SmartMoving trip and travel fee settings support many ways to charge your customers for travel time and/or driving distance. We find that there are a few common scenarios that typically apply to most moving companies. We'll outline these scenarios below, show how to set each one up, and discuss the benefits of each billing method. These scenarios are not the only options you have for setting up your trip/travel fees, but they are the most common ones.
Note: Moves that are based on weight and mileage should be priced using a tariff group. You can set up one or more weight/cuft based tariff groups by clicking here.
To see and set trip and travel fees, navigate to Settings -> Estimate Settings -> Trip / Truck Fees or click here to go directly to the page.
Calculating mileage
For all of the methods below, mileage can be calculated by one of the following:
By Portion: Define what the mileage includes by selecting or deselecting any segment of the trip. To select or deselect each leg of the trip, simply click the square icon between each segment, and that segment will be included or excluded depending on the selection you make.
By Radius: Radius mileage will look at all stops on the estimate and determine which stop is the furthest distance from your warehouse. You may then set fees based on this "radius" mileage instead of actual driving distance. For example, if the pickup location is 10 miles from your office, but the drop-off location is 30 miles away, this calculation method would return 30 miles as the distance calculation.
Port to port
Use this setting when you don't want to charge your customer a separate line item trip/travel fee but you still need to bill for your travel time.
With port to port travel time, the billable time starts when the truck leaves the warehouse to get to the customer’s pickup location and stops when the truck returns to the warehouse after the job is completed (less any breaks the crew might log during the move).
This option is good for recouping travel expenses without having to charge an additional fee, which can sometimes lead to pushback from customers. This setting also makes it extremely easy to pay your crew for their travel time. The job essentially starts when they leave the warehouse and doesn't stop until they get back, so paying your crew for their billable hours isn't any more complicated than tracking the total hours on the job.
For port to port billing, you'll want to have SmartMoving automatically add the travel time to your estimates. To enable this, select Included in Estimate for the “Do you charge travel time?” question, and click Save Changes.
Hourly rate based on mileage ranges
Use this setting when you charge your customer a separate travel fee above the billable job hours and want that fee to be based on your hourly rate for the job as well as how much travel time (mileage) will be incurred for the trip.
Hourly rates based on mileage range are a good option when you want to have a separate travel fee charged to your customer and you want that fee to be based on the hourly rate for your crew in addition to factoring in mileage. This way, as the crew size increases, so will the amount you charge for your travel fee for the same distance.
First, select Fee for the “Do you charge travel time?” question, and select Distance Table for the Travel Time.
Next, click Add Range and enter the following fields:
Low Value: The starting number of miles for the range
High Value: The cap number of miles for the range
Time (Minutes): The cost in minutes for the range. SmartMoving will take this amount of minutes and use your hourly rate for the job to determine the travel fee. Example: A 30-minute fee for jobs with mileage under 20 miles and a crew rate of $150/hr would result in a travel fee of $75 for a job that had a mileage calculation of 18 miles.
Once you've completed adding your ranges, click Save Changes.
Note: As you add additional ranges, new ranges will be pre-populated into the Low-Value field with the next number up from the previous range. For instance, if 21-30 was your previous range, the next range you add will automatically have a Low Value of 31.
Fixed-rate based on mileage ranges
Use this setting when you charge your customer a separate travel fee above the billable job hours and want that fee to be based solely on the distance driven for the job as compared to a set of mileage ranges. This fee will not increase as the crew size or number of trucks increases—only when the mileage increases.
This option is useful if you want to charge a flat fee that is solely based on how far the travel is. For instance, you could charge a flat fee of $99 for any job with mileage under 20 miles or $149 for any job with mileage between 21-40 miles.
First, enable the Trip Fee toggle and select "By rate table".
(Optional) Edit the Label Name if desired (e.g., trip fee, travel fee, etc.). This is the name of the fee that will be visible to the client on the estimate.
Next, click Add Ranges and add the ranges and costs.
Next, select whether the mileage will be calculated by portion or radius, then click Save Changes.
By the mile
Use this setting when you charge your trip/travel fees per mile. This setting will add an additional line item fee to your estimate.
First, enable the Trip Fee toggle and select "By the mile".
Next, enter the following fields:
Label name: The name that will show up next to the fee on your estimates and invoices
Per mile rate: The dollar amount you wish to charge for each calculated mile
Fee Minimum: The minimum amount you charge for your travel fee. This is helpful if you have a shorter distance, allowing you to always charge no less than the minimum set here.
Included Miles: Set this if you have a minimum number of miles that are included in your base fee. If you charge for every mile, then put "0" for the included miles.
Then, click Save Changes.
Double drive time (California residents)
If you live in California, it is required that travel time for hourly jobs be billed using the double drive time (DDT) method. Movers are not allowed to charge additional trip/travel fees other than DDT.
To select the double drive time option in SmartMoving, enable the drive time toggle, then click Save Changes.
