there are multiple deliveries to the same address. The automatic service time can be set in the following windows in Opter:

Customers (the Dispatching tab)
Terminals (the General tab)
Regions (the General tab)
Price lists (the Price items tab)
Services (the Dispatch tab)
Price vehicle types (the Distance calculation tab)
Office (the Weight/Distance tab)
Home delivery settings (the General tab)

The time is stated in seconds and the values of all the factors are added together to form a total that is taken into account in the calculation of subsequent delivery times. The fields have the same name in all the windows.

Service time per stop (s)
Specify how many seconds each stop on the route is expected to take.
Time per additional shipment (s)
State how much extra time a delivery to the same address is expected to take in addition to the service time, for example if there is a delivery to floor 3 and a delivery to floor 5 in the same building.

In the Route optimization window, the sum of all the service times is shown in the Service time column, and the sum of the times for each additional shipment is shown in the Extra service time column.

Service time factor

The overall service time can be modified for individual drivers or vehicles (depending on what is used as the primary resource) by entering the percentage of the stated service time the resource actually needs in the Service time factor field in the Employees window on the Details tab or in the Vehicles window on the Route optimisation tab. The percentage only affects the service time, not the driving time between addresses. An experienced driver may only need 80% of the service time, while an inexperienced driver may need 110%.

The totals shown in the Service time and Extra service time columns in the Route optimization window do not take this percentage into account.

Updating service time on orders

If you have changed the service time settings (i.e. the Service time per stop (s) and Time per additional shipment (s) fields) for example in the office settings, for a customer and/or for a terminal, the new service time will be applied to new orders created after the service time change has been saved. If you want the service time to be updated on already existing orders, you can search for the orders in order check and then recalculate (update) the service time on the orders. For instructions, see Recalculate data on orders in order check.

For example, if you add service time to a price item that did not have service time before, you can search in order check for the orders that have that price item, and update the service time for those orders.

Example

Driver 8 at Quick Transport Ltd has just delivered a parcel to Start Street 3 and has two more stops on its route, which are Delivery Road 5 (two deliveries) and End Street 10 (one delivery). PTV Map&Guide estimates that it takes 14 minutes to drive from Start Street 3 to Delivery Road 5. Quick Transport uses automatic service times and has set a general service time of 180 seconds in the office settings, and specified that additional deliveries to the same address take 60 seconds. For the service it is stated that the type of special deliveries performed by driver 8 take 240 seconds. The price item also states that this particular item takes an additional 60 seconds per delivery.

This results in the following service times.

	Office	Service	Price item	Total
Service time per stop (s)	180	240	60	480
Time per additional shipment (s)	60	0	60	120

But driver 8 has been working on this route for a long time and needs only 80% of the service time (Service time factor = 80%), i.e. 384 seconds (6.4 minutes) for one delivery, and 96 seconds (1.6 minutes) for further deliveries at the same address.

When the route is optimised, the two deliveries to Delivery Road are estimated to take 22 minutes to complete.

A driving time of 14 minutes from Start Street.
6.4 minutes service time (80% of 8 minutes).
1.6 minutes for an additional delivery at the same address (80% of 2 minutes).

If the journey to Delivery Road started at 14.38, the journey to End Street 10 is expected to start at 15.00. With a driving time of, for example, 10 minutes between those addresses, the delivery to End Street 10 is expected to be completed by 15.16.

10 minutes for the drive from Delivery Road.
6.4 minutes service time (80% of 8 minutes).