Automated Travel Time in Google Calendar

What if your calendar could drive itself?

Ever turned up late to a meeting because you forgot to account for travel time? Or found yourself double-booked because your calendar thought you'd teleport?

For growing SMEs, especially those juggling site visits, clients, and subcontractors, time blindness can be costly. Jamie and the team at Motley ran into this exact issue - and solved it with a bit of automation.

The Problem: Schedules Assume You're Already There

Google Calendar is great for telling you where to be. What it doesn't do is consider how you’ll get there.

Each event is slotted in as if travel isn’t a factor. If you’re moving between real-world locations, this assumption breaks your day.

The Motley team found this gap was causing friction. Overlaps, missed prep time, and unclear availability all stemmed from one thing: a calendar that didn’t account for reality.

The Solution: Smarter Time Blocking with Automation

We built a Google Apps Script that connects your calendar to Google Maps. It scans upcoming events with real locations (not Zoom links), calculates driving time, and adds travel blocks automatically.

Travel events are titled clearly - like “Travel to: Site Visit (01:15)” - and marked as busy. The system works out where you’re coming from by checking the previous physical location, or defaults to a base address like your office.

Best of all, it runs quietly in the background each morning, adjusting your schedule before the day kicks off.

How It Works in Practice

The Motley team's setup spans several calendars - including team members and subcontractors - but consolidates travel planning into one shared calendar at Motley HQ.

Here’s what happens when someone books a job in the diary:

• The script checks the event location.
• It finds the most recent physical location before it.
• It calculates the drive time to and from that meeting.
• It adds the travel blocks around the event in the Motley calendar.

This means your diary now reflects the real flow of your day - with travel time considered, visualised, and protected.

Why It Works for SMEs

Time blocking is powerful, but few SMEs use it consistently. Automating travel entries ensures it happens without added admin.

The benefits?

• Fewer scheduling clashes.
• Better visibility across teams.
• Improved punctuality and planning.
• A more realistic view of availability.

It also shows clients that you're a business that respects time - both yours and theirs.

Your Next Step

If your calendar isn’t accounting for travel, it’s time to change that. A simple script can help your business plan better, show up smarter, and stop treating the day like a game of Tetris.

Want to see the code or test it on your setup? Just ask.