Dispatcher queue in dispatch board

A dispatcher queue is one of the important layouts on the dispatch board that helps you (dispatchers) identify and prioritize pending jobs/routes, assign them efficiently, and monitor their progress. In Zuper, the dispatcher queue has been broadly categorized into two dispatching streams: “Jobs” and “Routes”. This provides the flexibility to choose the stream that best suits your business needs. The key guiding factors are: 1. Jobs Stream: Ideal for businesses primarily driven by the availability of technicians, rather than technician travel. The objective here is to directly assign/schedule jobs to technicians based on their availability (drag & drop to the schedule) and geographical location of the jobs e.g., proximity of a new job to the existing ones. 2. Routes Stream: Suited for businesses where technician travels is extensive. The objective here is to directly assign the routes to technicians based on their availability (drag & drop to the schedule), followed by assigning jobs to the scheduled route based on the route capability and proximity of a job to an existing route (drag & drop to an existing route within the schedule). As a business user, it is essential to identify your specific needs and select either the “Jobs” or “Routes” stream before delving into the dispatching features of Zuper.

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Assigning/Scheduling a job to an available technician

Assign jobs to technicians by balancing not only the technician’s schedule but also the geographical proximity of the job to other jobs, enabling you to cluster job assignments.  However, to assign the job to an available technician, you first need to identify the pending jobs. Here’s how: To view pending jobs and assign/schedule them to the available technician, choose the “Jobs” dispatching stream. You can view the list of jobs on the dispatcher queue based on the selected job type from the dropdown menu. The job type includes:

Job Types	Description
Unscheduled Jobs	These are the jobs that have not yet been scheduled, i.e., there is no start and end time for the technician to perform the job.
Assigned Jobs	These are the jobs assigned to a specific technician at a given time. This contains jobs of all statuses, such as on my way, started, completed, and so on.
Unassigned Jobs	These are the jobs that have not yet been assigned to any technician.
Overdue Jobs	These are the jobs that have passed their due date and still need to be completed.

Once the job has been shortlisted, you can assign/schedule the job to the available technician. To do so, follow these steps: 1. Select the “Team” and “Date” when you need to schedule the job. Based on the team selected, you can view the technicians within the team and their availability for the selected date in the scheduler. 2. Depending on the technician’s availability, simply **drag anddrop ** the job from the dispatcher queue onto an available technician (from a selected team) in the scheduler, where you’ll be asked to provide the start and end date and time to schedule/reschedule the pending jobs. 3. Once the job has been assigned, the field technician gets notified to get the job done on the set date and time. You can also view the job location on the map by right-clicking the job in the scheduler and selecting the ‘Show on Map’ option.

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Assign an unassigned route to the available technician (Tracking View)

Informed assignment of routes to the right technicians with consideration for their schedule, viz., shift/business hours, time-off, etc. Unassigned Routes refer to predefined pathways that have not yet been allocated to a specific technician. From the dispatch board, you can assign an unassigned route to an available technician based on their availability and proximity to current jobs/routes for the selected date.  To view unassigned routes and assign to the available technician, choose the “Routes” dispatching stream. This stream is divided into two sections: Jobs and Routes in the dispatcher queue. Additionally, you have dedicated options such as Tracking and Planning (available next to the Routes).

Tracking	Planning
This is the default view when switched to “Routes” stream that enables you to track all the jobs & unassigned routes for a specific day, leveraging the powers of both scheduler and maps in parallel. Note: In tracking view, you cannot select dates beyond tomorrow; you can choose and track until the next day, today, and previous dates scheduled routes and jobs within a route.	This allows you to plan routes well in advance. You can create a route for the future and assign jobs for multiple weeks/months in advance.  Note: In planning view, you will have the flexibility to change the dates and months as needed. This allows you to plan and create routes well in advance.

To assign unassigned routes, follow these steps:

1. Select the “Routes” section under the “Routes” stream in the dispatcher queue.
2. You can view all the unassigned routes in the dispatcher queue and track their location on the map as well. 

In addition to this, you can also track the following on the map:

• Location of the job type selected in the dispatcher queue. 
• Location of routes (if any) scheduled for the technician on the selected date.

3. Select the “Team” and “Date” to schedule the route. Based on the team selected, you can view the technicians within the team and their availability for the selected date in the scheduler. 4. Depending on technician availability, you can assign any unassigned route from the “Unassigned Routes” section by either clicking “Assign User” in the dispatcher queue or dragging and dropping the route next to the technician in the scheduler with the right consideration of their availability and proximity to current jobs/routes for the selected date. 5. The Route will be assigned successfully to the technician for the selected date.  6. After assigning a route to the technician, you can reschedule the route, view the location of the route on the map and more by right clicking the assigned route in the scheduler.  7. You can also access various details by clicking on the route, such as:

• Primary Details: This includes the route color, mode of transport, route type, and no. of. Jobs were assigned to that route, technicians were assigned, and so on. 
• Jobs: This includes the jobs that are added to that route. You can also choose to add/remove a job from this route and assign to another route. 

In addition to viewing this information, you can also easily perform several actions by using the quick action icons located at the top right corner of this page. These actions include locking a route, assigning a user, editing, deleting, and cloning routes. 

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Assigning job to the technician route

Efficiently assign multiple jobs to a route by balancing key factors such as overall route duration, job schedules, and total travel time between jobs based on the mode of transport (e.g., car, truck, semi-truck). This can be done using either the scheduler or the map.

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Using the Scheduler:

Once a route has been assigned to an available technician, you can add jobs to the route by dragging and dropping them. Prioritize jobs that are geographically close to minimize travel time. To assign a job to a technician’s route using the Scheduler view, follow these steps:

1. Under the Routes stream, click the “Jobs” section on the dispatcher queue and shortlist any of the jobs from the dropdown menu.
2. Once shortlisted, choose an appropriate job that aligns with the route duration and drag and drop it onto the technician assigned route for the selected date. 

3. The job will be assigned to the technician route successfully. The field technician will then receive a notification to complete the job on the scheduled date and time on that route. .4\ Upon successfully assigning a job to the technician’s route, you can perform certain quick actions such as rescheduling the job, assigning the job to another route, removing the job from the route, and so on, by right-clicking on it.

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Using the Map:

The map view allows you to directly see the locations of jobs and routes, making it easier to assign jobs efficiently by considering geographical proximity, overall route duration, and existing jobs on the route. You can assign jobs to the nearest route by drawing shapes around job locations or using the arrow pointer. Here’s how:

1. Go to the Maps layout on the Dispatch Board.
2. On the right side of the map, you’ll find tools that help you select job(s). These tools include:

Arrow Pointer The intent of this option is to selectively choose a few jobs amidst a cluster, considering various attributes such as status, schedule, technician assignment, etc.  A classic example is an attempt to associate one of a recurring job instances (repeating at the same address) to a nearby route, (or) a case where jobs of various schedules and statuses are in the location, and you want to assign only a selected few to a nearby route 1. Select the arrow pointer located on the right-hand side. .2\ During the arrow select mode, job details are displayed on hovering over the job cards. This will help choose jobs based on their schedule, status, technician assignment, etc. 3. Manually select individual job(s) on the map by clicking on them. 4. The order in which you select jobs using the pointer will determine the sequence in which they are added to the destination route.      Shapes  The intent of this option is to select multiple jobs at once and assign them to a nearby, existing route. It’s useful when you have several open jobs clustered in a specific location and want to optimize technician travel.

1. Choose a shape from the available options (Pentagon, Rectangle, Circle) on the right of the map. 
2. Click and drag on the map to draw the shape around multiple jobs at once. All jobs within the shape will be selected.

Assign Jobs to a Route Once jobs are selected, either with the arrow pointer or a shape:

1. Hover over the nearest route, which will be bolded when hovered over.
2. Click on the Route of your choice (based on its proximity to the selected jobs) to view its details – Name, Start Date & Time, Consumed Duration etc.
3. Based on the route details, select the route and click the “Add ‘n’ job(s) to route” button. A pop-up will appear.

Review and Finalize Job Assignment

1. A pop-up window will appear displaying details about the selected jobs, including job name, status, assignee and scheduled date and time.
2. Review the information, select the jobs you want to add to the route, and click the “Add ‘n’ job(s) to route” button to finalize the assignment.

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Plan and Schedule Route to the Available Technician (Planning View)

Enable advanced planning of routes and potential technicians ahead of weeks by leveraging this options - Offers early insights into schedules of teams and technicians viz., pre-planned route/jobs assignments, time-offs, shift/business hours etc. In addition to tracking past/ongoing routes and jobs within it, businesses can plan to schedule job/routes to future dates based on the requirement. To do so,

1. Switch to “Planning” view in the Routes dispatching stream.
2. Once you switched to planning, you have two dedicated views “Scheduler” and “Map.”

Scheduler	Map
This view is intended to plan routes/jobs with the right consideration for schedule of various teams & technicians across a date range. Hence the scheduler view takes precedence while leveraging this option.	This view is intended for dispatchers to plan routes/jobs with consideration for the location covered by existing routes. The idea is to enable adding jobs to routes that are proximate enough to existing routes.

Using the scheduler view (dispatch board), you can plan, and schedule routes/jobs based on the availability of technician belonging to teams across a date range. To do so, follow these steps: 1. From the scheduler view, click the “Date” tab and choose the future dates.  2. Once the date is set, you can easily/visually identify the technicians and their available schedules across the selected date range (including non-business hours & time-offs) in the scheduler view.  3. Choose any of the unassigned routes under “Routes” section and drag & drop it next to the available technician in the scheduler.  4. The route will be assigned successfully to the technician for the future date.

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Plan and assign jobs to scheduled routes

Assign and schedule jobs into routes that’re scheduled and pre-assigned to technicians by balancing - overall route duration, jobs already assigned to the route and travel time necessary between jobs. In addition to scheduling a route and individual jobs directly to a technician, you can also assign any of the jobs (be it assigned, unassigned, or unscheduled jobs) to a technician’s route well in advance if the job is intended to be part of a route a technician is planned to carry out (this typically includes jobs that needs to be performed in the future or moved to future dates). This can be done using either the dispatch board scheduler or the map. 

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Using Scheduler

1. Click “Jobs” on the dispatcher queue and shortlist any of the jobs from the drop-down menu. 
2. Once shortlisted, drag and drop the job (job should be within the route duration) onto the technician’s scheduled route for the future.
3. The job will be assigned to the route well in advance. 

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Plan and create Route Using Map 

Using a map, you can locate all unassigned routes and plan routes/jobs based on location proximity of a job to an existing unassigned route or vice-versa.  There are multiple ways through which Maps helps a dispatcher plan. Here’s how:

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Map-based Route Planning:

The map-based route planning enables you (dispatcher) in more than one way:

1. Create new routes by clustering jobs that are geographically proximate to one other, leveraging simple polygons drawn on a map surface - A perfect means to create routes that are extremely efficient; reducing technicians’ overall time on road.
2. Plan and associate jobs to existing routes that are nearest to it - Minimized travel & detour for a technician assigned to the route; thereby increasing the overall efficiency (no. of jobs per route/day) and customer experience.

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Map-based Route Creation:

As mentioned above, you can create new routes by clustering jobs that are geographically proximate to one other, leveraging simple polygons drawn on a map surface. here’s how:

1. Choose any shape (circle, rectangle, pentagon) to plot an area on the map. 
2. Once the shape has been chosen, drag and select the job(s). After selecting the job(s), click the “Create Route” button at the top right corner. 
3. Provide route details such as route name, color, route type, star location, end location, etc., and click the “Create” button.  The route will be created successfully for the selected job on the map. 

By optimizing the scheduling and dispatching processes, this feature improves service delivery, reduces downtime, and ensures that technicians are deployed to the right locations with the right tools and information. Ultimately, the Dispatch Board in Zuper streamlines operations, leading to better customer satisfaction and increased productivity.