Mobile & Travel
If you offer a mobile service (you travel to the customer), DetailByte can check you serve an area, charge a distance-based travel fee, and automatically work out your drive-time ETA. Everything here is under Settings → Mobile & Travel unless noted.
Drop-off bookings never use any of this: it only applies when a customer chooses Mobile.
Shop origin
Set your shop origin postcode. All distances and drive times are measured from this point. Whenever you change it, DetailByte re-checks its coordinates automatically.
Behind the scenes, DetailByte looks up postcode coordinates using postcodes.io (a free UK postcode service) and caches them so repeat look-ups are instant.
Travel-fee tiers
Add distance tiers to charge for travel. Each tier is an "up to X miles → £Y" rule, and the first tier that covers the customer's distance wins. For example:
| Up to (miles) | Travel fee |
|---|---|
| 5 | £0 |
| 10 | £10 |
| 20 | £20 |
If a customer's address is beyond your largest tier, mobile service is treated as not available there, and they are guided to choose drop-off instead.
You can also choose whether the travel fee is discountable: i.e. whether coupons and loyalty can reduce it, or whether it is always added on top.
Automatic drive-time ETA
When you press On my way on a confirmed mobile booking, DetailByte pre-fills the ETA with a real driving time from your shop origin to the customer's postcode.
- The drive time is calculated using OpenStreetMap routing (OSRM), free, no account needed.
- You can add an optional prep buffer (minutes) that is added to the raw drive time, to cover loading up before you set off.
- The value is only a suggestion: you can edit it before sending, and a manually set ETA always takes priority.
- The
{eta}value in your On my way message uses whatever figure you send.
Results are cached per destination, so the same trip is only routed once. If you change your shop origin, new drive times are calculated automatically.
Settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Auto drive-time ETA | Turns automatic ETA calculation on or off. |
| ETA prep buffer (minutes) | Minutes added to the raw drive time before it is suggested. |
Good to know. Drive times reflect typical free-flowing conditions, not live traffic, perfect for a realistic pre-departure estimate. If you have not set a shop origin postcode, DetailByte will prompt you to add one so it can calculate ETAs.
If a look-up fails
Postcode look-ups and drive-time routing depend on outside services. If either is briefly unavailable, DetailByte falls back to letting you enter distance and ETA by hand, and the booking carries on as normal, nothing is lost. See Troubleshooting if a postcode consistently refuses to resolve.