New features included in this release

Ability to view and add extra fees on driver app.

Ability for consignee to add a tip from the driver app.

Ability to differentiate 0$ orders vs invalid orders.

Modification to how dispatch zones are loaded.

Advanced filtering on Dispatch Board.

New Support Widget.


Definition

The release notes refer to different sections of the application:

Back Office: Where Customer Service Representatives (CSR) create and edit orders, create accounts, review drivers, etc.

Dispatch Board: Where Dispatchers assign orders to drivers, get notifications for invalid orders, etc.

Auto-Dispatch: This section refers to the automated order assignment setup and its process.

Administration: This section is in the Back Office but refers to sections only an administrator will use like Settings and Pricing.

Customer Portal: Where account users log in to create orders, view their order history, enter a credit card, etc.

Tracking site: Where customers enter a tracking number like the order ID or a reference number to view the status of their order.

Account API: API provided to your accounts to create, update and get orders. For documentation, please follow this link: https://api.dispatchscience.com/
Tenant API: API provided to you to create orders for your accounts, retrieve invoices and change invoice status. For documentation, please follow this link: https://api.dispatchscience.com/

Driver App version

Driver App IOS version 1.11.404/Android version 1.11.409 contains the new features for this release.

Please see Driver App Release Notes for 1.11.404: Release Note for Driver App IOS version 1.11.404/Android 1.11.409



Support Widget

New support widget 

A Support widget was added in Dispatch Science. This widget allows you to search the FAQ and release notes as well as allow you to enter explanation for an issue you encountered in the system.

Get help by searching articles

Click on Search Articles to open the search, type in the search box to display all articles matching your criteria. 


Click on an article to open the Support portal and view its content. You can then navigate through other related articles.


Enter a support ticket for an issue you have encountered in Dispatch Science




Click on Support. Your email will show in the Requestor field. 


Enter a subject in the Subject field.


Type a description/steps to reproduce in the description area.


You can add an attachment by selecting the paper clip. It will open a navigator where you will be able to select the file to attach to the ticket.


You can take a screenshot of the screen behind the Support widget by clicking on the camera.


Select a priority to indicate the urgency of the ticket.


Select a severity to indicate the type of ticket.


Once you have entered the information, click on Send Feedback to send the ticket to Dispatch Science.


Click on X to close the Support widget.





Back Office

Order List

In the order list, the date filter now defaults to the past 2 weeks. This can be changed to view orders for the past month, for the past 3 months or all orders.


Extra fee visibility on the Driver App

In the Extra Fees Schedule, extra fees can be setup to hidden, view only or view and add on the driver app.

This new feature gives visibility to the driver of selected extra fees required for the delivery or included as part of the delivery. 

The extra fee name and its quantity will be displayed on the Driver App for each extra fee set to View only or View and Add in the Extra Fee Schedule. 

Note: The ability for a driver to add extra fees from the driver app is explained below. Please see Ability for driver to extra fees from the driver app.


Change visibility of an extra fee on the Driver App

In Pricing menu, open Extra Schedules then click on the Extra Schedule which should be edited.

In the column called DRIVER VISIBILITY, select View only or View and Add to show the extra fee with its quantity on the Driver App or keep as Hidden if the extra fee should not be displayed on the Driver App.

Click on Save when the Driver App Visibility is completed for every extra fee.

Note: By default, all extra fees will be set to Hidden on deployment.


Ability for customer to add a tip to an order from the Driver App

Consignee will have the ability to add a tip to an order from the Driver App if the system defined tip extra fee is setup on the Extra Schedule associated to the account. 


Setup system defined tip extra fee

Open Pricing menu then Extra Fees section to see the system defined Tip extra fee.

Click on Tip extra fee to change the fee description, unit of measure and reference # if needed then save your changes.

In Pricing menu, open the Extra Schedules section. Find the Extra schedule where the Tip extra fee should be added and click on its name.

In the Extra Schedule, check the checkbox beside Tip extra fee to make it available in the Driver App. 

Leave 0 in the Rate ($) and 1 in the Per and set the Commissionable %. By default, this is set to 100.
Add an accounting code if needed then click Save.

See Driver App, Add Tip section for instructions on how to use the feature in the Driver App.


Ability for a driver to add extra fees to an order from the Driver App

The ability for a driver to add an extra fee directly from the driver app can be setup from the Back Office. This feature can be setup for selected accounts and drivers.


Set extra fee addition in the Extra Schedule


In Pricing menu, open Extra Schedules then click on the Extra Schedule which should be edited.

In the column called DRIVER VISIBILITY, select View and Add to allow the possibility of a driver to add this extra fee from the driver app.

Click on Save when the Driver App Visibility is completed for every extra fee.


Set ability for a driver to add an extra fee from the Driver App

In Drivers menu, open Profiles then click on the driver profile you which to add the feature.

Check the Can Add Extra Fees checkbox and save.

All drivers associated to the profile will now have the ability to add the extra fees for an account order that has been set as View and Add. 


Dispatch and filtering zones setup

The way the dispatch zones are imported in Dispatch Science has changed in this release. The zones are now a visual representation, making it much easier to see what they mean. 

You can download your zones as a KML file to edit them then reimport the file. New zones are added, existing zones are updated. You can also delete zones no longer in use. 

A new type of zone can also be setup to filter the orders on the dispatch board. A dispatching zone can be used to both dispatch and filter orders or specific zones can be created for auto-dispatching orders and others for filtering. 


New graphical view

A new graphical view is used to display the dispatch zones. The first view will show zoomed out to see all zones. The name of the zone and its description will show in the list view.

Move through the map by clicking on an area and dragging the map left, right, up or down.

Zoom in on the map by scrolling up using the mouse scroll wheel and zoom out by scrolling down using the mouse scroll wheel. 

Once a zoom is set, moving to other zones by hovering on their names in the list will move through the map to display the new zone using the same zoom percent.

Hovering on a zone on the map will display its information and at the same time, the zone will have its background highlighted in the zone list. 

Clicking on a zone on the map will select the zone in the list and show its setup options. 


Import Zones

To import a zone, click on the Import KML File then navigate where the KML file is stored. Select the file and click on Open. The zones in the KML file will be imported.

Zones with existing names will be updated.

Zones with new names will be added.

Only zones with letters, numbers and underscore will be imported. If you have a space in a zone name or a special character, an error message will be displayed and those zones will not be imported.



Setup the zones 

Zones can be setup as auto-dispatch zones and/or filtering zones. Filtering zones cannot be used in Dispatch Science in this release but will be available in the next release. Filtering zones will be used on the Dispatch board to filter the list of orders and drivers. 


Select the zones from the list using the checkbox on its left. 

Click on  to set the selected zones as an auto-dispatch zone. You will notice that the auto-dispatch icon will show beside the zone names.


Click on  to set the selected zones as a filtering zone. You will notice that the filtering icon will show beside the zone names.


Click on  to unset the auto-dispatch on the selected zones.


Click on  to unset the filtering on the selected zones.


Click on  to download the selected zones to a KML file. You can edit the KML file and reimport it to make changes to the zones.


Click on  to delete the selected zones.




Assign zones to drivers

Zones can be assigned to drivers and used to auto-dispatch orders or, when the dispatch board filtering becomes available, to filter the drivers on the dispatch board and the driver list.
Please note that although the filtering zones are available on the drivers, they are not functional in version 1.2. This will become available in a version 1.3. 


1) Open Drivers from the left hand side menu.

2) In the drivers list, click on a driver name to view the driver details then click in Zones section on Edit

3) You will see the graphical zone graphical view. Click on the auto-dispatch checkbox of a zone to assign this zone as an auto-dispatch zone to the driver. Click on the filtering checkbox of a zone to assign this zone to the driver as a filtering zone.

Click on Save when finished.
Note: Checkboxes that are grayed out means a zone is not of a type or another type. To enable a checkbox, setup the zone to the type in Settings/Zones.


Download pricing zones in KML file

Pricing zones within a zone area can be downloaded to a KML file to be modified. 

1) Open Settings>Pricing>Zones then select an area and click on Download File. You can import this file in Google My Map and make the necessary changes and upload it back to Dispatch Science.

Fuel surcharge setup by vehicle type

Fuel surcharge can now be setup by vehicle type. This will allow, for each account, to charge a different percentage depending on the vehicle.

On upgrade, each fuel surcharge schedule will be setup to use the same fuel surcharge for all vehicles except the ones that were set to No Surcharge on the vehicle which will be set to 0.

The No surcharge checkbox will no longer be displayed on the vehicle type, instead, you will set the fuel surcharge to 0 percent on the fuel surcharge schedule for the vehicles which should have no fuel surcharge such as bikes.

Create a fuel surcharge schedule

Navigate to Pricing and open Fuel Surcharges. 

Click on Add Surcharge to create a new Fuel Surcharge.

Select the company (company will be hidden if you only have 1 company), enter a name and enter, for each vehicle, the surcharge %.

Click on Save.



Edit a fuel surcharge schedule

Navigate to Pricing and open Fuel Surcharges.

Click on a Fuel Surcharge Schedule to edit it.

Make changes to the surcharge % then save.


Add a new vehicle type

Navigate to Pricing and open Vehicles.

Click on Add Vehicle Type.

Enter its ID, this must be unique, a name in English and an optional name in French. Select the icon of the vehicle and enter its default fuel surcharge %.

Click on Save.

On Save, the vehicle will be added to all Fuel surcharge schedules with the default % indicated. 

You can then edit the Fuel Surcharge Schedules where this percentage should be different from the default value entered.


Dispatch Board

Differentiate between invalid and 0$ delivery price orders

Orders with a 0$ delivery price are valid and orders with a null delivery price where the price cannot be found or was left empty in the price list are invalid and will show in error on the Dispatch Board. 


In the Price list, if a price is entered as 0 for a zone to zone or a distance/radius, the price is considered valid and will not show as an invalid order.

In the Price list, if a price is left with a null value for a zone to zone or a distance/radius, the price is considered invalid and will show as an invalid order. 

If a a price cannot be determined or if the pickup or delivery addresses are invalid or if the service level is invalid or if the vehicle is invalid, the price on the order cannot be calculated and will be null therefore the order will show as invalid.


Change an order price

When changing the service level, the vehicle or the pickup/delivery addresses, the price is automatically recalculated. If the price cannot be found in the price list, an error message will be displayed to inform the user that the price is invalid and it will keep the same price as before and save the changes done. If it can find the price, it will display the old price and the new price. On save, you will need to confirm the change as well as the price change. The change can be saved or cancelled.

Sort drivers when dispatching orders with the lasso selection tool

Drivers can be sorted by Availability or by Order Count when dispatching orders using the lasso selection tool on the map. The default sort order will be the one that was last used in the Dispatch Board driver list or when dispatching orders to drivers.


Change quantity of an extra fee

Quantity and price for extra fees can be modified on an order on the Dispatch Board using the Edit Price


Advanced Filtering

The order filtering on the Dispatch Board has been modified to not only be able to filter by Drivers and Accounts but also by Filtering Zones, Vehicle types and Attributes. 

You will also be able to use Selected or Exclude Selection as the filter type.


Add an advanced filter

On the dispatch board, from the Orders list, you have access to the Advanced Filter .


Each section can be setup as Include Selected OR Exclude Selection. The combination of the different filters selected will be used to filter the orders on the order list and on the map. 


1) Open advanced filter, .

2) In the Advanced Filter window, open the section you wish to use to filter your orders by clicking on its.  
Notice, by default, the Include Selected will be checked. This gives you the same functionality as you previously had when filtering by Drivers and Accounts where you would select the driver/account you wished to see orders for. 

3) In a section, select either Include Selected or Exclude Selection then select the items (drivers, zones, attributes, accounts, vehicles) that should be used to filter the orders.
Using Include selected will use the selected items and only show the orders that contains one of these items.

Using Exclude selection will use the selected items and only show the orders that are not associated to these items. 

A mix of Incude and Exclude can be used for the different sections.

Note that the selection in each section will be taken into account. The selection within one area are used as OR (associated to driver 1 OR driver 2). Selections from 2 different sections will be used as AND (orders associated to driver 1 AND with Attribute 1).

Note you can search on items using the Search at the top of each section and if you want to see all items again, simply delete the entry in the Search.

4) You can still use the Showing unassigned orders - this is at the bottom of the Drivers section:

4) Once your filtering selection is completed, click on  in top right corner of the Filtering selection. 

5) The filters will show above the order list and below the quick filter

If you hover over the filter pills, you can see the items that were selected.


Remove an advanced filter

You will be able to remove a section filter by simply clicking on its X. For instance, clicking on the Drivers X will remove filtering on all drivers. 

You can also open the advanced filter  and deselect the items in a filter. If many items were selected, you can click on the Select All then click again in the Select All to uncheck all boxes in the section. 


Editing an advanced filter

You can click on the Advanced Filter , change any of the filtering you already selected and click on .


Clearing all filters

You can remove all filtering. Click on the Advanced Filter , click Click All Filters then click on .




Filtering by Zones

If you assigned zones as Filtering zones in the Back Office Settings>Zones, you will be able to filter the orders by the selected zones or to show orders that are not in the selected zones depending if you select to Include Selected or Exclude Selected.


When adding a zone filter, you will also see all orders that are not part of any filtering zones. This is done to ensure that orders that are outside your filtering zones do not get lost. 


Show or Hide Filtering Zones

You can show the filtering zone overlay on the Dispatch Board map by clicking on the  when the overlay is off and hide it by clicking on the  when the overlay is on. 


If the filtering of zones uses an Exclude zones, turning on the overlay will show the zone in gray:



Dispatch from the Order List

You can now dispatch an order to a driver or dispatch an order to another driver directly from the Order List without having to open the order.

1) On the Order List, click on the status pill (you will notice there is now a on each status pill).

2) In the list of driver, you can use the search to search for the driver, use the sort. Select the driver by clicking on its name.

3) Click on Dispatch to dispatch the order to the selected driver or click on Cancel to cancel the change.


Dispatch from the Map Order Details

You can dispatch an order directly from the Order Details on the Map and in the details, click on the Dispatch driver icon

1) Click on an order on the map

2) In the list of driver, you can use the search to search for the driver, use the sort. Select the driver by clicking on its name.

3) Click on Dispatch to dispatch the order to the selected driver or click on Cancel to cancel the change.


Auto-Dispatch

Auto-dispatch using intersecting dispatch zones

When an order pickup and drop-off addresses can be found in more than one zone, the auto-dispatch will verify if it can find a zone where both pickup and drop-off addresses can be found and will use this zone to auto-dispatch the order to one of the driver assigned to the zone. 


Open an order from the Orders list

In Order details, click on the pencil beside Pricing Information to open the menu:

Click on Edit Pricing. Edit the quantity, price and click on Save


Tenant API

A flag indicating if a driver payout was changed by the dispatcher has been added to the Get invoice in the Driver Payout section. 

Please see documentation for more information: https://api.dispatchscience.com/reference


Create Order

A new Create Order has been added to the Tenant API to allow tenants to create orders on behalf of their customers. The Create order is similar to the Account Create order however, tenant will need to pass the Account ID as well as the Account user email to create an order. Unlike the account, the tenant can pass the price of an extra fee if they wish or leave it blank to use the default price setup in the account extra fee schedule.


Get Invoices

In the driverPayouts section, a new flag was added to indicate if the payout was over ridden by the dispatcher.