What Should a Traffic Control Job Booking Include?

The client has booked a crew for Tuesday. The scheduler knows how many people to send, but the meeting point is still in an email, the site contact has changed and nobody has confirmed which vehicle is needed. The booking exists. The office still has work to do before it can become a clear allocation.

A useful traffic control booking gives the scheduler enough information to organise the work and tells them which questions remain open. You do not need a longer form for its own sake. You need the details that affect who goes, what they take and what they need to know.

Start with the location people will actually use

A project name and a street address may identify the job commercially without explaining where the crew should meet. Record the work location, access or meeting instructions and the contact who can clarify them. If the location is still provisional, make that visible to the person arranging the crew.

For example, a roadworks project might cover several intersections while Tuesday’s crew starts at the northern access point. Keep those two descriptions distinct. Someone unfamiliar with the project should be able to explain where they are going and who to contact before departure.

Trafftrak brings clients, jobs and locations into the scheduling workflow. Use those records to organise the information your team needs, then check how relevant job details and documents appear in the field app.

Separate requested work from the allocation

Record the client’s requested date, start and expected finish, crew requirements, vehicles and equipment. Identify any required qualifications or job documents before choosing the people.

The request and the allocation answer different questions. The request describes the work the client needs. The allocation identifies the employees and resources you intend to send. Keeping both clear helps when a resource becomes unavailable or the client changes the scope.

Trafftrak supports allocating employees, vehicles and equipment to jobs. Required-ticket and availability filters can help with employee selection, with overrides available in relevant workflows. The booking therefore needs accurate requirements; a selection tool cannot compensate for a requirement the office never captured.

Give unanswered questions an owner

An empty field can mean unknown, not applicable or forgotten. Those are three different situations. For details that affect dispatch, record the outstanding question, who will resolve it and when the scheduler needs the answer.

A compact booking check could cover:

• Client, project and the person authorised to confirm the request.
• Date, times, location and meeting or access instructions.
• Crew roles, required qualifications, vehicles and equipment.
• Site contact, relevant documents and instructions.
• Purchase order or billing reference, where required.
• Open questions, their owners and the next check time.

Adapt that list to your work. It is an office booking aid, not a complete traffic management plan or site safety procedure. Keep specialist planning requirements with the people responsible for them.

Recheck inherited details before sending the crew

Trafftrak can carry client or project defaults into new jobs, including relevant ticket requirements. Defaults give the office a starting point, but a familiar client can still have an unfamiliar site or a different requirement this week.

In our Tuesday example, the usual contact is away and a different access point is in use. Reviewing those exceptions is more useful than assuming the last booking still describes this one. Check the resulting shift information as well as the job record when details change; do not assume editing a job updates every existing shift.

Before the office sends assignment information, have the scheduler answer three questions: Is the allocation suitable for the request? Are the practical details clear? Who is resolving anything still outstanding?

Test the booking with someone who did not take the call

Give a sample booking to another scheduler and ask them to prepare the allocation. Notice where they stop to ask a question or search an email thread. Those interruptions show which information your intake process should capture more clearly.

Start with one type of work that occurs regularly. Refine its booking questions, try the process on several jobs and keep the useful fields. The aim is a booking your office can act on without having to reconstruct the original conversation.

Sources

• Trafftrak — crew, vehicle and equipment scheduling.
• Trafftrak field app — assignment information and field records.