These features will be available in your Test environment on April 27 2022 and will be available in Pre-production early May.

New features included in this release

• Addresses and contacts can be managed from a central location (see Administration below).
• Dispatch Boards Enhancements (see Dispatch Board below).
• Internal users access to Item Exception codes (see Back Office below).
• Setup how to display orders on My Run as individual order, grouped orders and when picking up or delivering grouped orders (see Administration below).
• Ability to restrict in minutes, picking up and/or delivering an order early by the Driver on the Driver App for specific service levels in the Service Level Schedules (See administration below). 
• Ability to create calendars that can be used in the Recurring orders to include or exclude calendar dates (See Back Office to setup recurring orders with calendar, see Administration to setup calendars).
• New behavior when creating orders from an order template that has no vehicle and/or service levels.

Other new features

• Pickup and Delivery Wait times were added as columns in the Standard Import file. For more information, please review Import Orders using Standard Mapping File.
• Email entered in Dispatch Science will be validated to ensure their format is valid.
• Orders, Payout permission was changed to be able to be setup as a View only or an Edit.
• Scanner TC26 and TC77 can be used with the Driver App version 1.46. For more information, please see (Setting up the TC26 and TC77 Scanner).

About the new calendar feature
The calendar feature, in version 1.46, will be used on the Recurring orders only. In a future version, Holidays will be removed and this will change to use the calendar feature. 

A new calendar named Holidays was automatically created using the dates entered under Holidays in Settings, Configurations, System and Holidays and was setup as the default calendar. 
This calendar is not synchronized to the Holidays. If dates are added, updated or deleted in Holidays, changes need to be manually done in the new Holidays calendar too, to ensure the recurring orders are included/excluded on the new holidays. 

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.

OData: Data fields and variables saved in OData

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 1.46

Unaccepted Order

A notification badge will show on the Home tab icon to indicate the number of unaccepted orders.

Early Pickup and Delivery Restriction

Please see in Administration how to setup a Service Level to restrict early pickup and delivery.

Drivers will be restricted on how early to pickup/deliver an order when this feature is setup on the Order Service Level. 

The Report stop will be disabled, showing a timer as to when the stop can be reported:

Setup the stop, grouped stop, stops within grouped stop information

Please see in Administration how to setup this information in Driver Information Profile.

My Run will show the changes as setup in Dispatch Science.

Back Office

Orders

Item Exception Codes

In version 1.45, internal users with the Exception Codes right were able to view/edit, according to the selection in their role, the exception codes at the Order Level. 
In version 1.46, internal users with the Exception Codes right are also able to view/edit, according to the selection in their role, the exception codes at the Order Item level. 

Add an exception code

Exception codes can be added at the order item level at checkpoint, at pickup and at delivery.

1) Open an order and navigate to the Items tab.

2) Click on Edit button to edit the Items and click on the pencil next to the item to add an exception code:

3) Click in the section, Pickup, Delivery or Checkpoint, to add an exception code and select the exception codes to add then click on Apply.

The exception code will show next to the item:

Repeat for each item that should have an exception code.

4) Click on Save

The history will reflect the exception codes added by the user.

Remove an exception code

Exception codes can be removed at the order item level at checkpoint, at pickup and at delivery. 

1) Open an order and navigate to the Items tab

2) Click on Edit button to edit the Items and click on the pencil next to the item to remove one or more of it's exception codes:

3) In the exception code type, pickup, delivery or checkpoint, click on the X beside the exception code name to remove it then click on Apply.

4) Click on Save to save the change. 

The history will reflect the exception code removed by the user.

Orders created from Order templates without a valid vehicle/service level

When internal users/self serve users create an order using an order template or a mutli-segment order template with out a valid service level/vehicle, the order's Create Order button will only be enabled once a valid service level/vehicle is selected.

Segments will retain the invalid service level/vehicle and will need to be updated to the correct service level/vehicle.

Recurring Orders

With the new calendar feature, the Allow Order Creation on Holidays has been removed but the functionality was moved to Exceptions.

If the checkbox was unchecked, the Holidays calendar will show under the Exclusions section and the orders will not be created for those dates.

If the checkbox was checked, the Holidays calendar will show under the Inclusions section and the orders will be created for those dates.

Add a Calendar to the Exceptions

Before a calendar can be added to the Exceptions, a calendar will need to be created under Settings, Configurations, Systems, Calendar. For more information on how to create or edit calendars, please see Calendars under Administration section below. 

1) Open a recurring order

2) Click on Exceptions button

3) In the dialog box, select a calendar under Inclusions to have the orders created on the dates added to the calendar or Exclusions to prevent the orders from being created on the dates added to the calendar.

4) Click on Add button. The calendar will show in the box under the Inclusions or Exclusions. 

5) Click on Save. 

6) The dialog box will close. Do not forget to click on Save in the Recurring order details to save the changes.

If a date is in a calendar selected under the Inclusion and the same date is in a calendar under the Exclusion or if a date was entered in the Inclusion date or Exclusion dates list and is also present in the opposite calendar, the recurrence will not run for that day. 
The Exclusion dates supersede the Inclusion dates.

Remove a Calendar in the Exceptions

1) Open a recurring order

2) Click on Exceptions button

3) In the All calendars box under Inclusions or Exclusions, click on the garbage can icon beside the calendar to remove then click Save.

4) The dialog box will close. Do not forget to click on Save in the Recurring order details to save the changes.

Order templates without a vehicle or service level

When opening an order template that has no vehicle or service level, the order template vehicle/service level will show with a - and a red box with a warning:

When a vehicle/service level is selected in a multi order template, the segment orders will be modified with the same vehicle/service level automatically.

Recurring orders containing orders without a valid service level/vehicle

Recurring orders will be created even if the order templates do not have a valid service level/vehicle. The service level/vehicle can be modified in the orders that were created. 

Dispatch Boards

Boards

In the Boards, you will now be able to wrap text in columns, see orders below each driver and decide if the filter on the order section will apply to the orders under the drivers. 

Wrap Text

In all board types, a Wrap option is now available. This will wrap the content of the columns and make rows higher to see the content.

1) Open a Dispatch Board Grid and click on the setting wheel

2) Under Select Layout Type, check Allow text wrapping then click on Apply

Text will wrap in the order grid columns as well as the driver grid columns. 

Showing Orders Under Drivers

In the Horizontal grid, you can show the orders under the drivers. 

1) Open a Dispatch Board Grid of type Horizontal grid and click on the setting wheel.

2) Under the Select Layout Type, check Includes orders under drivers then click on Apply.

3) The Grid Board will refresh and  will show beside the drivers with orders.

Clicking on the  will open up the area directly under the driver to show the orders using the same columns as on the top order grid.

The orders under each driver are filtered by the top filtering section of the Order pane (Search field and Order status):

Any filters used on the Order pane columns will not filter the orders under the driver.

Administration

Driver Information Profile

In the Driver Profile, you can now setup how orders will display on My Run for individual and grouped orders as well as when closing a stop with grouped orders. 

This setting will be used when drivers update their Driver Apps to version 1.46.

Setup Stop Information

1) Open Drivers menu then click on Profiles

2) Click on Driver Information Profiles then click on the Information profile to change in the list.

3) In the Order/Stop Information section, you will see the default values

4) Click Edit to edit the Order/Stop Information

Using the Help? link, you can view the different fields that can be used. Syntax is important, please make sure you follow these rules:
Each field must be enclosed in braces { }

Each row in the box represents a row in the stop cell. More than one field can be added on the same row.

5) Edit each Order/Stop Information with the desired information

6) Check the Show All Stops Details if you want the driver to be able to open the list below each stop. 

This would look like this in closed position then in open position when driver taps on the
Closed                                                                                                Open

6) Click on Save.

Service Level Schedule

In the Service Level Schedule Service Level setting, it is now possible to restrict early pickup and/or delivery by the drivers on the Driver App.

This does not apply to the Dispatcher when manually picking up or delivering orders on the Dispatch Board or through the API.  

If the fields are left blank, drivers will be able to pickup and deliver early.

Set Restriction for Drivers to Pickup and/or Deliver Early

1) Open Pricing, Service Levels

2) Open the Service Level Schedule to modify

3) In the list of Service Levels, click to edit the Service Level to restrict pickup and/or delivery by the driver.

4)  In the Service Level details, there are 2 new fields added below the Deliver and Delivery Adjustment sections called Restrict Early Stops

5) If the fields are left blank, the driver will be able to pickup and deliver the order early.

If 0 is entered, pickup and/or delivery can only be done from the beginning of the pickup and/or delivery window. It cannot be done early.

If a positive number is entered, pickup and/or delivery can only be done x minutes before the beginning of the pickup and/or delivery window. 

Example:

Service level is setup with a Restrict Early Stops at pickup of 0 minute and a Delivery of 5 minutes.

Order's pickup window is today from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM.

Orders's delivery window is today from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM.

Driver arrives at pickup at 8:50 AM. Driver will not be able to pickup the order before 9:00 AM.

Driver arrives at delivery at 10:50 AM. Driver will not be able to deliver the order before 10:55 AM.

On the Driver App, the driver will see the following:

On Versions prior to Version 1.46:

If order has no workflow or scanning on the stop:

Error message will show 

An error message will be displayed to the driver after the last workflow step or if no workflow steps after the scanning. If no scanning, the message will show up once the driver reports at the stop with the date and time when it can be reported. 

If there is scanning at the stop but no workflow, the driver will be asked to scan and if setup set the exception codes then the message will display as above.

If there are workflow steps, the message will show once the last workflow step is completed:

On Version 1.46:

The Report button on the Driver App will be disabled and show with a timer when the stop can be reported:

Addresses

This feature allows to correct, remove duplicate addresses, fix geolocations, import contacts, etc.. There are 3 types of entries in this table:

History: addresses that were added when creating or editing orders

Global: addresses that were added using the Enter address from ZIP/Postal Code

Contact: contacts added on accounts or account users

Search by Address, Contact or Position

1) Open Settings, System, Addresses

2) Select how to search (address, contact or position) by checking its radio button.

For addresses, enter the address in the search field

For contact, enter the contact name in the search field

For position, enter the latitude and longitude in the search fields

3) Click on Search

Find Duplicate Addresses or Contacts

1) Open Settings, System, Addresses

2) Click on Find Duplicates and select which duplicate to find:

3) The list will filter and show the duplicates found. The number of duplicates will be indicated.

4) To clear the filter, click on Clear 

Verify the geolocations of addresses

1) Select the rows of addresses and click on Show Map

You can hide the map by clicking Hide Map

Deleting entries

1) In the list, check the checkboxes of the rows to delete

2) Click on Delete Selected button or use the garbage can on the row's far right side.

3) Yes on the Are you sure question to permanently delete the entries.

Edit a Contact

1) In the list, select one contact and click on Edit Contact

The Edit contact will only be enabled if only one contact is checked.

2) Contact information will be displayed. Make the desired changed and Save

Bulk Edit Contacts

Contacts from the same account can be bulk edited. 

1) In the list, select at least 2 contacts from the same account. 

2) Click on Bulk Edit Contacts

3) The contact information window will be displayed with only the Account information set as read-only

4) Only fill in the fields that should be updated to the same information for the selected contacts and click on Save

5) The fields that were entered will be modified and the other fields will remain as they were. 

Create a New Contact

1) Click on New Contact

2) Start typing the account name in the Account field and select from the list

3) If a contact needs to be associated to a user rather than directly on the Account, start typing the user name or phone number in the User Name field and select from the list.

4) Enter the information for the contact and click Save. 

Import Contact

Contacts can be imported through the Addresses feature. The import file can be downloaded prior to do the import. 

Download the Contact Import File

1) In Addresses, click on Import

2) In the dialog box, click on Download Template

Fields to fill in to import contacts:

A selection must be made for the first 2 columns. A contact can be associated to the account and in which case it will be available for all users on the account. A contact can be associated to a user and in which case it will only be available for that user.
Only 1 of the first 2 columns must be filled in.

AccountId: Only fill in this field if the contact is to be imported at the Account level and should be available to all account users. 

The AccountId can be found here:

UserId: Only fill in this field if the contact is to be imported at the Account user level and should only be available to this particular user. 

The UserId can be found by opening the Account, clicking on Users button then opening the user. The last part of the URL after the last / will show the UserId:

Required Fields:

AccountId or UserId

Name: This is the name of the contact

Phone Number

Address Line 1

City

State Province

Postal Code: ZIP or Postal Code

Language

Load/Unload Time (min): numeric. If no wait time, enter 0

Optional Fields:

Email

Address Line 2

Company

Address Latitude: If this is entered, Address Longitude is required. If used, the address's geolocation will be overwritten with this information. If left blank, the address will be geolocated by DIspatch Science.

Address Longitude

Notes

Import Contacts

1) Fill in the template (remove row 2 containing explanations of each columns) and save as a CSV file.

2) In Addresses, click on the Import button

2) In the dialog box, click on Select a File then navigate to where the contact file was saved or drag and drop the contact file here.

3) Click on Upload.

If there are errors in the file, you will get an error to let you know what the problem was. 

Once the import is completed, you will receive an email notification to let you know the number of contacts imported. 

Roles

The Orders Payout permission was changed to add an EDIT. 

On deployment, all roles will have the Orders, Payout permission set to Edit. For roles that only require a View, this can be changed to View. 

Please note that it takes 5 minutes once a change is done on the permission for the permission to be reflected to the users and the users may have to log out and log back in.

Calendars

A new calendar feature has been added and will be used in the Recurring Orders to add Exceptions to have orders created or skipped. 

This calendar feature will be extended to the other areas of DIspatch Science in coming releases and the Holidays, located under Settings, Configurations, System, Holidays will be removed once the feature is in place everywhere. 

As explained at the start of the release notes, a new Holidays calendar has been created automatically using the dates found in Holidays and this calendar was setup as the default calendar. The dates under Holidays and the dates in the Holidays calendar are not synchronized therefore it is important when a date is added under Holidays that the same date be added in your Holidays calendar to ensure your recurring orders are created or skipped on the new holiday. 

View Calendars

1) Open Settings, Configurations, System, Calendars.

2) Click on one of the Calendars in the list to open it.

Dates can be repeated across calendars however  dates must be unique within a calendar. 
A date name can be repeated across calendars however date name must be unique within a calendar.

Parent Calendar

A parent calendar can be added to a child calendar and serve as the default dates for that child calendar. 

One or more dates from the parent can be excluded and the excluded dates will not be part of the child calendar dates. 

For instance, the holidays calendar is used as a parent for the recurrences of an account. There are some holidays that the account will still want to have the recurrences created and the account needs special dates that are not included in the holidays calendar for their summer vacation.
The holidays where the recurrences will be needed can be excluded when the parent calendar is added to the child. 

The summer vacation dates will be added to the child calendar. 

The child calendar will then be associated to the account recurrences as an exception exclusion. 

If a calendar uses a parent calendar, it cannot be used as a parent in another calendar and therefore will not show up in the Parent calendar drop-down list. 
The same calendar can be used as a parent calendar on multiple calendars. 

Edit a Calendar

1) Open Settings, Configurations, System, Calendars and click on a calendar to open it.

2) Calendar name can be renamed.

3) A parent calendar can be selected and dates can be excluded or the excluded date can be included by unchecking the checkbox beside the dates.

4) A new parent calendar can be selected, this will remove the previous parent calendar's dates and checkboxes and show the new parent calendar's dates.

5) A parent calendar can be removed by clicking on the x beside the parent calendar name:

4) Dates can be added to the calendar:
    a) Click on New Calendar Date.

    b) Enter the name of the date making sure it is unique within the calendar.

The name of the date does not have to be unique between the parent and child but must be unique within the child calendar.

   c) Enter the date making sure it is unique within the calendar.

5) Dates can be deleted by clicking on .

6) Dates can be renamed or dates can be modified.

7) Click on Save when done.

Create a Calendar

1) Open Settings, Configurations, System, Calendars.

2) Click on New Calendar button.

3) Enter the name of the calendar.

Calendar name must be unique.

4) Select an optional parent calendar.

5) If parent calendar was selected, check the dates to exclude if needed.

6) Add dates

 a) Click on New Calendar Date.

    b) Enter the name of the date making sure it is unique within the calendar.

The name of the date does not have to be unique between the parent and child but must be unique within the child calendar.

   c) Enter the date making sure it is unique within the calendar.

7) Save the calendar.

Delete a Calendar

1) Open Settings, Configurations, System, Calendars.

2) In the list of calendars, click on to the right of the calendar name.

Default calendar cannot be deleted. You will receive an error message if you attempt to delete the default calendar.

3) Confirm deletion.

Set the Default Calendar

Only one calendar can be set as the default and this will be the Holidays that was created automatically. 

The default calendar shows with a

1) Open Settings, Configurations, System, Calendars.

2) Click on the to the left of the calendar name to set it as the default.