Project Transport & Trips

The Transport tab on the project detail page manages all vehicle assignments, trip scheduling, driver allocation, and delivery logistics for the project. Combined with the Transport Planning and Load Planning tabs, it gives you full control over how equipment and crew get to and from the project site.

Accessing transport on a project

Transport is managed from three locations within the project detail page:

• Transport tab — Create and manage individual transport assignments, assign vehicles and drivers, and track trip statuses
• Transport Planning tab — A dedicated planning view that displays all trips on a visual timeline, ideal for coordinating multiple vehicles and spotting scheduling gaps
• Load Planning tab — Available as a paid addon, this tab provides vehicle loading optimisation to ensure equipment is packed efficiently and weight limits are respected

To add a transport assignment, open the Transport tab and click the Add Trip button.

Trip types

Each transport assignment is categorised by trip type. NexusRMS supports the following types:

1. Delivery — Transport equipment from your warehouse to the project site. The most common trip type for outgoing gear.
2. Pickup / Collection — Retrieve equipment from the project site and return it to the warehouse after the event concludes.
3. Round Trip — A combined delivery and collection in a single assignment. The vehicle delivers to site and collects at a later time. Useful for short-duration hires where the same driver handles both legs.
4. Shuttle — Transport crew members between locations (e.g., hotel to venue). Shuttle trips do not carry equipment and are used solely for personnel logistics.
5. Inter-Warehouse — Move equipment between two of your own warehouse locations. Commonly used to redistribute stock ahead of a busy period or consolidate returns.

Vehicle assignment

Each trip is assigned a vehicle from your fleet, which is configured under Configuration > Fleet Settings. The vehicle selector shows each vehicle's type, capacity, and current availability for the scheduled date. When you select a vehicle, the system checks for scheduling conflicts with other trips and warns you if the vehicle is already committed elsewhere during the same time window.

Driver assignment

Assign a crew member as the driver for each trip. Only crew members with a valid driving licence recorded in their profile are shown in the driver selector. The driver appears on trip documentation, receives mobile notifications when a trip is approaching, and can update trip status directly from the mobile app using GPS verification.

Route information

Each transport assignment includes route details for planning and cost estimation:

• From location — The departure address (typically a warehouse or previous project site)
• To location — The destination address (the project site, warehouse, or another venue)
• Distance — Estimated or actual distance, displayed in miles or kilometres based on your regional settings
• Duration — Estimated travel time for the journey

Cost tracking

NexusRMS tracks transport costs across several categories for each trip:

• Fuel cost — Estimated from the trip distance and the vehicle's fuel consumption rate configured in Fleet Settings
• Mileage cost — Calculated from per-mile or per-kilometre rates, useful for wear-and-tear accounting
• Driver costs — Based on the assigned driver's hourly or daily rate and the trip duration
• Third-party haulage — For trips outsourced to external haulage companies, record the quoted or invoiced cost directly on the trip

All transport costs feed into the project Financial tab under the Transport Costs category, contributing to the overall project profit margin calculation.

Trip status lifecycle

Every transport assignment moves through a defined status workflow:

1. Scheduled — The trip has been created and assigned but has not yet departed
2. In Transit — The vehicle has departed and is en route to the destination
3. Delayed — The trip has encountered a delay (traffic, breakdown, weather). A reason can be logged for reporting.
4. Completed — The vehicle has arrived at its destination and the trip is finished
5. Cancelled — The trip has been cancelled. Cancelled trips remain in the history for audit purposes.

Status updates can be made manually from the project or updated by the driver via the mobile app with GPS verification.

Trip pairing

When you create a Delivery trip, NexusRMS can automatically generate a matching Pickup / Collection trip for the return journey. The two trips are linked so that date changes to the delivery can be reflected in the collection. You can unlink paired trips at any time if return logistics change independently.

Integration with warehouse statuses

Transport trips are tightly integrated with project warehouse statuses. When a delivery trip status changes to In Transit, the project warehouse status automatically updates to dispatched. When the trip is marked Completed, the warehouse status transitions to on_location. Similarly, collection trips trigger the expected_back and returned warehouse statuses. This integration ensures warehouse staff always have an accurate picture of where equipment is without manual status updates.

Transport Planning tab

The Transport Planning tab provides a dedicated timeline view where all trips are displayed on a horizontal calendar. Vehicles appear as rows and trip blocks span their scheduled time windows. This view makes it easy to spot scheduling conflicts, identify idle vehicles, and balance workloads across your fleet. You can drag trip blocks to reschedule them or click a block to open the full trip detail editor.

Load Planning tab

The Load Planning tab is available as a paid addon and provides vehicle loading optimisation. It helps warehouse staff determine which equipment goes into which vehicle, considering weight limits, volume constraints, and loading order (last on, first off). The Load Planning tab shows a visual representation of each vehicle's cargo area with equipment items arranged for optimal space usage.

Tips

• Pair delivery and collection trips — Use automatic trip pairing to keep return logistics synchronised with outbound deliveries. Unlink only when the return journey genuinely differs.
• Record third-party haulage costs immediately — Enter external haulage quotes as soon as they are received so the Financial tab reflects accurate transport costs from the outset.
• Use the Transport Planning timeline for multi-vehicle projects — When a project requires several vehicles, the timeline view is far more effective than managing individual trips from the Transport tab.
• Check driver licence expiry — NexusRMS warns you when a driver's licence is approaching expiry. Review these warnings before confirming trip assignments.

Next steps

Continue to the next article to learn about the Financial tab, where you will review revenue, costs, and profit margins for the project and generate quotes and invoices.