Google Maps travel estimates

Phone navigation already works. This connection adds road travel times between the stops in your dispatched order.

Checking dispatcher access…

One-time account setup

1. Open Google Maps Platform, choose or create your project, and attach your billing account.
2. Enable Routes API. Create a server API key and restrict its API access to Routes API. Keep this key private; do not paste it into a chat or the website code.
3. In Ponderosa’s server secrets, add the name GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY with your key as the value. Save it, then check the connection here.
4. Set Routes API quotas and Google billing alerts to match your budget. Budget alerts are notifications, not a spending cap. Review Google’s current pricing before calculating routes.

Use a server key, not a browser referrer-restricted key. If you restrict source IPs, they must match a stable outgoing address for the server; this deployment has not configured a fixed outgoing IP.

Check a dispatched route

Calculate sends only the ordered property coordinates to Google. It can incur a Google Maps Platform charge. Results use normal driving conditions without live traffic, snow delays, or service time. Your stop order stays unchanged.

Estimates cover travel between stops only. They exclude the trip from the truck’s current position to the first stop and the return to base. This is not yet a prediction of when the crew will finish.