Lesson 111

Get set up

Service areas: the suburbs you cover, and charging more to go further

A mobile service carries its own suburb list, and an empty list means everywhere rather than nowhere. Charging more for the far side of the bridge is a second service, not a surcharge.

3 min read · Walker, driver or sitter · Getting set up
Open in Petboost

A round only works if the day's stops are near each other, and the way to make that true is to stop selling the far ones. The suburb list on the service is where that happens, and it only exists once the service knows it is mobile.

Turn the service mobile, then draw the area

Open the service, go to Booking Settings, and turn on Mobile service. Geographic Restrictions then appears on Who Can Book, under Advanced options.

  1. Open Services, then Manage on the service and Manage Service.
  2. On Booking Settings, switch on Mobile service.
  3. On Who Can Book, switch on Advanced options if it is off, then under Geographic Restrictions select Edit Areas.
  4. Search for each suburb you cover and pick it, then select Stage Changes.
  5. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

Edit Areas opens a search over the suburb list, and each one you pick becomes a chip with its state code. A booking for an address outside them is not offered.

Trap

Clear the list under Edit Areas and read what replaces the chips. No geographic restrictions means this service is sold everywhere, which is the opposite of what an empty list looks like it means.

A second area is a second service

There is no distance surcharge to switch on. What there is instead is a second service with its own price and its own suburb list.

  1. Open Services, then Manage on the round you already sell and Manage Service.
  2. Select Clone This Service, then give the copy its own Service Name.
  3. Select Next, set the Price for the drive, then work through the remaining steps and select Create Service.
  4. On the copy's Who Can Book, under Geographic Restrictions, select Edit Areas, swap in the outer suburbs, then select Stage Changes.
  5. If the copy's header reads Draft, switch on Online booking on its Booking Settings.
  6. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

Build the far round as its own service, put the outer suburbs on it, and price it for the drive. The client books the one that covers their address and never sees the other, because the suburb list decides which is offered.

Tip

Give both the same Service Category. The booking page groups by category, so two rounds sold at two prices still read as one offering rather than as two businesses.

The day reads off the addresses

Once the stops are real addresses, Trips builds the run.

Up next shows one stop at a time with its predicted arrival and the drive to it, which is the whole design: a driver should not be scanning a list at the wheel.

Check

A stop needs a street address on the booking. One whose address cannot be found sits in the run with an Address not found badge instead of being silently dropped, and the badge is the way in to fix it.