Posted by Margaret S. Craig on 7/25/04 9:42pm
Msg #4948

Mileage estimate

I use the feature on Notary Rotary that calculates mileage from your zip code. When a company calls, I ask what the Zip code is and I then look on my sheet to quote my fee.
I had several where the mileage was way off. One said 21 miles and it was 37 one-way.
How can we get a more accurate estimate of mileage?

Reply by Sylvia_FL on 7/25/04 10:22pm
Msg #4949

Major problem with the mileage from zip code to zip code, is that is all it calculates!
There is one zip code that is only about 5 miles from me - problem is that is as the crow flies, and there is a large body of water in between, and it is actually about 20 miles away driving on the roads.

The best thing to do is go to Mapquest or Yahoo driving directions and do a mileage from your address to the various areas you cover, and base your fees on that mileage (take into account driving times).

Reply by Harry [NR] on 7/26/04 12:41am
Msg #4952

Well, with our system, that is not entirely true. Most notary addresses have been geocoded to the house level, which puts their coordinate not at the ZIP code, but probably within about 50 feet of their actual location. That location represents one end-point in the distance calculation. In the absence of the feature that allows for the geocoding of a signing address, which is available to some companies using our system, the other end-point is the approximate centroid of the ZIP code. However, because driving is never in a straight line, as the crow flies, we have added a magic number, or fudge factor, to the calculations, both in the notary search engine and the Coverage Analysis Tool (CAT). I believe it is somewhere between 10 and 20%, which addresses the problem to a small degree (and certainly more than other sites I am aware of).

With all of that said, you're absolutely right in stating that MapQuest or Yahoo will reveal a more accurate estimate since their routing engines generate turn-by-turn directions. From a practical standpoint, though, a signing service or title company might not initially provide the full address in their "are you available?" call and, if they do, that call might come when the signing agent is away from a computer. In those cases, a list of ZIP codes, cities or counties, as provided by the CAT in The Library, along with the fees it estimates (based on approximate mileage and the notary's fee profile) will be a lot better than a kick in the rear - or using Mapquest to plot routes to the 951 ZIP codes in a 75 mile radius of the center of Los Angeles.

(Note that my comments do not speak to the giant-lake-in-between problem. It is relatively small compared to the issues in areas with large ZIP codes, like Montana, where estimates can be way off when parties are located in the opposite corners of their respective ZIP codes.)



Harry
Notary Rotary, Inc.

Reply by Margaret S. Craig on 7/26/04 8:13am
Msg #4961

The only problem with that is that I get a call on my cell phone and they want an answer NOW, not when I have time to go to Mapquest or Yahoo. I do that before I confirm my appointment with the borrower. The while I am talking to the borrower I confirm that the driving directions are correct. Mapquest and Yahoo are wrong alot!

Reply by PAW Notary Services on 7/26/04 11:32am
Msg #4970

Make a chart and carry it with you. I have a chart listing every zip code I service, the travel fee to that zip code and the overall charges for o/n docs and edocs. I don't have time to figure the fee, when I'm on the road, so it's just look it up. I have it printed in large type on legal paper so I can easily see it too. It's right on the seat next to me and a copy is in brief case, and at home. It makes things so much easier.

Reply by Elizabeth_CA on 7/26/04 11:55am
Msg #4972

What are o/n docs?

Reply by Paul/FL on 7/26/04 12:35pm
Msg #4975

o/n = Over Night

Reply by Elizabeth_CA on 7/26/04 6:19pm
Msg #4998

Thanks Paul. I would never have guessed it.

Elizabeth

Reply by BrendaTX on 7/26/04 4:02pm
Msg #4991

Ditto: I have a milage charge over my desk and in my car.

Reply by Ann Marie ~ NC on 7/26/04 9:14am
Msg #4962

Here's what I did-
I used the melissadata.com site to get all of the zip codes in the 11 counties that I cover. I copied and pasted them into an excel spreadsheet. The sheet had columns for the county name, city name, zip code and % of zip code addresses in that county (this is useful so that you know when a zip code spans more than one county and thus adds more mileage).
I then went to mapquest, used my home address in the from location and plugged in the city state and zip code in the to location. I had about 79 zip codes in the 11 counties so this took a while to do but was well worth it in the end.
This gave me the distance and time which I added to 2 more columns in the spreadsheet. I then analyzed each zip code within each county in an attempt to set one reasonable fee for an entire county. This approach worked in 8 of the 11 counties. In the remaining counties I set fees by zip code because of the wider difference in distances within the county.
I input my fee in another column of the spreadsheet, printed it out and I carry it in my wallet so I can quote a fee to anyone at anytime, no matter where I am when I receive a call for an assignment. The columns I included in the printout were county, city, zip code, distance, time and fee. I have all the info I need to negotiate and justify my fee to the caller. It has worked really well for me.
Mapquest is very reliable on their estimates of mileage, it has always been within a few miles of the actual, although I find that their time estimate is usually overstated by 20 to 30 minutes. And no, I don't speed, I actually drive the speed limit.
Good luck in coming up with a system that works for you.