Configure Travel Time Buffers

Learn About the Travel Time Buffer

With a travel time buffer, you can systematically add extra time to the travel duration calculated for each service appointment. The buffer accounts for additional time required to deliver service to your customers. This ensures that your work plans are more accurate and prevents overbooking of mobile workers. Your dispatchers can also view the buffer time when seeing the schedule on the Gantt, by hovering over a service appointment.

Example

Here are situations where a travel time buffer helps you ensure good service.

• In densely populated urban locations such as Manhattan, add a 15 minute travel time buffer to find parking.
• For secure locations, such as army bases, allocate 10 minutes for security checks.
• Account for unpacking specialized equipment
• Add time to navigate larger sites such as hospitals and airports.

How the Buffer is Evaluated

Field Service applies the first non-zero buffer value it finds in this order.

• 1: Service Appointment: TravelTimeBuffer field on the Service Appointment record.
• 2: Service Territory: TravelTimeBuffer field on the Service Territory record.
• 3: Org-Wide Default: Default Travel Time Buffer setting configured under Scheduling > Routing.

Note The buffer time isn’t cumulative and the highest priority buffer value overrides other values.

For accurate reporting and cost analysis, Salesforce copies the specific buffer value that was applied (based on the hierarchy) to a dedicated field on the Assigned Resource record. This allows dispatchers to differentiate actual driving time from buffer time when analyzing KPIs.

Considerations

Note these considerations about the travel time buffer.

Set Up a Travel Time Buffer on Service Appointments

Apply a specific travel time buffer directly to a service appointment. This value overrides any buffer set on the service territory or org.

Set Up a Travel Time Buffer for Service Territories

Configure a default travel time buffer for all service appointments in a specific service territory. This buffer is applied unless a specific buffer is set directly on the Service Appointment record.

Required Editions

User Permissions Needed
To create a travel time buffer:	Edit on service territories

1. From the App Launcher, find and select Service Territories.
2. Select the Service Territory record that you want to configure.
3. Find the Travel Time Buffer (in minutes) field and click the Edit icon.
4. Enter the desired buffer time in minutes (0-120).
5. Save the Service Territory record.

Service appointments within this territory will automatically have this buffer added to their calculated travel time unless a different buffer is specified on the individual service appointment record. This buffer shouldn’t be applied to capacity limit calculations. It's recommend to account for ‌buffer time when entering the average travel time per territory.

Note Manually changing the buffer value on a Service Territory doesn't automatically recalculate travel times for already scheduled appointments within that territory. When a scheduling operation occurs, the new value is calculated.

Set Up an Org-Wide Default Travel Time Buffer

Configure a default travel time buffer that applies across your entire org. This org-wide buffer is used only when no specific buffer is defined at the service appointment or service territory level.

Required Editions

User Permissions Needed
To create a travel time buffer:	Field Service Admin permission set

1. From the App Launcher, find and open the Field Service Admin app.
2. Click the Field Service Settings tab.
3. Click Scheduling, then click Routing.
4. Locate the Travel Time Buffer setting.
5. Enter the default buffer time in minutes. The value must be a whole number between 0 and 120. This buffer adds time for activities such as parking or site access before work begins.
6. Save your changes.

Any service appointment that doesn't have a buffer defined on its own record or on its service territory uses this org-wide default buffer value during scheduling calculations.