New Features for Release 1.56

Modified on Tue, 28 Mar, 2023 at 4:20 PM

These features will be available on your Test site in the evening of March 27th, on your Preproduction site in the evening of March 30th and on your Production site in the evening of April 4th.

New Features in This Release

LIST OF NEW FEATURES

Ability to override optimized routes with manually specified stop sequences
Ability to duplicate recurring orders and templates
New user interface and improved organization of dispatch boards
Automate label printing for Customer Portal users
Auto-Dispatch - improved driver criteria matching
Use customizable scripts to send notifications based on any property of an order (requires Developer Toolkit)

*** BETA PREVIEW: Advanced Distribution***

 Please contact us if you want to activate your trial of this advanced new feature. It's free to Growth and Enterprise subscribers for 1 year.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Definitions
Driver App Version 1.56
Back Office
Dispatch Board

Route Board / Advanced Distribution
- Distribute a single Route Using the Minimize Route Feature or Predefined Number of Drivers
- Distribute all Routes Using the Minimize Route Feature or Predefined Number of Drivers

Scrollbars within Grids
Self-Serve

Auto-Dispatch
- Available Candidate Drivers

Administration

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/

Scripting: Custom script building abilities and functions within Dispatch Science

Back Office

Orders

In the Order Details, the Export button is now an icon:

Clicking on the icon will display the list of reports that can be generated from the Order Details.

A new icon is available to print Label Reports if setup for your Dispatch Science site:

Clicking on the icon will display the list of label reports.

Order List Print

"Print a Label" has been added to the Order List menu. This menu item will be available if a Label is setup in your Dispatch Science site.

Calculation of Fuel Surcharge on Delivery

Fuel surcharge was calculated on an order when the order was created, picked up or edited after it was delivered.

Upon order creation the fuel surcharge is calculated using the creation date.

Upon order pickup, the fuel surcharge is calculated using the pickup date.

The fuel surcharge was also calculated after a change on the order using the delivery date.
The recalculation of the fuel surcharge will also be performed when the order is delivered.

File Import of Orders

The Log file that is generated after the Order Import, will now show the import file's line number on which a problem was found, making it easier to fix the problem and reimport.

Recurring Orders

Duplicating Recurring Orders and their Order Templates

In previous releases, Recurring Order Recurrences could be copied, which created a new Recurrence that used the same list of Order Templates as the original Recurrence.

A new option has been added where the Recurrence AND the Order Templates themselves are both copied with all their information. These duplicated Order Templates are then linked with new Recurrence.

1) Click on Orders, Recurring Orders.

2) In the list of Recurring Orders, click on the Recurring Order to duplicate along with its list of Order Templates.

3) Click on the Save menu ( ), and click on Duplicate Recurrence and Order Templates:

4) Enter the name of the New Recurrence in Name and the suffix to be added to the Order Templates then click on Save.

5) A message will display to let you know the Recurrence with the Order Templates has been copied.

6) Click on Recurring Orders, find the Recurrence that was copied and click on it.

If the new Recurrence name already exists, you will get an error message. 
If the new Order Templates that are created with the suffix would create a duplicate Order Template name, copy# will be added at the end of the Order Template name where # is the next number of the existing Order Template name.

Order Templates

Locking Order Template's Delivery Price and Extra Fees Unit Price

A new option is now available to lock the delivery price as well as the extra fee unit price when an order is created from an Order Template. This can be done during Order Creation or as an update on existing Order Templates.

1) Click on Orders, Recurring Orders, Manage Order Templates.

2) If creating an Order Template, when entering the name, you will see the 2 new options.

If editing an Order Template, you can see the 2 new options when editing the Order Template name section.

3) Click on Prevent delivery price modification if you want the delivery price to be locked on Orders created from this Order Template (by Recurring Order, by a CSR, by an Account user/admin).

You can also prevent modifying an Extra Fee price by clicking on the next option.

System defined Extra Fees (Nb of Pieces, Weight, etc) will be recalculated according to the section edited in the Order.
Modifying the Service Level or Vehicle or Pickup or Delivery Address will change the Delivery Price and Extra Fees as it will recalculate the pricing section automatically. The section though will remain locked.

When the Order is created with the template, the Pricing Items section will not have an Edit button.

A permission was added to bypass this restriction. See Roles for more information.

Route Plan

Optimization Mode for Routes

A new option has been added to Routes to allow dispatchers to dispatch On-demand Orders to Drivers delivering Routed Orders and control the behavior of stop optimization within the Route stops.

To allow for this change, a Route can now have its Optimization Type specified by a Route Plan option.

There are 3 options to choose from:

1. Fixed Stops Immediate Precedence
This option will keep the Route stops as a group when dispatched to a Driver and any On-demand orders dispatched to the Driver will be added before the Route stops or after the Route stops. This is the original mode on the Route. ETAs on the Route stops will be recalculated.

2. Fixed Stops Allow Insertions
This option will keep the Route stops in the same sort order as when they were dispatched to the Driver however if time windows permit, an On-demand stop can be placed within the Route Stops. ETAs on both Route and On-demand stops will be recalculated.

3. Full Optimization
The Route stops sort order could change depending on the Driver position or the insertion of On-demand orders within the Route. A full optimization is done every time a new On-demand order is dispatched to the Driver.

Upon deployment of version 1.56, all existing Routes will be set as Fixed Stops Immediate Precedences to keep the functionality already in place.

Set the Optimization mode in a new Route Plan

1) Click on Orders, Route Plans.

2) Click on New Route Plan.

3) In the dialog box, enter the Route Plan Name, an optional description and rank.

Select the Route type: Map or ZIP based.

Enter the Warehouse address.

Check if a Route should end at the warehouse.

Set the Optimization Method:

Click on Save.

Change the Optimization Method of Existing Routes.

1) Click on Orders, Route Plans.

2) In the list of Route Plans, click on the Route Plans to modify.

3) Click on Edit in the Route Planning section:

4) Select the Optimization Method then click on Save:

Advanced Distribution Option on Zones

*** BETA PREVIEW: Advanced Distribution***

The new Advanced Distribution feature in the Route Plan allows you to easily distribute a Zone workload into several routes for a specified number of Drivers or into several Driver routes of equal duration.

The new Advanced Distribution Option is available to Growth Plans as an add-on and to Enterprise Plans.
To add the new Advanced Distribution Option to your Plan, please contact Support.

Setup a Zone for Minimized Number of Routes or Divide for Predefined Number of Drivers

On the Routes, each zone, map or ZIP can be setup to use a single route regardless of the number of orders.

Minimize the Number of Drivers by dividing the Orders into several Routes of the same Route duration or distribute the Orders for one Zone to a predefined number of Drivers.

Each Zone can have a different setup.

1) Open Orders and click on Route Plans.

2) In the list of Route Plans, click on the Route Plan to edit.

3) In the list of Zones click on the Zone to edit and select the Mode for the Route.

If selecting Single Route, you can select the default Driver on the route.

If selecting Minimize Number of Drivers, enter the number of hours in the Route Duration. You can either type in the information or use the clock icon to select the number of hours.

If selecting Predefined Number of Drivers, enter the Number of Drivers

4) Click Save

Repeat for each Zone.

See Route Board under Dispatch Board to see how to split Routes.

Accounts

Notification Templates

A new Rule column has been added to the Notification Template which will allow you to select when a notification should be sent. This is configured in Order properties through an Order Rule script. (Script Rules require the Developer Toolkit)

By default, this new Rule is set as "Always Send" to maintain the current functionality in Dispatch Science. Before selecting, please review how to setup Order Rules.

This feature is available to all Enterprise customers, and to customers who have the Developer Toolkit on the Growth Plan. If you wish to use this feature and do not currently have the Developer Toolkit, please contact Support.

Setup Notification Rules

1) Click on Account, Notification Templates.

2) Click on the Notification Template where the rule should be added.

3) In the Rule column on the Notification row, select if the notification should be sent or not sent when the script result is true or false.

Example:

You have created a script to evaluate if the Service Level of an order is "Rush". You would then select Send when and select the rule, the result will show as below and a notification will only be sent if the Service Level on the Order is Rush.

If you select Don't send when and select the rule, the result will show as below and no notification will be sent if the Service Level on the Order is Rush:

To remove a Notification Rule, in the Rule column on the Notification row, select Always send.

4) Click on Save.

New orders will use the updated Notification. Orders already created will not have the updated Notification changes.

Dispatch Board

Dispatch Grid Board

Dispatch Grid Board Landing Page

A new Dispatch Grid Board Landing Page has been added to improve customization and organization. For all boards you can now sort, copy, rearrange, delete, and change individual board settings.

You will also be able to set a board as your default board. This board will be the default board that open when you click on the Grid Board icon () when you are on the Dispatch Board.

Open Grid Board Landing Page

If no default Grid Board is set, user will automatically see the Grid Board Landing Page when clicking on the Grid Board Icon.

1) Click on Grid Board.

Grid Board Landing Page is displayed:

If a default Grid Board was set, click on the Grid Board Landing Page icon () at the top of any Grid Board

Search for a Grid Board

1) In the Grid Board Landing Page, enter the name or part of the name of the Grid Board you wish to edit:

The list will filter to show you the Grid Boards that match your search value.

Add a New Grid Board

1) Click Add board button:

2) In the Add New Board Popup, enter the Board Title, the board type will be automatically selected.

Enter an optional description.

Select the Board Layout:

Vertical Grid
Horizontal Grid
Order Only
Driver Only
Vertical Grid with Map

Select the Board type option:

For all Grids, you can select if the text in the column should wrap thus rows may not have the same height.

For the Horizontal Grid, select if orders should be displayed under the drivers.

3) Click Create

The new board will be added at the bottom of the Board Grid list.

Boards can also be added when on already viewing a board by clicking on the +

Edit a Grid Board Setting

1) On the Grid Board List, on the Grid Board row to modify, click on the Actions menu and select Settings:

2) Make the desired changes and click on Save.

The Board settings can also be changed when viewing a board by hovering on in front of the Board Name
The icon will change to a settings icon and you will be able to click:

Delete a Grid Board

1) On the Grid Board List, on the Grid Board row to delete, click on the Actions menu and select Delete:

2) Confirm Board deletion by clicking on Delete button or Cancel to return to the list without deleting the Board.

Modify the Grid Board Order

1) In the Grid Board list, on the Grid Board row to move, click on the Actions menu and select to Move up or Move down:

Copy a Grid Board

1) In the Grid Board list, on the Grid Board row to copy, click on the Actions menu and select Copy

2) Enter the name for the Board as it will be copied.

3) Start typing the username in the Destination Users and select the users who should get this Grid Board.

4) Click Overwrite if you want to overwrite a Board that already exists with the same name on those users' Grid Board List.

5) Click on Copy.

If you selected your user to copy the Grid Board, it will display below the Source Grid Board.

If you selected other users to copy the Grid Board, it will be added at the bottom of their Grid Board list.

Set the Default Grid Board

If no Default Board is set, user will always open on the Grid Board Landing Page when clicking on the Grid Board icon from the Dispatch Board.

1) In the Grid Board list, click on the star beside the Grid Board which should be the landing page:

2) The Board will automatically move to the first position:

Open a Grid Board

1) In the list of Grid Board, click on a Board Name.

The Board will open. All boards will show at the top of the window.

Viewing Grid Boards

The Grid Boards are now showing in a horizontal line at the top of the window:

Clicking on the icon beside the Grid Board name will open the Grid Board Configuration:

Functionalities on Boards stay the same:

Add and remove columns using
Reset Grid using
Filter column content using
Searching for Order or for Drivers using the Search bar in each section
Filtering the Orders by Status, by Date.
Viewing the Grid Board Map using
Collapsing all rows under the Drivers in the Horizontal Grid Board using
View basic Order information by hovering over an Order
Dispatch an Order, Move to a Route, Set picked up, Set delivered, Set at Checkpoint, change the attributes and Cancel an Order are available from the Order Status menu:
Open the Order by clicking on the Order Id. You can modify the notes, put the Order on Hold and do all the actions found under status menu in the ... menu.
Open a Driver by clicking on the Driver Name then navigate through the different tabs to view the Orders and their statuses as well as change the dispatch notes and set the Driver Off Duty.
Dispatch Orders by dragging and dropping on a Driver Name.

Route Board

Advanced Distribution

When opening a Route Board that contains Advance Distribution zones, each zone will appear as its own initial Route. All orders within that initial Route that could be redistributed according to the Optimization Type will be placed into the appropriate number of new sub-routes, each having the same name as the initial Route, followed by a .1, .2, .3, .n .

On the Route Board, the original route coming from a Zone setup for minimum number of Routes or for a predefined number of Drivers will show as one Route. You will be able to review the Route and Sub-Routes and further adjust them.

All routes may be divided, or specific number of them could be divided into multiple routes.

To divide one Route Using the Minimize Route Feature or Predefined Number of Drivers:

1) Open the Dispatch Board then click on Routes to view the list of Route Container:

Graphical user interface, application

Description automatically generated

2) Click on the Route Container to review.

3) In the Route Container, find the Route you wish to split, as setup in the Route Plan and from the menu select Optimize Routes:

4) You will be asked to confirm the optimization:

5) Click Confirm to go ahead with the action and stop optimization , or click Cancel to return without taking action.

Wait a few minutes for the optimization to run then you can refresh the window to view the new routes.

New routes will be created as ORIGNALNAME.1, ORGINALNAME.2, etc

You can still move the orders from Route to Route and from sub-route to sub-route to Route.

Divide All Routes Using the Minimize Route Feature or Predefined Number of Drivers

1) Open the Dispatch Board then click on Routes to view the list of Route Containers

2) Click on the Route Container to review.

3) From the right-hand side menu, click on Optimize All Routes icon:

4) Click Confirm to proceed or Cancel to take no action.

As per the Popup message, all Routes will be reoptimized and sub-routes will be generated. Any optimization that was done before will be lost.

Scrollbars within Grids

The following grids now have the vertical scrollbar within the grid, making it easier to view the information and navigate to the different rows and pages without losing the header.

Settings
- Checkpoints
- Exception Codes and Exception Schedules
- Companies
- Configuration
  - Drivers
    - Deductions/Additions
    - Settlement Cycle
    - Fields
    - Documents
    - Certifications
    - Channels
  - Account
    - Billing Cycles
    - Tax Schedules
    - Tax Rules
    - Fields
  - Accounting
    - Accounting Profiles
    - Accounting Items
    - Terms
  - System
    - Attributes
    - Calendars
    - Labels
    - Roles
- System
  - User List
  - Script and Script Rules

Self-Serve

In the Order Details, the Export button was changed to an icon:

Clicking on the icon will display the list of reports that can be generated from the Order Details.

A new icon is available to print Label Reports if setup for your Dispatch Science site:

Clicking on the icon will display the list of label reports.

If only 1 Label Report is setup, the button will change to a Print: and clicking on the Print icon will automatically open the Print Label window.

Automatic Print Label

In the Order Profile under Self-Serve Options, if the "Open Label Report After Order Creation" is checked, the user will be asked if the Label should be printed.

If only one label is available, the user will be asked if the label should be printed:

If more than one label is available, the user will be asked if a label should be printed and user will be able to select a label from a drop-down field:

Specify the Optimization Mode for Routes

A driver’s stop list can now have its Optimization Type specified by the dispatcher, and not merely recalculate the ETAs of the associated orders upon reoptimization. This new feature allows for the possibility to push an order between two existing orders on the driver’s stop list.

It was previously possible to reoptimize the route once it had been dispatched, however, the user was required to manually optimize the route on the driver to avoid breaking the optimization. In order to maintain this option, we have added a warning when an optimization is performed on a route that has already been dispatched to a driver.

Dispatchers can now insert an order between 2 others and have these orders reoptimized without taking precedence into account. Prior to this release, when trying to add a new order to an existing stop list, the new order would always get placed at the end of the stop list (but not in between or ahead of the older orders). With this new feature, it is now possible for newly added orders to be reoptimized and assigned in between or ahead of older orders in the stop list.

A new section, as shown below, has been added to the Route Plan, allowing to specify an Optimization Mode once the route is dispatched:

A) Fixed Stops Immediate Precedences: Only allow ETA calculation update: Keep entire route as locked stops

B ) Fixed Stops Allow Insertions: Allow inserting orders but keeping priorities of existing orders: Keep relative (i.e. not immediate) priorities of stops in the route

C) Full Optimization: Allows full order re-optimization: skips route optimization

Auto-Dispatch

Available Candidate Drivers

The list of Candidate Drivers is filtered to remove the Drivers who are busy in the next 4 hours:

Driver who has assigned Orders and late On-demand stops
Driver with less than 5 minutes free time during the next 4 hours.
Free time = sum of all slack time and sum of early ETAs.

Administration

Rules Configuration

This feature is available to Enterprise Plan and to Basic and Growth Plan with the Developer Toolkit. If you wish to use this feature and do not currently have the Developer Toolkit, please contact Support.

A new Rules menu is available under Settings, Configuration, Orders. This feature will allow a System Administrator to control when a notification is or isn't sent by using the order properties in a script.
For instance, depending on the hold reason on an order, a notification would or would not be sent.

Create a Rule

1) Click on Settings, Configurations and in Orders sub-menu, click on Rules.

2) Click on New Order Rule. The Order Rule Type is automatically setup as Script and is locked.

The Type is a drop-down field but is currently locked in this release because 1 type is available currently. In a future release, a new Value-based Order Rule will be available.

3) Enter the required name, optional description and select the script then click on Save.
The new Order Rule will be available in the Notification Template.

Edit an Order Rule

1) Click on Settings, Configurations and under Order menu, click on Rules.

2) In the list of Rules, click on the Rule to edit.

3) Make desired modification then click on Save.

Delete an Order Rule

1) Click on Settings, Configurations and under Order menu, click on Rules.

2) In the list of Rules, click on the Rule to delete.

3) Click on Delete button.

If the Rule is used in a Notification Template, an error message will display listing the Notification Templates where the Rule is used.

4) Click OK to confirm deletion, Cancel to return without deleting the Rule.

Create a Script of type Order Rule

If you are not familiar with creating Scripts in Dispatch Science, please contact Support and send a request for the script.

1) Click on Settings, System, Scripts.

2) Click on New Script.

3) Enter the required Name, optional Description and select Order Rule in Type then click Create.

4) Create the script, click Validate to ensure your script is valid then click on Save.

The result returned by the script must be a True or False value.

Roles

A new permission has been added in the Roles to allow bypassing the new restriction where the delivery price and extra fee price cannot be changed when an Order is created from an Order Template.

This new permission is set to Edit for all Roles of type Admin.

Tenant API

A new call was added to the Tenant API to be able to duplicate standard Orders and multi-segment Orders with or without the items of the source Order. The new Order will have its status set as Received.

POST api/v1/orders/duplicate?sourceOrderId={orderId}

There are 4 options that can be specified when duplicating the order:

deliveryChargePrice : numeric value that represents the delivery price of the new order. If field is not added to the call or sent as null, the price will be copied to the new order.

ignoreExtraFees : true or false - on true, Extra Fees will not be copied, on false, Extra Fees will be copied

ignoreDriverPayout : true or false - on true, Driver Payout will not be copied, on false, Driver Payout will be copied

ignoreItems : true or false - on true, items will not be copied, on false, items will be copied.