Route Management

Modified on Thu, 1 Dec, 2022 at 10:50 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Definition
Lexicon
Route Plan Management

Definition

The Route feature in Dispatch Science is used to automatically assign orders meeting certain criteria into Route containers and routes.

Routes can be created using a combination of Account+Service levels as well as Zones. All orders for the selected accounts+service levels will automatically be added to a route. It is therefore important for routed orders to use their own service levels.

Routes, other than Cascading Routes, should not use the same Account+Service Level combination as this will break this Route combination.

Lexicon

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.

Route Plans: Where Administrator sets up the rules to create the Route containers and their routes.

Route Container: Located on the Dispatch Board under Routes, a Route Container is created once an order is assigned according to the rules in the Route Plan. The Container will may have multiple routes with multiple orders.

Route: Located on the Dispatch Board under Routes and within a Route Container. A route will contain one or more 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/

Route Plan Management

Create a Route Plan

1) Click on Orders menu (), click on Route Plans then click on New Route Plan button.

2) In the New Route dialog box, enter the required Display Name (EN), optional Display Name in second language, optional Description (EN), optional Description in second language.

3) If using Cascading Route Plans, enter the rank. For more information, please see Cascading Route Plans.

4) Enter the type of Route: Map or Zip Based.

A Map based Route Plan uses zones created through a KML file. Order geolocation falling in the zone will be assigned to that Route. Any orders falling outside of all zones, will fall in a unmapped route.

A Zip based Route Plan uses ZIP or Postal Codes to create routes. Orders matching the the ZIP/Postal Code will fall into the specific routes.

5) Enter the Required Warehouse address. While typing, suggestions will show in the drop-down. The address must be selected from the drop-down suggestions.

a) If warehouse address is not found, the address can be entered with the Enter from Zip/Postal Code:

i) Click on Enter from Zip/Postal Code link:

ii) In the dialog box, enter the Zip/Postal Code and select it from the drop-down. This will place the location pointer in the center of the ZiP/Postal Code, show the City and State/Province.

iii) If the ZiP/Postal code is not available in the drop-down, simply enter it and you will be able to enter the geolocation manually as well as the entire address.

iv) Enter the address, city if not already filled in, State/Province if not already filled in.

v) If you know the latitude and longitude, you can enter it otherwise, you can use the + on the map to zoom in to the correct area and place the pointer accordingly.

vi) Click on Save once this is done and you will be returned to the Route creation dialog box.

6) Enter Address Line 2 if needed.

7) If the drivers should return to the warehouse at the end of their route, check End route at warehouse. This will include in the mileage from the last delivery on the route back to the warehouse.

8) Click on Save button to create the Route Plan.

Add Account/Service Level Combination

Once the Route Plan is created, you will be able to add the Account/Service Level combinations.

All orders created with the Account/Service Level combinations will become routed orders.
It is important to create specific Service Levels for the Routes.

1) In the Accounts/Service Level section, click on Add Account:

2) Start typing the name of the account in the Account search field. The result will start showing once you have entered 3 characters. You can use the account number or the account name. Select the account by either clicking on the account or using the arrow down to navigate to the account and press Enter.

3) The Service Level drop-down field will fill in with all available service levels for this account. Open the drop-down by clicking on the then click on the service level or use the arrow down to navigate to the service level and press Enter.

4) Select to use the Pickup or Delivery address to sort the order into the correct zone (entered under Zones, see below).

5) Click on Save.

If you need to add more than one Account+Service Level combinations, repeat steps 1 to 5 for each combination.

This change is automatically saved on the Route Plan.

Delete an Account/Service Level Combination

You can delete an Account/Service Level combination from the list so that orders created with this combination no longer become routed orders.

1) Click on garbage can beside the combination to delete the combination.

2) A confirmation message will be displayed. Click on Delete to remove the combination and Cancel to keep it.

This change is automatically saved on the Route Plan.

Add a Schedule

The Route Plan Schedule is used to create Route Containers. The Schedule will look at the Order Creation date and time as well as the Pickup from on the Order to determine in which Route Container the order should be assigned.

Schedules cannot be edited. If a change is needed, delete the schedule and create a new one.

1) Click on the Add Schedule button. The Add Schedule dialog box will show up.

2) Check the days of the week when the route should be created.

3) Enter the time when the route will start. The Driver workload will start at this time. If the first pickup is after the Route start, the difference between the Pickup of the first order and the Route start will be added to the driver total Driving Time.

To enter the time, simply type in the time in the field or use the icon to select the time then click on Set.

4) Enter the Cutoff day, that is the day when the order are created and can be added to the route. 0 means the day of the route, -1 means yesterday.

5) Enter the Cutoff Time, that is the time when the order are created and can be added to the route. Orders created after this time will be added to the next scheduled route.

6) Enter the latest time when order can be picked up in the route. This will look at the Pickup from on the orders. If the Pickup from is later than this time, the order will be added to the next scheduled route.

7) Click Save to add the schedule to the route.

This change is automatically saved on the Route Plan.

In the following example, there will be 3 routes created, one for each day.

The Monday route will include all orders for the combination of accounts and service levels created from Thursday 10:01 PM until Sunday 10:00 PM which have a Pickup From before or at Monday 12:00 PM. Any orders that do not meet this will go to the next route.

The Wednesday route will include all orders for the combination of accounts and service levels created from Monday 10:01 PM until Tuesday 10:00 PM which have a Pickup From before or at Wednesday 12:00 PM. Any orders that do not meet this will go to the next route.

The Friday route will include all orders for the combination of accounts and service levels created from Tuesday 10:01 PM to Thursday 10:00 PM which have a Pickup From before or at Friday 12:00 PM. Any orders that do not meet this will go to the next route.

Delete a Schedule

A schedule can be deleted from a Route. Deleted schedules will no longer create Route containers for that day and time. Route containers already created for that day and time will remain on the Route Board.

1) Click on the to the right of the schedule to delete it.

2) A confirmation dialog box will display. Click on Delete to delete the schedule or Cancel to keep it:

This change is automatically saved on the Route Plan.

Zones

As explained above, there are 2 types of zones:

ZIP/Postal Code base or Map based.

Once the type is selected at the Route Plan creation, it can no longer be modified.

Each zone will become a Route in the Route container when orders are assigned to it. Any orders that do not match any zones will automatically be added in an unmapped zone on the Route.

A zone can use the Route container warehouse or its own warehouse and the route created from the zone can either end at the warehouse or not. The zone can be setup to have a specific color or the color will be assigned at random by Dispatch Science. A zone can also have a default driver.

Adding ZIP/Postal Codes Type Zones

ZIP/Postal Codes type zones allows you to enter one or more full or partial ZIP/Postal codes in your zone. Depending how your Account/Service Level combination has been setup (Location set at pickup or at delivery), the pickup or delivery ZIP/Postal Code will be used to assign the order to the correct zone.

1) Click on Add to add a new Zone.

2) The Create Zone dialog box will open:

3) Enter the Zone name.

Zone names should only contain letters, numbers and the underscore (_). Zone names should not contain spaces or other special characters.

4) In the Zip Codes, enter the ZIP/Postal codes, either partial or full, separated by a semi column (;).

5) Select an optional color by clicking on the

You can select to view the color selection as a gradient view () which is the default view

or as a palette view ()

or you can enter the color in either Hexadecimal or RGB.

Use the to toggle between the 2:

6) Select an optional default Driver to associate to the zone by typing either the first name, last name or number of the driver. After typing a minimum of 3 characters, the list will show all drivers matching the entry. Select the driver from the list.

7) By default, the Route will use the End at warehouse option set on the Route Plan. This can be changed on the Route by selecting Yes or No:

8) By default, the pickup warehouse will default to the Route Plan warehouse. This can be changed by checking the Override Pickup Warehouse box and entering the address of the warehouse in Address Line 1

Enter an optional Address Line 2.

9) If return to warehouse was selected either for this Route, the delivery warehouse will default to the Route Plan warehouse. This can be changed by checking the Override Delivery Warehouse checkbox and entering the address of the warehouse in Address Line 1

10) Click on Save to add the Zone.

Repeat steps 1 to 10 for each new zone.

Adding Map Based Type Zones

Map based type zones are added by importing a KML file that contains the zones as polygons.

Multi geometry is not supported. 
Polygon names will represent the zone name. Polygon names should only contain letters, numbers and (_). Spaces and other characters are not supported. A warning will be displayed for invalid zones.

1) Click on Import KML button to upload the zones:

2) Select the KMLfile to import.

3) The zone will be displayed on the map once imported and will show as a list:

4) Using the + and -, you can zoom in and out of the maps. you can also use the mouse wheel while cursor is on the map to zoom in and out.

Using your mouse, click, hold and drag to move to a different area of the map.

Editing the Zones

1) Export the zones in a KML file bu clicking on the Export KML.

2) Import the KML file in a KML editor like Google my Maps, make the changes and re-export the KML file.

3) Import the edited KML file.

Reimporting the KML file will update the existing zones, add the new zones and delete the zones that no longer exists in the file.

4) The changes are automatically saved.

Changing the Color of Zones

Zone's color that are left blank will be assigned a color when the route container is created. Sometimes the colors may be similar and more difficult to distinguish. Colors can be pre-assigned to each zone.

1) Click on a zone to open the Zone editor then click on Color:

2) You can select to view the color selection as a gradient view () which is the default view

or as a palette view ()

or you can enter the color in either Hexadecimal or RGB.

Use the to toggle between the 2:

3) Click on Save to save your changes.

Edit the Warehouses

By default, the Route will use the End at warehouse option set on the Route Plan.

1) Click on the Route to open the Route editor and change the End at warehouse option by selecting Yes or No:

2) By default, the pickup warehouse will default to the Route Plan warehouse. This can be changed by checking the Override Pickup Warehouse box and entering the address of the warehouse in Address Line 1

Enter an optional Address Line 2.

3) If return to warehouse was selected either for this Route, the delivery warehouse will default to the Route Plan warehouse. This can be changed by checking the Override Delivery Warehouse checkbox and entering the address of the warehouse in Address Line 1

4) Click on Save to save your changes.

Edit a Route Template

1) Click on Orders menu then click on Routes. This will display all existing route templates. Click on the route to edit.

2) In the route details, you can edit the name of the route, add or remove account+service level combinations, add or remove schedules, make changes to the zones and their colors and driver selection.
Simply edit the section you wish to change.

Delete a Route Template

1) Click on Orders menu then click on Routes. This will display all existing route templates. Click the at the right of the route row to delete the route.

2) Click on Delete to delete the route or cancel to return to the list without deleting the route.

Cascading Route Plans

Route plans can be ranked so they can cascade from one plan to another until a valid zone is found. The system will automatically attempt to place a new order from a specific client with a specific service level in the highest ranked route. If the order does not meet the zone requirement associated with that route, instead of adding it to an unmapped zone, it will automatically attempt to place it in the second level route. If that fails as well, the third ranked one would be selected. If none are found, it will be placed in the unmapped zone of the lowest ranked route. The same Account + Service Level can be used in multiple routes when routes are ranked.

1) When creating a Route Plan, enter the Rank here:

2) To see the ranking of different routes, go to the Route Plan Lists, and check their rank on the table:

Enable or Disable a Route Plan

By default, when a route is created, it will be enabled. Any orders matching the Route Plan criteria will automatically be placed in a Route inside a Route Container.

Route Plans can be disabled. When a Route Plan is disabled, the orders will no longer be placed in a Route Container and will remain On Demand.

Disable a Route Plan

1) Open the Route Plan by clicking on its name.

2) Click on the Disable button:

3) Click on Disable button in the confirmation dialog box to disable the route or Cancel button to return to the route without disabling it.

Enable a Route Plan

1) Open the disabled Route Plan b clicking on its name.

2) Click on the Enable button: