Please note: The following feature is available as part of Birdie’s Starter, Core, Advanced and Plus packages (Also known as Care Management, Rostering & Finance, Premium, Entry and Essentials) Please get in touch if interested in more information on this feature!
Birdie has enhanced its Travel rate card system, allowing you to establish specific rules, such as determining which journeys qualify for mileage rates. You can also set up travel rate cards for different modes of transport, such as 'Walking rate' and 'Driving rate'.
Additionally, we’ve added more options for setting up and applying breaks and waiting periods. You can configure the precise rules for travel time and mileage when creating or editing a rate card in Birdie.
Before you begin
Before you create the rate it is important to ensure you have used the search for address function when inputting a Client address on their About me page.
If you enter the address manually then Birdie will not have geo-coordinates for the system to work out mileage and travel time.
How to create a Travel Rate card
This setup is for those on the Core, Advanced and Plus packages. If you are on the Starter package, please see the section - How to create a Travel Rate card - (Starter package)
To start, click on the Finance tab and then click on Travel rates. From here, click on the New Travel Rate button.
You will see a pop-up that looks like the one below:
Once you have opened this, you will see the following:
Travel time pay rate name
Hourly pay rate
Pay rate per mile (optional)
You will also see a section called Additional Rules which will enable you to set up rules for the following:
Waiting time
First and last commute
Breaks
First, you will set the name and rate of your travel card. You will need to set an hourly travel rate and you can add a rate per mile if applicable.
Then, you can select additional rules as you need, which are outlined in the rest of the article.
Important note: Once you are finished making all your changes, you will need to click to save your rate card and ensure they are assigned to the relevant Carers.
How to set up rules for Waiting Time
Under Additional Rules, you will be able to set up rules for Waiting Time. If you wish to pay for Waiting Time, simply tick the box next to Include waiting time in travel payments.
Here, you will also be able to set a threshold for when Waiting Time applies. You will be able to state not to pay for Waiting time if it is greater or equal to a number. Use the toggles to insert that number, as necessary, such as after 30 minutes.
How to set up rules for the First and Last Commute
You can also set rules for a first and last commute under the Additional Rules section. To do this, select the number of minutes between visits after which you would consider that a Carer has finished their shift.
For example, selecting 180 minutes would mean that if 3 hours or more have passed since the Carer's last check-out, that visit will be considered their last call of the day or shift, and their next check-in will be considered the first visit of their next shift.
You can also specify whether you wish to include mileage and travel time for the first and last commutes of the day by ticking these boxes. Not ticking these options means that we will not include them in your mileage and/or travel time calculations.
How to set up rules for Breaks
Finally, you have the Breaks calculation. Similar to the first and last commute, you will need to set a time at which the gap between two visits becomes a Break. You can set this under Breaks.
A break is a way of defining whether or not travel time & mileage should be paid after a specific period of time, i.e. after a break. This is to help differentiate between what is considered ‘travel between visits’, or whether the journey that the Carer is doing is actually considered 'commuting time'.
For example, the set-up could be, the Carer leaves the current visit at 12 pm and the next visit is scheduled at 1 pm. This leaves 1 hour between the current and the next visit. A break is set for anything above 30 minutes. Because the time between visits and higher than the break, this is determined to be ‘commuting time’ therefore the Carer will not be paid for this time, unless you pay for ‘commuting time.’
Remember, to tick this box if you pay for mileage and/or travel time to a break and from a break.
Please note: The calculation will use the Carer's home address.
Once you have entered all of the additional rules that are relevant to you, click save at the bottom of the rate card.
Examples of Breaks
Scenario 1
If you pay for commute to and from breaks select ‘include mileage’ or ‘include time’, or both. Add the minimum length of time between the two visits that is considered a break in the box, e.g. 30 minutes. This means that mileage and/or travel time will be paid at your standard rate for breaks which have been defined here as any gap of 60 minutes or more between visits.
Scenario 2
If you do not pay mileage or travel for commutes to and from breaks, do not select ‘include mileage’ or ‘include time’. Add the minimum length of time between the two visits that is considered a break in the box, e.g. 30 minutes.
Scenario 3
If you don’t use breaks in your care agency, but pay mileage or travel time, do not select ‘include mileage’ or ‘include time’. In the ‘break’ box enter the length of time 1440 minutes (e.g. 24 hours). This means that breaks will not be calculated in any circumstance.
Scenario 4
If you don’t pay for Carers to go home on their breaks, and just want to pay them to travel from one visit to the next with an unpaid break in the middle, set the break as a high amount of minutes, for example, 1440 minutes.
Then in the “wait time” rule, set the amount of minutes as the length of time you would class as a break. For example, if you set it to 60 minutes, you would pay wait time for visits with a wait time of less than 60 minutes, and when the wait time is 60 minutes or longer, you won’t pay the wait time. But you will still be able to pay the mileage or travel time from one visit to the next.
Birdie Academy Video
How to create a Travel Rate card- (Starter package)
To create a travel rate, first, go to the Finance tab. Then click Travel rates from the left-hand menu.
Here, you will see all the travel rates you have previously created - or you can create something new. To create a new travel rate click New travel rate.
This will pull up a new travel rate card, for you to then fill out.
First, give your travel rate card a name.
You can then enter the hourly rate for travel time here. The time spent travelling between visits will be automatically calculated for you when you come to run payroll.
Commuting and waiting time- (Starter package)
You can now select if you include commuting and waiting time in travel payments. If you don't, simply leave the toggle on No.
If you select Yes Birdie will apply the rate you have specified for travel time to the waiting time that occurs with each visit.
You will also notice you can opt to pay both commuting time and commuting mileage. This aims to provide the flexibility required to cover all eventualities regardless of how a specific branch or set of branches chooses to handle commuting journeys.
Mileage settings - (Starter package)
You can also enter the mileage rate if necessary, to tell Birdie how much to pay the Carer for every mile travelled, e.g. for Carers who drive between visits.
Again, this will be calculated for you automatically and added to a Carer's paysheet.
Once you have entered this, you can then decide if you include commuting time travel payments.
Please note: you can read more about waiting time in the article here.
How to add breaks on travel rate cards - (Starter package)
A break is a way of defining whether or not travel time & mileage should be paid after a certain time. For example, if visit A ends at 9.00 am and visit B starts at 10.00 am, the break is an hour, regardless of how much of that is waiting time vs. travel time.
If your policy is that you don't pay travel & mileage on either side of a 60-minute break, as an example, your Carer won't be paid travel & mileage for travel from visit A or to visit B as you've set this break to be 60 mins. Therefore the Carer's travel from visit A and to visit B is 'commuting to and from their place of work' rather than travel between visits.
If the Carer would not usually be paid for travel during a break of 1 hour or more, then you should input '60 minutes' in the Break field.
How to assign travel rates to Carers
You will need to assign your travel rates to Carers before they start checking into scheduled visits on Birdie.
To do this, go to the Travel rates tab and find the rate card you want to assign to a Carer.
Click on the Three dots and on the drop-down menu select Assign Caregivers.
From here, you can bulk-select the Carers or select them individually from the list, when you are done click Save at the bottom of the page.
Important: Travel to the first visit and travel from the last visit back home is considered commuting by default.
Step-by-Step guide (starter package)
You may find the below Travel rates flowchart helpful, click here to download the PDF!
Birdie Academy Video
How to edit an existing travel rate card
If you need to edit these rules (or edit a previous travel rate card to add these rules), Go to the Travel rates tab and find the needed rate card. Click on the three dots to the right of the rate and click on Edit.
From here you can update the rules, if you need to remove the rate card select Archive on the drop-down menu.
Please note: You are not able to backdate a travel rate card.
How are Travel & Waiting times calculated in Birdie?
You may see the below message on your agency hub, this is a reminder to make sure travel time is correctly set up in your agency. If you have checked all the information and it is correct you can ignore this message.
Below we have outlined how we calculate travel and waiting time on the Birdie system.
Step 1: Setting the departure and destination points
To calculate travel and waiting time, Birdie starts with 2 pieces of information:
The starting address - this can be the previous visit or the Carer's address
The destination address - this is the address of the Care Recipient who is receiving the visit
Note: it’s important to always set a valid and accurate postcode for your Carer's and Care Recipients, to ensure that travel is calculated correctly.
Step 2: Calculating the travel distance and time (and mileage)
Birdie uses a map tool to determine the distance by road between the 2 points, and the average time it takes to drive by car from one postcode to the next. The distance by road is also used to calculate mileage payments.
Notes: Birdie does not take into account potential traffic or temporary road closures.
Step 3: Calculating the waiting time
Birdie subtracts the travel time, from the time between the two visits. The resulting amount is the waiting time.
Step 4: Apply other rules (Breaks, Commutes)
Depending on the rules set in the travel ratecard, Birdie will make decisions about whether to pay for travel and how.
If a duration between 2 visits is long enough to count as a break, then break rules will be applied. For example, you could choose to only pay for mileage during a break, instead of travel.
Example: Jane’s starting address and destination address are 6 miles apart. The
average distance between the two addresses is calculated at 20 minutes by car. Jane
leaves the starting address at 11:00 AM and checks into a visit at the destination
address at 11:30. The waiting time is calculated at 10 minutes.
You choose to pay Jane for travel time at a rate of £6 per hour and you also pay for
waiting time as well as mileage at a rate of 50p per mile. She would therefore be paid
£2 for travel time, £1 for waiting time and £3 for mileage, a total of £6.
FAQs
What is a break?
A 'break' is a way of defining whether or not travel time and/or mileage should be paid because the Carer is travelling between visits, or whether the journey that the Carer is doing is actually considered 'commuting to and from their workplace after that defined break (1-hour break, for instance).
What is commuting time?
Commuting time is considered to be any journey from home to the first visit and any journey from home to the last visit. Commuting time is also considered to be any commuting done between visits (any amount of time above a defined break, for example).
What is waiting time?
Waiting time is the time between arriving at a visit and the visit officially starting. For instance, if a Carer arrives to a visit 10 minutes early, that 10 minutes is considered waiting time.
Can Birdie differentiate between driver and passenger rates?
No, Birdie cannot differentiate between driver and passenger rates.
Can Birdie calculate the rate for Carers who walk?
Yes, Carers can have their transport method set to 'walk', this will impact the amount of time estimated for them to travel between two points. The rates used would be what is in their travel rate card.
Does Birdie round travel timings up or down?
Birdie shows time in minutes, by rounding down to the nearest minute, but only in the display on our dashboards (e.g. 12 minutes 27 seconds of waiting time will be shown as 12 minutes but calculated as 12 minutes 27 seconds for the purpose of paying)
Does Birdie include travel and waiting in cancelled visits payments?
Birdie includes travel and waiting payments to a visit, for cancelled visits that are marked as Should Pay. Birdie also calculates travel and waiting from the cancelled visit to the next visit.
We are working on a solution to exclude travel and waiting payments towards cancelled visits that are marked as Should Pay.
When are travel payments calculated?
Travel payments are calculated when visits are confirmed to the pay dashboard. The order in which the visits happened will influence travel, so it’s important to ensure that you have confirmed all the relevant visits for a carer before proceeding with payroll.
As the calculation happens after confirmation, we recommend waiting up to 10 minutes for large payroll operations, to ensure that the system has time to tally all travel.