When shopping for mapping software for your business, a feature you may want it to have is a drive time polygon. A drivetime polygon is a tool that analyzes road networks in order to draw a radius around a starting location. Using this radius, you can determine how far you can drive within a set period of time.
There are several reasons why your business might find a drive time polygon tool useful:
- It can show you where specific points on your map are.
- It can establish how far one map point is from another.
- It can tell you how many map points exist within various distance increments.
Compared to a circle, a polygon radius offers a more accurate depiction of what places can be reached—additionally, this tool factors in things such as illegal turns and one-way roads. Therefore, the drive time polygon tool uses typical road conditions to predict travel times instead of simply calculating a straight line distance. Consequently, you get more accurate results. Furthermore, this tool makes it possible to calculate the distance between multiple locations simultaneously, making it easier to plan complex trips.
Business Use Cases for Drive Time Polygons
Salespersons
As a salesperson, your time is money. Therefore you need to figure out how to make the most of your time by making as many sales calls as possible in the shortest amount of time. The most feasible way to accomplish this is to choose to make calls in a location where there are a lot of prospective clients in close proximity to one another.
A drivetime polygon allows you to see the number of locations you can make calls to within a specific timeframe. It also lets you see how many calls you can make if you drive a certain distance. For example, if you know that to be back at the office by 3 pm, you can only drive 15 miles away, a drive time map will show you how many calls you can make inside this distance.
Trip Planners
Imagine that your business is planning a road trip. The idea is that they will drive across the country, making stops to pitch their product along the way. You’ve been designated as the trip planner, and it’s up to you to determine the route they’ll take and schedule pit stops. Using the drive time polygon, you can figure out how far the group will get within a certain time period, in what direction they should travel to reach the most locations, and how long the duration of their trip will be.
Delivery Managers
A drive time map is especially handy when you’re in charge of managing the routes for your drivers to ensure they make all their deliveries on time. Using this tool, you can figure out how many deliveries a driver can make within a certain time frame. You can also determine how far a driver can travel before they need to stop for gas. As a result, you can assign routes to drivers that make the most of their workday. Additionally, you can assign each driver a starting location and plot the most efficient route between stops.
Real Estate Agent
As a real estate agent, you spend a good deal of your time shepherding clients from house to house. Often, you will visit multiple homes on the same day. To make the most of your time and your client’s time, you’ll want to organize your visits so that the drive time between them is minimal. The drive time polygon will show you how far each home is from the other and the most efficient visiting order. Furthermore, this tool can show you if there are any homes outside the radius that you may want to save for another day.
Another way that you can use this tool is to show clients which homes lie within a certain distance of amenities like schools and parks. For example, if clients want to be within walking distance of the local public school, the drive time polygon will show all the houses that meet these criteria.
Business Owners
There are a number of ways that business owners can use the drive time polygon. For instance, it will show them how many of their competitors are within a certain distance from their company location. Alternatively, it can show business owners the distance between their company’s location and their target customers. Lastly, it can help them pinpoint where they are most likely to find new employees by displaying the easiest areas to get to their location from.
