Travel-Aware Booking System for a Mobile MechanicTravel-Aware Booking System for a Mobile Mechanic
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
The client. Kerbside Auto. Marcus, a solo mobile mechanic working out of one van across Brisbane's southside: Carindale, Mount Gravatt, Sunnybank, Springwood and Ipswich.
His quirks are what shaped the build. Jobs run 30 to 150 minutes, so a fixed slot grid doesn't fit. He drives between suburbs, and Ipswich to Carindale is 55 minutes. Enquiries arrive by text while he's under a car, so he replies after 7pm, by which time half have booked someone else. About one no-show a week, and for him that's a wasted trip across the city, not an empty hour. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings sit empty while Fridays overflow.
The insight. Most booking tools assume the business sits still. Marcus doesn't, he's in a van. A 9am job in Ipswich makes a 10am job in Carindale impossible even though the calendar shows both as free. So the rule isn't "is this hour taken", it's "can he physically get there".
The front door. The customer picks a service, a suburb and a day, and only sees times Marcus can actually make. A time is offered only if the whole job fits the working day, nothing overlaps, there's enough travel time either side plus 10 minutes for parking, and a lunch gap survives. When a time is blocked, it says why: "Marcus is in Ipswich until 11:20, cannot reach Carindale before 12:25." Hiding it would have been easier. Explaining it makes the business look competent rather than full.
When a whole day is booked out, it doesn't dead-end. It offers the quiet mornings that would otherwise sit empty.
A $40 deposit holds the slot and comes off the bill, so a no-show costs the customer instead of Marcus. Then it's confirmed on the spot. No callback.
The follow-through. Marcus does nothing. Confirmations, a reminder 24 hours out, another when he's on his way, self-service rescheduling that re-checks the travel rules, a thank-you afterwards with the next service date, and a nudge to anyone who picked a slot but didn't finish. An inbound text gets an instant reply with a booking link, so a lead never waits until evening.
On his side: today's jobs in route order with the drive time between each, the day's revenue and total driving, and one button for "running 30 minutes late" that moves the whole day and texts everyone affected. Empty time is highlighted across the week.
Before and after. 45 minutes a day of texting, gone. Roughly one no-show a week at about $180 a wasted trip, now covered by the deposit. Quiet mornings offered first instead of sitting empty.
A note on the demo. The owner dashboard has no login so you can click straight in. In production it sits behind auth with Marcus as the only user. The payment step is clearly marked as a test.
Built in Lovable, with Supabase for data.
Back to feed
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started