How to schedule a trip

Book a resident's ride — RideLogger checks for double-booked vehicles, driver availability, and capacity automatically. Any staff, driver, manager, or admin can schedule a trip.

Steps

1. Click ➕ New Trip in the sidebar.
2. In 👥 Residents on This Trip, search and choose the resident (or click ＋ Add Resident to add more than one to the same trip). Once picked, you'll see their last 5 trips for quick context. Every row has a × to remove it — including the first one, so a placeholder booked before you knew who was going can simply be deleted once the real names arrive.
3. If the resident has aides on file, they appear as chips under their name. Tap whoever is attending that day — see Aides and companions. Nothing is attached automatically.
4. Still in that section, choose a Trip Type * — 🏥 Doctor Appointment, 🛍️ Shopping, 📦 Errand, or 🎭 Group Outing.
5. Check "One or more residents use wheelchair" if needed, note anyone else riding under Anyone Else Traveling, and click ＋ Add Staff Member to add anyone accompanying the trip — drivers are labeled (Driver) (this includes staff flagged "also drives", not just the Driver role), outside aides are labeled (Aide), and front-desk/admin accounts are hidden here unless they're flagged as driving too.
6. Number of Passengers counts itself from everything above — residents, attached aides, and any staff riding along who aren't driving. Change it only if someone else is coming who isn't on the form, such as a family member.
7. In 📍 Destination & Timing, set the Appointment Date and Appointment / Arrival Time (the time the resident needs to be at the destination, not the pickup time).
8. Pick the destination — search your saved directory (auto-fills name, address, and usually distance/drive time), or leave it blank and type a name and address for a one-off.
9. Set Estimated Appointment Length (optional) and Trip Direction — Round trip (default), Drop off only, or Pick up only.
10. In the Distance from Facility box (optional): a saved destination usually fills this in automatically; for a new address click ⚡ Auto-calculate to measure it from your facility's address (Settings → Facility Information), or 🗺️ View route to open it in Google Maps. Leave it blank if you don't need it — it's only used for the mileage rules in Settings → Trip Scheduling Rules and on the printed driver sheet.
11. In 🚐 Vehicle Assignment, choose a vehicle — RideLogger checks its seat and wheelchair capacity against the trip and shows same-day capacity/driver availability above the field. The Contact Phone for This Trip is auto-filled from the resident; change it only if someone else (e.g. a family member) should get calls/texts for this specific trip.
12. In 📝 Notes, add any special instructions and check "📌 Flag this note for the front desk" if this trip needs extra attention — it surfaces the note in the Dashboard's "Today's Messages" box on the day of the trip.
13. Click 📋 Schedule Trip.

If you see a warning

• A conflict warning appears if the vehicle is already booked for an overlapping time, the chosen driver isn't scheduled to work that day, the vehicle is marked out-of-service, or the trip exceeds seat/wheelchair capacity. These are warnings, not hard blocks — you can still save.
• Weekend trips show a warning and are saved as Needs Approval rather than blocked outright.
• If the trip breaks a rule set in Settings → Trip Scheduling Rules (disallowed day for Doctor or Shopping/Errand trips, outside the transport window, or over the "needs approval" mileage threshold), it's saved as Needs Approval instead of Approved. A manager or admin can approve or decline it from the trip detail view. If Doctor/Shopping distance exceeds the separate hard mileage limit (if one is set), the trip is blocked from saving entirely instead — see Set your trip rules.

Who can do this

Any logged-in role (staff, driver, manager, admin) can schedule a trip.

Notes

• Trip-only staff (no login) can be added to Staff on This Trip but can't log in to create trips themselves.
• There's no live "Ready By" preview on the New Trip form itself — once the trip is saved, trip cards on the Dashboard and Schedule show a computed "Ready by [time]" (30 minutes before the appointment time), and it also appears on the driver sheet.
• The Distance from Facility fields are optional — skip them if speed matters more than mileage tracking for your facility.
• Auto-calculate sends only the destination address to Google's routing service — no resident information leaves the app for that call.