How Airlocum Matches Locums with Practices
When a practice posts a shift on Airlocum, the platform doesn’t notify all available locums at once. Instead, it uses a scoring system to identify the best-fit locums for that shift and notifies them first - giving high-scoring locums the earliest opportunity to accept.
Understanding how your score is calculated means you know exactly what to do to get notified earlier and receive more booking opportunities.
The Four Scoring Factors
# | Factor | How it works |
1 | Distance | How close you are to the practice. Distance is scored on a scale of 0–10 — the nearest available locum scores 10, the furthest scores 0, with all others ranked proportionally between them. Keeping your location accurate in your profile ensures you appear for the right nearby shifts and score as highly as possible for distance. |
2 | Reliability | Calculated from your last 10 shifts. Completing shifts without cancelling keeps your reliability score high. Late cancellations and no-shows reduce it. |
3 | Star rating | Your aggregated rating from reviews left by practices after completed shifts. Higher ratings place you earlier in the notification queue. |
4 | Engagement | Using the Check-In feature to confirm you are on your way to a shift, approximately 60 minutes before it starts. Check-ins signal active commitment and contribute positively to your score. |
How Notifications Are Sent
Once a practice posts a shift, Airlocum calculates scores for all available locums and notifies the highest-scoring group first. If the shift is not accepted, the next group is notified - and so on until the shift is filled.
💡 What this means for you The higher your combined score, the earlier you are notified — giving you first access to shifts before lower-scoring locums are contacted. A single high-scoring locum will always be notified before a lower-scoring locum, regardless of how long they have been registered on the platform. |
How to Improve Your Score
Complete every shift you accept. Your reliability score is based on your last 10 shifts. One cancellation has a noticeable impact — consistent completion rebuilds it quickly.
Use Check-In before every shift. Sending your Check-In approximately 60 minutes before the shift start time demonstrates commitment and contributes to your engagement score.
Deliver high-quality work. Practices leave ratings after every shift. Consistently professional work leads to higher star ratings, which improve your position in the notification queue.
Keep your location up to date. Your distance score is calculated from your registered location. If you move or work from a different base, update your profile so you appear for the right nearby shifts.
✅ Every shift is an opportunity Each completed shift has the potential to improve all four scoring factors simultaneously — reliability, star rating, engagement, and distance relevance. New locums build their score quickly by accepting early shifts consistently and using Check-In every time. |
