Auto Assignment
Auto Assignment
TransVirtual allows users the ability to automatically assign work to Agents or Employees and there is no manual intervention is required-freeing up time for other tasks.
How to Create a New Rule
1. To create a new rule, first go to Auto Assignment Rules page, by clicking on Configuration > Rules and Automation > Consignment or PUD Auto Assignment, the auto assignment page will display as shown below.
2. Here you will see a list of your current rule(s) (If any). Now click on the New Rule button, create a new auto allocation rule popup will come as shown below.
3. Enter in the details for this rule i.e., Name, Priority and Auto Allocation Type.
1. The priority is used to tell the system which rules will be looked at first, the higher the number means the higher the priority.
2. You can choose what type of assignment this will be by using the drop-down list. Delivery Assignment Only means this rule will only assign work that is for a delivery type, nothing else.
4. Once you complete the step 3, click on Create button to add a new rule.
5. The newly added rule will be display on the rule list with Orange color.
The Orange color indicates that this rue is not yet Active.
6. Now, click on the new rule, detail of the selected rule will display on the right side of the screen as shown below.
How to Update the Rule
1. To update any rule, first click on the selected rule, the rule detail will display on the right side of the screen as shown below.
2. Now fill the following details as describe below:
a. Name: If you want you can update the rule name manually.
b. Priority: This will help you to set the priority, higher the number means higher the priority.
c. Assign Start/End Time: You can enter a start and end assign time if you wish, which will only assign work between these times.
d. Auto Allocation Type: This will help you to choose whether the Freight Assignment Rule is applicable for Delivery, Pickup or both. You can choose it with the help of drop-down button.
e. Allocate Delivery Trigger: This helps you to when you like to trigger this allocation. You can choose it with the help of drop-down button.
This can be any from the list, but 'creation' is a good default.
f. Assign to Agent/Employee: This helps you to choose whether this freight is to assign an Employee or agent when this rule is applied.
g. Enable Rule: Allows you to activate the rule when configured by clicking on toggle button in Yes position and then click on Update button to save the changes. Once you completed the color of the rule will be in White which means that this rule is enabled as shown below.
Clicking on the blue/white question mark icon next to each field will give you an explanation on what each field is used for/does.
Data Filter
1. To see the data filter tab, at the bottom of the page there is a Data Filter section. The Data Filter is the driving force behind when the rule will and won't apply to a consignment.
2. To modify the data filter, you will need to use the drop-down logic selector at the bottom of the page.
3. To set a data filter, first select the field with the help of drop and down button.
4. Now click on the Next button, the logic section will open, select the logic with the help of drop and down button and then click on the Next button, the select value tab will open.
6. Now select the value to compare the rule with the help of drop and down button and then click on Add Rule to save the changes.
7. Once you have completed step 6, you will see that the Data Filter has text (logic) in it.
Delete the Rule
1. If you want to delete the rule, simply click on the delete icon, a confirm dialog will pop-up, click on Yes button, the rule will be deleted from database as shown below.
Auto Assignment Using Linehaul Scanning
The above information runs through how to setup an auto-assignment rule without performing any device scanning. But what if you want to assign freight automatically from Linehaul Scanning on a device? This can also be done but it simply requires a bit of configuration. See below for an example on how this could be setup.
Scan tags are useful for further refining of scans, they can be used to add extra information to a scan.
1. First setup your auto-assignment rules and setup your scan tags, to do this go to Configuration> Lists and Zones > Dictionary Lists, scroll down and click on Scan tags, the scan tag(s) list will display on the right side of the screen as shown below.
2. If you want to add a new scan tag, click on Add button, Add a new rule value to the dictionary popup will come, where you have to enter the Dictionary Value and then click on Add button as shown below.
For example, Linehaul scan with a tag of Driver 1, this can be used to let you know that this scanned freight is being handed over to Driver 1 who will then complete the delivery from there.
3. Setup scan tags with your agent or driver names. If you have a driver called "Driver 1" setup a scan tag exactly matching this. Once all the scan tags have been setup, we will use these in our auto-assignment rules.
Setting up scan tags in the dictionary list means these tags are not forced and so the user doing the scanning does not have to select a tag. There is also the option to setup forced scan tags under Settings > Lists and Zones > Scan Types, the freight scan overrides page will display:
4. Setting the tags up here means that anyone doing Linehaul scanning in your account MUST select it within the available tags listed. They cannot proceed with Linehaul scanning without a selected scan tag.
It is up to you as to which way is the better of the two options, but forcing can be useful especially when requiring scan tags for auto-assignments, as forcing the user to select a tag means there is no possibility of them forgetting to add a tag, if this were to happen any auto-assignments based on scan tags wouldn't work.
5. The next thing to setup is your auto-assignment rules. To do this refer how to create rule paragraph which is described in the beginning of the article.
Data Filter
1. Once you created the rule, scroll down the rule detail page and refer data filter page.
2. On data filter page select field, logic and Value then click on Create Rule, the data filter will be created as shown below.
3. Here in this example, we are using Scan Tag in Select field column, Logic will be Equal and Select value will be Test 01, as shown above.
It is very important to limit each auto-assignment rule to a Linehaul location where possible as this helps refine the data and assignment process. You may have lots of scan tags setup, in which case each of the agents or drivers you use may only service one area for you. If this is the case, you would need to make sure the data filter is limited to a destination for each of your rules.
4. Now, fill the details at the top of the page as shown below.
5. The allocation type was set when the rule was created but you can change again if needed.
6. The allocate delivery trigger will need to be set to either scanned linehaul or Linehaul Manifest created.
It is up to you which of these options is best; keep in mind that if you pick Linehaul Manifest created, if the user doing the scanning forgets to create the manifest after all the scanning, the auto-assignment will not work. Therefore, it may be 'safer' to select scanned linehaul as this means the trigger happens as soon as freight gets a Linehaul scan - it doesn't require a manifest be created.
7. The assign to agent/employee field needs to be set. Click on the drop-down of the source to choose either Employee or Agent, and then click on the drop-down arrow to the right to set the relevant agent or employee. This will be who is assigned the connote when the auto-assignment triggers as shown below.
8. The assign the auto assignment, Start and End times are not necessary - these fields simply allow you to set times for which an auto-assignment will be active. Outside of your specified times an auto-assignment will still work but the assignment won't occur to the agent or driver until the start assign time is reached - meaning that the connote will show the assignment to the agent or driver but it will be 'on hold' until the start assign time and will not release until then. This functionality can come in handy for assigning to drivers; they may have set shifts and possibly you wouldn't want any jobs auto-assigned to them to appear on their devices until the assign start time etc.
9. Once you have the settings configured it is a good idea to review before enabling an auto-assignment rule.
For our above example we are going to assign connotes to employee Andre when a Linehaul scan with a destination of Sydney and a scan tag of Andre has been performed. We are going to assign both pickups and deliveries to Andre - whatever is scanned with the above criteria essentially.
10. Once you completed the above steps, click on Update button to enable it to begin using this auto-assignment.
11. From here, all that is left to do is perform the appropriate Linehaul scanning. Based on above example, the below scan when applied to a connote will assign the connote to Andre - at which point if Andre is an employee/user the connote will appear on his device as shown below.
If Andre was an agent, then the job would just assign to that agent and wouldn't display on any devices; simply because an agent is usually company (collection of users) and not a single user-assigning to an agent is useful though for pricing in terms of costs involved in a connote etc.
12. The scan tag is located top-right. Tap and hold to change and select one from the list.
If you want to see the history of this scanning, go to consignment and filter the applicable consignment, now go to History tab of any scanned connotes you will then see that the auto-assignment to your specified driver (employee) or agent has occurred.
13. This job will now appear on that user/employee's device.
If you scan 10 consignments in the same manner, the user will then have all 10 jobs on their device etc.
Important to Note
Consignments actively assigned to a driver will not be eligible for auto-assignment as the assignment to a driver takes precedence over any applicable auto-assignment rules. The driver will need to complete their assigned portion of the consignment or return/remove it from their device before auto-assignment is possible.
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