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Dispatch board

What this screen is for

The Dispatch board is where you follow the day's trips. When a plan is published on the Planning board, each route becomes a trip. This screen shows every trip with its vehicle, driver, current and next stop and how far behind or ahead of plan it is, and it is where you assign drivers, start trips and deal with problems on the road.

Who can see it

Everyone who signs in to the Control Tower sees this screen. What each role may change is set by your organisation's administrator; see Roles & permissions.

Where to find it

Dispatch board in the left-hand menu, under OPERATIONS. You can also reach it from a trip reference in Order details or from Go to Dispatch → on the Planning board.

What you see

Summary tiles.

Tile Meaning
Trips today All trips, with how many are on the road.
Awaiting a driver Trips with no driver yet, with how many are assigned but not yet confirmed by the driver.
Running late Trips behind their planned time, with how many orders are at risk.
Open exceptions Problems currently being worked, with how many trips are interrupted.
Driver no-shows Trips where the driver has not shown up by the allowed time.

One card per trip. Each shows:

  • The trip reference, its status and the vehicle plate.
  • The driver, or No driver assigned.
  • Stops done out of total (for example 2/5), the number of orders, and the zone.
  • Red tags: n at risk (orders likely to miss their slot), Driver not showing up, and one for each open exception with its kind and status.
  • ETA against planned time, and on the right how far off plan the trip is: On time, +12 min (late) or -5 min (early). Over 30 minutes late shows in red.
  • CURRENT STOP and NEXT STOP: order, place, whether it is a pickup or a delivery, the expected arrival and when the agreed delivery slot closes (or no agreed slot).
  • An amber note when the trip cannot go further, for example because a check has not been passed. It states the reason.

Trip and stop statuses are in the statuses reference.

What you can do

Open a trip. Click Open on its card. The card expands to show what you can do next, the readiness check, every activity, open exceptions, re-plans and the trip's history. Click Close to collapse it.

Assign a driver. On a trip with no driver, the expanded card lists available drivers under ASSIGN A DRIVER. Click a name.

Record the driver's confirmation. Once a driver is assigned, click Record driver confirmation when the driver has acknowledged the trip.

Override the vehicle checklist. If the vehicle's pre-trip checklist has not been cleared, type why in the box and click Override the checklist. The button is disabled until you give a reason.

Start a trip. When a trip is ready, Start the trip appears. If the readiness check has blocking findings but an override is allowed, it reads Start under override. Type the reason first; the button is disabled without it. The reason is recorded against every order on the trip and in its history, with your name and the findings overridden.

Check the readiness findings. The readiness check looks at the vehicle's inspection, the driver's duty hours, licence (a driver with no licence on file is blocked) and night-driving entitlement. Findings are tagged BLOCK (the trip cannot start) or ADVISE (it may start). Each says what is wrong and how to fix it. When everything passes you see a green tick.

Re-plan a trip in progress. On a trip that is In Transit, click Re-plan from here to re-sequence the remaining stops. Stops already done stay as they are. Each re-plan is listed under RE-PLANS with its reason, how many stops were kept and how many re-sequenced.

Work an exception. Under OPEN EXCEPTIONS, each exception shows its kind, the reason given, its status and a description. A button for each next status lets you move it forward one step at a time, for example from Reported to Acknowledged. Steps cannot be skipped.

Check for driver no-shows. Click Check for driver no-shows at the top right. Trips whose driver has not turned up in time are flagged Driver not showing up.

Open an order. Click or hover any order number, as on other screens.

Popups and panels

This screen has no popups. The expanded trip card described above is part of the page.

Tips

  • No trips in flight. Publish a plan on the Planning board to put trucks on the road.
  • The Start button is missing. The trip may still be waiting for a driver, for the driver's confirmation, or for the vehicle checklist. The amber note on the card says which.
  • Why can I only see a few drivers to assign? The list shows up to eight available drivers.
  • Who gets reassigned after publishing? Driver changes after a plan is published are made here, not on the Planning board.
  • Delay shows a plus sign. +n min means late; a negative number means early.