These features are available on your Test site as of the evening of May 9th, on your Preproduction site in the evening of May 11th and on your Production site in the evening of May 15th.

New Features in This Release

LIST OF NEW FEATURES

• Driver App Improvement Survey 
• An Easier Way to Access Release Notes
• Ability to Create and Maintain Hub Addresses
  
• Improvements to Route Recurrences and Route Plans
• Enhanced Rule Configurations Based on Order Values
• Improved Driver Analytics
• Improved Granularity on Driver Orders
  
  

Table of Contents

• Definitions
• Driver App Version 1.57
  • Driver Survey
• Back Office
  • Orders
    • Route Recurrences
    • Creating a Zip-Based Route Plan
  • Accounts
    • Using Value Based Rules in Notifications
  • Drivers
    • Request Driver Logs
• Dispatch Board
  • Driver Stop List
  • New Driver Options
• Administration
  • Rule Configuration
  • Create Hubs for Multi-Segment Orders
• Scripts
  • Master Account Model
  • Order Update
• API
  • Integration API
  • Integration Tenants API

Definitions

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

Driver App Version 1.57

Driver Survey

A new Driver feedback survey is now available in the updated version (1.57) of the Driver App. The Driver must login and navigate to My Run where they will then be asked to fill out a short survey. 

This short survey helps us improve the Driver App user experience and functionality. Please inform your Drivers of this survey and answer 4 short questions.

If Driver decides to wait to answer the survey, a popup will indicate that it is also available in Settings:

Press Submit at the bottom of the survey to submit the answers.

User Interface Modification

The touch area on the Stop Detail Parcel list icons has been increased, making it easier to add or edit Exceptions codes and a barcode as well as delete and edit the parcels.

Back Office

User Information

Release Notes Link

The latest release notes are now linked under the User icon, located on the upper right corner of the Back Office:

Order Segments

Using Hubs

When adding a hub while creating a Multi-Segment, you can enter a hub that was previously created in Addresses in the Company (Hub Name) field and select the hub from the list.  Hubs will show with this icon .

Only the hubs will show. If you need to select a contact, enter the address in Address field to view the contacts. 

Order Template Multi-Segments

Using Hubs

While creating a Multi-Segment Order Template, you now have the ability to enter a new Hub from the list of Hubs created in Addresses. They are found in the Company (Hub Name) field. When you add a Hubs to a multi-segment order, it will be displayed with this icon .

You can also link Hubs by checking the Link Hub Address checkbox located to the right of Contact field to ensure that upon address modification within Addresses, the Hub will be changed automatically on the Order Templates. 

Route Recurrences

It is now easier to comingle Recurring Routes with Distribution Routes. We have added the ability for you to create Route Recurrences and associate them to specific Route Plans. This allows the Recurrences to be placed in the correct Route within the desired Route Container. Once created, the Route Recurrence can be edited, but cannot be deleted if used in a Recurring Route Plan.

Create a Route Recurrence

1) Click on Orders, Recurring Orders.

2) The New button is now a drop-down menu with the Standard Recurrence and the new Route Recurrence. 

3) Click on Route Recurrence. This will open a simplified version of the Recurrence that can then be used in the Route Plan.

4) Enter the name.

5) If needed, select the date exceptions by clicking on Exceptions button, then add a date and/or calendar and click save:

No Orders will be created for the Recurrence Order Template when the exception date matches  the Route Start date.

6) Click on Add Template to add a row in the Order Template section and start typing the Order template name that was previously created. Only Order Templates of type Recurrence can be used. 

Check the Override checkbox to enter the windows or if left blank, they will use the creation date and Service Level times to calculate the pickup and delivery windows.

7) Repeat step 6 for all templates that should be added to the Recurrence. 

8) If needed, select the date exceptions by clicking on Exceptions button, then check one or more day, add one or more dates and/or calendar and click save.

The Order will not be created from this template when the Order Ready At date matches the exception date.

9) Click on Create button. 

Route Recurrences cannot be started and stopped from the Recurrence, this is done from the Route Plan. 

Recurring Order List

A new column was added to the Recurring Order List called Type. This column shows Order or Route depending on the type of Recurrence.

Route Recurrences will always have a status of Stopped since their generation is setup within the Route Plan.

Creating a ZIP Based Route Plan

Only ZIP Based Route Plans can use the new Recurring Routes. 

1) Click on Orders then on Route Plans then click on New Route Plan.

2) Enter the required Display Name, optional Description, optional Rank (if this is part of the cascading Route Plan), select Zip Based, enter the required Warehouse Information, and select if the Route should end at the warehouse. 

Select the Optimization Mode, then click on Save.

3) The user interface has changed slightly. The Zones now show below the list of Accounts/Service Levels and the Schedules show on the right. 

4) When creating a Route of type Recurrence, it is no longer necessary to select the Account and Service Level since this is dictated by the Route Recurrence.
If one or more Accounts and Service Levels are selected, the orders created for a corresponding Account and 

Service Level will still be added to the Route as part of the Zone it belongs to, along with the Recurring Route Orders.

5) Add one or more Zones. The Zone will be used add the specified Route Recurrence(s) and Schedule(s). 

Click on Add, enter the Zone name, select an optional color, at least one Zip Code (if this is only used for Recurrences, the Zip Code will be ignored.)

Select the required Mode

Modes:
Single Route is included with the LAST MILE ROUTING AND OPTIMIZATION module, 
Minimize Number of Drivers or Predefined Number of Drivers require the ADVANCED DISTRIBUTION add-on. The add-on has been enabled for your temporary evaluation.

Select where the Route should end and override the pickup and delivery Warehouse address if needed.

Click on Save

6) Repeat step 5 for all the zones that should be added.

7) Click on Add Schedule and select the Days the Route should run, enter the Route start time for those days. The Order creation cutoff Day and time will be used as the Order Creation time for the Route Recurrences.  

The Pickup Cutoff Time will be ignored when using the Schedule with a Route Recurrence. 

Each day will show individually in the Schedule section.

8) Click on a day to open it by clicking on the +.

9) Click on Add New to add a Zone and Recurring Route, this will add a new row:

10) In the Zone, select the Zone name. You can start typing the zone name to filter the list:

11) In the Recurring RouteId, select the Recurring Route. You can start typing the name of the Recurring Route to filter the list:

When the Zone and Recurring Route are added, it is automatically saved. 

Multiple Zones and Recurring Routes can be added to the same day and more than one Recurring Route can be added to the same Zone.

13) To start the Recurring Route, click the Start button. 

The Recurring Route Orders will be generated on the next schedule and placed in the selected container according to the schedule in the Route Plan. 

14) To collapse all the schedules, click on icon.

Stop Recurring Routes

1) Open the Route Plan with the Recurring Route.

2) Click on Stop.

Delete a Recurring Route from a Route Plan

1) In the Route Plan, click on the + sign of the Schedule Day to open it.

2) Click on the icon to delete a Zone and its Recurring Route.

To delete a Schedule, all Zone and Recurring Route combinations under the schedule must first be deleted. Once it is empty, the icon will be enabled, and the Schedule can then be deleted.

Notifications

Using Value-Based Rules in Notifications

In the previous 1.56 release, a scripted rule was made available to enable or disable sending a notification. In this 1.57 release, you can now setup a rule based on the values of certain fields on an order.

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 rule result is true or false. 

Example:

You only wish to send a notification for your Rush orders. You've therefore created a rule 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 previously created will not have the updated Notification with the rule. 

Drivers

Request Driver Logs

It is now possible to request the Driver Logs from Dispatch Science without having to ask the Driver to send them from the Driver App. 

The Driver Log will then be sent to the Tech Support Email specified in your configuration 

If you need to change this email, please contact support at support@dispatchscience.com to request the change. 

1) Open Drivers.

2) Search for the Driver and click on its first or last name to open it.

3) In the Driver Details, scroll down to the Driver Information section and click on the Request Log button.

A message will be displayed that the Driver Log has been requested successfully.

User Interface Modification

Options on Driver

Return Home and Auto-Dispatch

Instead of displaying a Yes or No in those options, it is now displayed as Enabled or Disabled. 

Dispatch Board

Driver Stop List

On the Driver stop lists, you will now be able to open individual orders from a Group. 

A new menu icon was added beside the number of Orders to open a popup to show the grouped orders:

1) On the Driver Stop List, click on the arrow down:

2) A popup opens to show the order. You can click on the pencil to open the Order in the Back Office, giving you access to all its details. 

3) Clicking on the arrow down beside an Order will open the menu where you will be able to dispatch the order to another driver:

Administration

Value-Based Rule Configuration for Notifications

It is now possible to create Rules for Notifications based on specific scenarios and customer use cases using values such as Service Levels, Hold Reasons, Accounts, Vehicles, and Reference Fields. This feature will allow a System Administrator to control when a notification is or isn't sent within the Notification Templates.

Currently these rules can be used to manage and configure Notifications. These rules will be extended for use throughout the system in subsequent releases.

Creating a Value-Based Rule

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

2) Click on New Order Rule and enter the Rule Name, an optional description, in Type, select Value Based.

3) Rule creation:

Under Values, you will be able to build your Rule by adding filters and groups. You would then choose either AND or OR to decide if all operations must be true to activate the rule, or if only one operation must be true to activate the rule.

Using a Group, you can add multiple sets of operations (filters) with different operators (AND or OR).

You can filter on the Order Account, Vehicle, Service Level, Reference Field values and Hold reason. 

• If you need more than one set of filter, you will first need to add a group.
  Decide if the combination of all groups should be True, by selecting AND, or if at least one group result should be True, by selecting OR. 
• Within each group, you will then be able to add your filters, by selecting Add Filter and again, selecting the ANd or OR operator. 

Once you are done creating your rule, click on Save. 

The Rule will then be available in the Notification templates under the Rule column. 

Example of a simple Rule:

Let's say you wanted to build a simple Rule to send out a notification for ASAP Orders for which an Address does not exist.

You would add the Service Level and Hold Reason filters, select the appropriate values, and select And at the top to specify that both of these filters need to be True to trigger the Rule and send out the notification.

Example of a complicated Rule:

Let's say you wanted to extend the previous example of a simple rule to incorporate another use case.  You still want to include in the Rule the ASAP Orders with the Addresses that Don't Exist, but you also want to add another use case to trigger the same notification. 

For example, if you wanted to send the same notification when a Same Day Order was Refused by the Occupant of the delivery address, you would configure it as follows:

This Rule configuration ensures that the same Notification will be sent out if EITHER of these statements are true, since you have OR at the top of the page. 

Operators

Depending on the Filter selected (Account, Service Level, Hold Reason, Vehicle or one of the Reference fields) the list of operators will be different.

When using a defined value (Account, Service Level, Vehicle, Hold Reason), you can select one of "is equal to" or "is not equal to". 

When using one of the Reference fields, you will have access to the following operators:

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.  

Addresses

Create Hubs for Multi-Segment Orders

In order to facilitate the task for internal users when creating Multi-Segment Orders, hubs can now be created in Addresses. These hubs will then be available across Accounts when creating the Multi-Segments.

1) Open Settings, System, Addresses

2) In Addresses, click on the New Addresses button then click on Hub:

3) Enter the name of the Hub in the Company(Hug Name) field. 

The Contact language and address are required fields. 

4) Click on Save when completed. 

Filter to View Hubs

1) Open Settings, System, Addresses.

2) In the Address List, in the Type column, click on the filter icon and select Hub then Filter

Edit a Hub

1) Open Settings, System, Addresses. 

2) Find the hub to edit then select by clicking on its checkbox then click on Edit button:

3) Make the changes and Save.

Selecting multiple hubs will change the Edit button into a Bulk Edit. 
You can then bulk edit multiple hubs at the same time.

Scripts

Master Account Model

A new Master account model is available for the script:

MasterAccountScriptInfo

For more information, please review Dispatch Science Script Information.

Order Update

Get Event Names

This new method will allow you to get the events that updated the order. 

    await data.GetEventNames();

This returns in an array the list of events that were done on the order:

OrderCreated

OrderItemsAdded 

DeliveryChargeAdded

ExtraFeeChargeAdded

ZonesAdded

AutoDispatchEnabled

PickupLocationUpdated

PickupAddressUpdated

etc..

For more information, please review Dispatch Science Script Information.

Update Time Windows

You are able, through the Order Update script, to modify the pickup and delivery time window. 

   await order.UpdatePickupWindow(new TimeWindow(DATETIME, DATETIME)

   await order.UpdateDeliveryWindow(new TimeWindow(DATETIME, DATETIME)

The two new methods require a valid Date and Time value to be passed for the FROM and TO in the window. 

This value can be calculated from the current windows or be assembled in the scrip. 

An exception will be thrown when an invalid window is sent. It is therefore important to catch those exceptions as this would prevent the rest of the script to run. 
Pickup From must be before or equal to Pickup To, Delivery From, Delivery To. 
Pickup To must be after or equal to Pickup From and before or equal to Delivery To. 
Delivery From must be before or equal to Delivery From and after or equal to Pickup From or Pickup To. 
Delivery To must be after or equal to Pickup From, Pickup To, Delivery From. 

For more information, please review Dispatch Science Script Information.

API

Integration API

Get Items returns both the items and item user fields

GET/api/v1/orders/{orderId}/items

The item user fields are now returned with the items when running the Get Items. It is no longer necessary to call Get/api/v1/userfields/{orderId}/items. 

Integration Tenants API

Set an integration webhook on a checkpoint

Patch/api /v1 /checkpoints /{checkpointId}

In the Patch for the checkpoint, you can now set an integration webhook:

Body:
{
"op": "replace",
"path": "/scanSessionWebhookUrl",
"value": "WEBHOOK URL HERE"
}
]'

Adding Hubs to Orders or Templates

When creating an Order, an Order Template, adding a hub to an Order or Order Template, you can now use the hub AddressId to add a hub.

The hub AddressId can be found in the URL when editing the hub under Addresses. This will be a GUID.

Transactions Invoice Attachment

Electronically sent files can be attached (EDI or others) to the Invoices under Transactions. 

The date the files were sent has also been added to the list. 

This would allow you to verify the files that were sent electronically and share with your customer if there are any issues. 

On the Transactions list, the column Last Transmission Date is available to have the date when the electronic file was transmitted (this is not for invoices sent through email). 

You  also have the  icon to view and download the electronic file. Click on the file to download it.

Please contact Support if you have an integration where your invoices are sent electronically and you want to have access to the files sent. Support will provide a quote to add this feature to your Transaction List. 
This feature is available if you have the Transactions module.