If you have customers on islands, portatour® will also automatically suggest these customers for visits.
Please note:
- Ferry routes are included in the map material. This is how portatour® knows between which locations ferry connections are available.
- The car trip and the ferry trip are shown in the schedule as one long drive.
- portatour® does not know any timetables.
- As a buffer for waiting time, driving up and down the ferry, one hour is added to the driving time.
- portatour® only chooses ferries if car trips are not possible or clearly take longer.
Some tips for dealing with customers on islands:
- If the ferry has very frequent departure times, e.g. every 30 minutes, there is nothing else to consider. The buffer of one hour offers enough leeway for flexible planning. If you are at the first customer on the island much earlier than planned, simply update the schedule after the first customer call (see Update schedule).
- If you need to catch a ferry at a specific time, enter an appointment without customer reference at the port (see Create appointments).
- It is also possible to treat ferry trips like flights, see How can I schedule flights?. This can be useful in the case of very long ferry times, e.g. lasting overnight, or very low ferry intervals.
- If the crossing lasts several hours, we also recommend making appointments with your island customers to avoid unnecessary ferry trips. Suggest your customers appointments using the calculated schedule or use the function Find suitable day (see Find suitable day).
- portatour® also automatically suggests overnight stays on islands if you have enabled this in your options (see Overnight stay on the way). To then book a hotel room directly via Booking.com, see Edit calendar entries. If you have already booked a hotel room, enter it as an appointment in your portatour® calendar (see Create appointments).