Planning

# Plan stop durations and anchor arrival times

Let rules work out how long a stop takes from its goods, such as pallets, loading meters or containers, and fix the arrival time at one stop.

Updated October 13, 2026

**Who can do this:** The advancedTiming platform feature. Rules: platform administrators with access to the Environment settings. Anchors: permission to update trips.

With the advancedTiming platform feature you get two timing tools. **Stop duration rules** calculate how long a stop takes from what is loaded or unloaded there. An **anchored arrival time** fixes when the vehicle arrives at one stop, and Transportial plans the other stops around it.

## How the duration of a stop is chosen

1. A duration entered on the action itself always wins.
2. Otherwise the first enabled stop duration rule whose conditions match the stop sets the duration.
3. Otherwise the default duration per action type and, if your platform uses it, the average handling time at the location are used.

When both a rule and enough location history are available, **Rule versus location history** decides: **Rule wins** (the default), **Location history wins when available** or **Longest of rule and history**.

## Create a stop duration rule

1. Open **Settings**, click the **Environment** tab and open the **Planning** section.
2. Under **Time windows and stop timing**, go to **Stop duration rules** and click **Add rule**.
3. Enter a **Rule name**.
4. Limit where the rule applies with **Action types (empty = all)**, **Transport modes (empty = all)** and **Equipment types, comma separated (empty = all)**.
5. Optionally add **Extra conditions**, for example on `customerName`, `locationName`, `pallets` or `kg`.
6. Enter **Base (minutes)** and the minutes per unit you need: **Minutes per pallet**, **Minutes per loading meter**, **Minutes per goods line**, **Minutes per kg**, **Minutes per m³** or **Minutes per container**.
7. Optionally set **Minimum (minutes)** and **Maximum (minutes)**.
8. Use **Up** and **Down** to put the rules in order: the first matching rule wins. The switch next to a rule turns it off without removing it.
9. Click **Save**.

Example: a rule for unloading with **Base (minutes)** 10 and **Minutes per pallet** 2 plans 34 minutes for a stop where 12 pallets are unloaded.

Which goods count as pallets or containers is set with **Words counted as pallets (comma separated)** and **Words counted as containers (comma separated)**, matched against the equipment type or packaging. By default these are "pallet" and "container".

## Anchor the arrival time of a stop

1. Open the [planner](/en-us/help/planner-timeline).
2. Right-click the stop inside the trip bar.
3. Choose **Anchor arrival time…**.
4. Pick the date and time the vehicle should arrive.
5. Click **Save**.

The stops before the anchored stop are planned backwards from that time, the stops after it forwards. The stop shows ⚓ and _Anchored arrival_ with the time in the hover card and the strip. If the vehicle is expected later than the anchor by more than the hard window tolerance, the stop becomes **Too late** with the reason _Anchor missed by … min_. To undo it, right-click the stop and choose **Remove anchor**.

Without the advancedTiming feature, the **Stop duration rules** settings and the anchor menu items are not shown.

## Related articles

* [Time windows and plan status](/en-us/help/time-windows-and-plan-status)
* [Plan trips on the planner timeline](/en-us/help/planner-timeline)
* [Work with stops and actions](/en-us/help/trip-actions-and-stops)
* [Planning settings](/en-us/help/planning-settings)

## Still need help?

Our support team is happy to answer any question about Transportial.

[Contact support](/en-us/contact)[Report an issue](/en-us/report-issue)

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Canonical page: https://transportial.com/en-us/help/stop-duration-rules