Trip Log Templates - How they work and existing limitations

[AnneBruskland]

Trip log templates help users log trips in their calendar using a "one-click" confirmation - when using trip log templates, users don't need to interact with the calendar control to log trips. Trip log templates can help in many scenarios - but there are certain user considerations before choosing that approach.

Put simply, trip log templates help store common recurring patterns such as a weekly commute trip from point A to point B using a specific mode. Let's take an example - a carpool trip from Issaquah to Bellevue that occurs every Mon, Tue, Wed and Thu. A tool that runs daily, pre-populates the user's calendar each day – when the user clicks on Calendar – the pre-populated trips are visible. The pre-populated trips are not counted as regular trip logs until the user confirms the trips, at which time the system posts the trips to the calendar. Unless the user has confirmed, the pre-populated trips do not count towards emission savings or incentives etc.

When a trip log template is created, the system stores the network associations pertaining to that template. For example, the geographic networks (regional, city, TMA, etc) corresponding to the origin and destination, the employer network if the trip type is commute or work-related, etc. Thus when these trips are confirmed, the appropriate associations are made.

If networks are created after the trip log template, the new networks are not associated with the trip log template. For example in case of geographic association, even though the user logs trips in the calendar where the origin or destination is within the boundary of the new network, those trips will not count for the new network for reporting purposes. This problem can manifest in other ways – example a user may log trips in the calendar but not see progress towards the incentive program run by the new network.

Over the longer term, iCarpool is tracking this issue as an area for enhancement to address this issue.  In the meanwhile – it is important for administrators of new networks to notify users who may have trip templates to delete the existing trip log template and recreate a new template. This will reset the network associations, and include the new networks. 

[AnneBruskland]

I wanted to remind folks of the Trip Log Templates - How they work and existing limitations  - Dated September 26, 2011 given  It may be worth Administators reviewing the recent inclusion of the Wheel Options network to the system. 

If users are interested in seeing their progress towards an incentive, and/or a network administrator needs to have calendar data from a previous period (not greater than 28 days back) tracked, the user should be instructed to delete and then recreate their trip log templete, and delete and re-add their trips for the time period.  

iCarpool is still tracking this issue as an area for enhancement to address this issue in the longer term.  Until then, please keep in mind these limitations.  For the Wheel Options campaign, this is a cosmetic issue - given they will be able to pull the eligibility list from the state network.

 

Anne

[AnneBruskland]

Trip log templates were subsequently updated since the original post and now associate trips to all networks in a users profile.