Trip Planning & Creation

Trip Planning & Creation

Trips are the core operational unit of the Transport module. Every vehicle movement — whether delivering equipment to a venue, collecting it afterwards, or shuttling crew between sites — is recorded as a trip with full tracking of costs, equipment, and status.

Trip Types

• Delivery — transporting equipment or materials to a project site
• Pickup — collecting equipment or materials from a project site
• Round Trip — delivery followed by collection in a single journey
• Shuttle — transporting crew members between locations
• Inter-Warehouse — moving stock between warehouse locations

Priority Levels

Every trip is assigned a priority that determines its visual prominence on the dashboard and scheduling views:

• Low — routine, non-urgent transport
• Medium — standard priority (default)
• High — time-sensitive delivery or collection
• Urgent — requires immediate dispatch

Creating a Trip

Navigate to Trips and click Create Trip. Complete the following sections:

1. Vehicle — select from your active fleet. Only vehicles with an "active" status are available for assignment.
2. Driver — assign a crew member as the driver. The system checks that the crew member has a valid driver profile and licence on file.
3. Origin — enter the departure address with full details (street, city, postcode, country) and GPS coordinates for precise mapping.
4. Destination — enter the delivery or collection address with the same level of detail.

Scheduling

• Scheduled Departure — the planned date and time for leaving the origin
• Scheduled Arrival — the planned date and time for reaching the destination
• Estimated Duration — auto-calculated from the route, or manually overridden

Equipment Manifest

Link project equipment to the trip to create a manifest. Each manifest item tracks:

Field	Description
Equipment Item	The specific piece of equipment from the project
Action	Load, deliver, or collect
Status	Planned, loaded, delivered, collected, or missing

Warehouse staff update manifest statuses as items are loaded and unloaded, providing real-time visibility of what is on each vehicle.

Paired Trips

When you create a delivery trip, the system can automatically generate a linked collection trip for the return journey. These paired trips share the same project and equipment manifest but with reversed origin and destination. Changes to the delivery manifest are reflected in the collection trip, ensuring consistency.

Sub-Project Support

For projects with multiple sub-projects (e.g. "Main Stage" and "VIP Area"), each sub-project can have its own independent transport arrangements. Trips are linked to a specific sub-project, and costs roll up to the parent project.

Crew Transport

Mark a trip with the crew transport flag to indicate it is carrying crew members to a site. Crew transport trips appear in the crew scheduling view and can be linked to crew time entries.

Distance and Mileage

• Distance — auto-calculated in kilometres from the route
• Mileage Cost — calculated using the vehicle's per-mile rate (or the fleet default of £0.45/mile)

Trip Costs

Record all costs associated with a trip:

• Fuel — fuel consumed during the journey
• Tolls — road tolls, congestion charges, bridge fees
• Parking — on-site or en-route parking charges
• Driver Labour — driver time cost for the journey
• Other — any additional expenses

Trip Statuses

Every trip follows a defined status progression:

1. Scheduled — trip has been planned but not yet started
2. In Transit — the vehicle has departed and is en route
3. Delayed — the trip is running behind schedule
4. Completed — the vehicle has arrived and all manifest items are accounted for
5. Cancelled — the trip was cancelled before or during transit

Trip Identification

Each trip is automatically assigned a sequential ID in the format TRP-001, TRP-002, TRP-003, and so on. This ID is displayed throughout the system — on the trip list, detail pages, dashboard timeline, and in any linked project records.