Travel Fees

There are two ways to configure Travel Fees within Event Rental Systems. The first configuration is to set fees by city and/or zip code. The second option is "Travel Fee by Mile:" setting up with a distance range(s) and/or per mileage rate. Only one configuration can be used. Otherwise, two travel fees will appear on the customer’s invoice.

Note: Travel Fee by Mile calculates the mileage using Google Maps. It is incompatible with Wordpress websites unless you create a Google Developer account and follow the instructions to enable the Google Maps API. You can read this tutorial for instructions.

Please feel free to watch this video tutorial on Travel Fees if you like, or you can follow the Step by Step Instructions below for City and/or Zip Code-based Travel Fees or Travel Fee by Mile.

Travel Fee by City and/or Zip Code

Note: Travel Fees in the “Zip codes” area override travel fees in the “Cities” area.

Navigate to Admin>Order Config>Service Areas. You can click into either Cities and/or Zip Codes to set the travel fee for either or both. “Spreadsheet Mode” is the fastest way to do this! Please feel free to see the animation below for an example.

NOTE: If you're using Travel Fee by City and/or Zip Code, your maximum range served is determined when you set up your Service Areas, so only the cities and zip codes within that radius will be in your Service Areas. If you started with us from 2022 onward, we imported your cities and zip codes for you. But either way, if you're seeing cities and/or zip codes outside of your delivery radius, you can delete them from Service Areas.

It's important to clean up your list of cities in this area! You don't want multiple spellings of the same city and/or the names of institutions in this list. Under Admin>Order Config>Service Areas>Cities you should only ever see cities, and there should only be one spelling of each of them (don't worry that by deleting the names of institutions you're preventing them from doing business with you; you're not! This list of cities is just there so you can collect a valid billing address, which requires a valid city. There are many other fields where people can enter in the name of their institution or business.). Otherwise your customers will have to sift through an excessively long list of cities, and your accounting can be inaccurate, as the system will think you have orders in multiple different cities that are actually all just different spellings of the same city. Please feel free to see the animation below for an example of cleaning up a list of cities.

Travel Fee by Mile

To set up travel fee by Mile, enable the setting “Travel Fee By Distance” under Admin>Order Config>Misc Order Settings:

Don't forget to scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Save!" Once you've completed that, navigate to Admin>Rules>Adjustments. Follow the steps below, and please feel free to consult the screenshots below the steps for guidance.

1. Replace the existing “Apply Travel Fees” with “Travel Fee by Distance Range” and/or "Travel Fee Over Distance." "Travel Fee by Distance Range" enables you to establish ranges with flat fees per range, and Travel Fee Over Distance" enables you to establish ranges with a flat base fee plus a per mile fee. *You can also use "Travel Fee Over Distance by Category" and/or "Travel Fee Over Distance by Item" if you like. If you use "Travel Fee Over Distance by Category," you'll need to add the Names of each of your Categories you'd like to trigger the travel fee into the "Category Name" field, separated by commas. Make sure to match the spelling and punctuation of your existing Categories exactly. You can add as many of these rules as you want to set up different fees for different Categories, but keep in mind that these fees stack, so any order that has Items from Categories that cover multiple rules will trigger multiple travel fees. If you use "Travel Fee Over Distance by Item" it doesn't apply to specific Items; rather, it establishes a "Minimum Item Value" to trigger the travel fee. In other words, orders below that amount don't trigger a travel fee.
2. Multiple distance ranges can be used. Ensure that you start with 0 miles and leave no gaps between ranges. 
3. Use the “Add More > >” button at the bottom to add additional rows.
4. You can edit how the “Travel Fee” appears on invoices and receipts by editing the “Description” field.
5. Make sure to add "Travel Fee by Distance Error" below all your travel fee rules. This enables the system to block customers from checking out outside your maximum delivery area on the front end, and on the back end, it gives you a warning message in such an instance. You can customize the block and warning messages; see the next steps for instructions on how to set up your maximum distance range and customize the messages. IMPORTANT NOTE: make sure the error rule is below the fee rules, and make sure both your travel fee and travel fee error rules are above "Apply Coupons," "Tax," and "Apply Raincheck." Otherwise taxes and coupons won't apply to the travel fees, and rainchecks will not be applied to the travel fees. You can move the rules by clicking and dragging the blue and white cross icons to the left of the rules.
6. Once you've completed all the above, navigate to Admin>Rules>Availability Rule Sets>Universal Availability to set a maximum distance range.
7. Use the “Add More > >” button at the bottom to add an additional row and select “Allow Travel Fee by Distance” in the dropdown box. 
8. Input your “Max Allowed Distance” in miles.
9. Customize the messages if you like. The "Block Message" is what will display on the front end if a customer enters in an address outside of your service range. The "Warning Message" is what displays in the back end if a customer enters in an address outside of your service range. The "Error Message" is what displays on the front end if a customer enters in an address Google Maps can't locate, and it blocks the customer from completing their order. The "Error Message 2" is what displays in the back end if you enter in an address Google Maps can't locate, but it doesn't block you from from completing the order.

Adjustments:

Universal Availability Rule Sets:

After everything is configured, we recommend testing a few local addresses to ensure everything is working as you intended during setup. Please contact our Technical Support team with any questions or concerns.