Dispatching is the heart of your business operations within Docket which is why the Dispatch Board (page) is so robust. It's designed to provide the power, flexibility, and clarity needed not just for your business today, but for where your business is headed tomorrow.
Its filters allow you to instantly narrow your focus to specific task types, statuses, drivers, or equipment, cutting through the noise and letting you see only what matters in the moment.
Its view options give you control over what information you see so you can create the cleanest possible geographic view for your needs.
Before You Start
Here are a few things to know before you continue:
- We have a training course in the Learning Hub specifically designed to teach you how to successfully dispatch each day by working in the Dispatch Board!
Click here to go to the Learning Hub and log in.
Click here to learn how to log into the Learning Hub.
Click here for more info on our 'Dispatching Dumpster Tasks' course. - If you're already familiar with the different aspects of Docket's Dispatch Board, click here to learn how to work in the Dispatch Board each day. (If you're a new user, the best learning experience is found in our Learning Hub, linked to above.)
- The top-level navigation menu options are sticky, meaning that you can set up your view of the Dispatch Board, navigate to a different section of Docket, and then see that same view when you come back to the Dispatch Board.
Top-Level Navigation Menu
The buttons at the very top of the Dispatch Board offer you some powerful filtering and view options that help you focus on specific criteria, reduce visual noise, and quickly take action on the most relevant items.
Please Note: The filter and view options in the top-level navigation menu apply to all the tasks shown on the Dispatch Board.
Show Tasks / Show Jobs:
By default, you'll always land on the "Show Tasks" version of the Dispatch Board. This view only displays Dumpster and Rental task types, not Tasks or Jobs.
Clicking on the "Show Jobs" button will change your Dispatch board to display only Jobs instead of Dumpster and Rental tasks.
TIP: If you're a roll-off business, you won't be creating Jobs or needing to see them on the Dispatch Board so you can ignore the "Show Jobs" button.
Show/Hide Drivers:
This button controls whether the Driver Info column appears on the Dispatch board for you.
Learn more in the section about this column below.
Show/Hide Outlook:
This button controls whether the day's Outlook appears on the Dispatch board for you.
Basic task details are sorted into the below categories:
- Event Name - these are the types of stops your drivers will make, like task types, Yard names, and Dump names.
- Size - these are the various dumpster sizes being handled throughout the day.
- County - these are the various counties your drivers will be working in.
- City- these are the various cities your drivers will be working in.
You can also use the "Show Failed" and "Hide Failed" buttons in the top right corner to adjust what's shown.
TIP: The Outlook box will stay overlaid on your Dispatch Board until you click the "Hide Outlook" button.
Show/Hide Task and Dump/Yard Locations:
This button controls whether the Task and Dump/Yard Locations column appears on the Dispatch board for you.
Learn more in the section about this column below.
Show Card View / Show Timeline View / Show Map:
These buttons control what view the Dispatch Board displays for you.
Card View is the default view that you'll always land on when clicking into the Dispatch Page and will most likely be using most of the time.
Timeline View will display all the scheduled tasks for the day you're looking at according to each task's scheduled start time.
This view helps you understand which drivers are ahead/behind schedule and where there may be gaps in the day that new tasks can be added into.
TIP: The red line keeps track of the actual time during the day.
If you have the Driver Info column open at the same time, you can click each driver to expand their row and view more tasks.
You can easily drag and drop tasks to different driver rows to reassign the tasks. You can also drag and drop tasks to different times to reschedule them.
Clicking on any task will open its details on the right.
Map View will display all your tasks and locations on the background map while hiding the Tasks and Dump/Yard Locations column.
It provides a dedicated place to see and visually understand where all of your scheduled/assigned tasks and their corresponding drivers' routes are located.
Clicking on a task on the Map gives you a short list of quick actions:
- Add Yard/Dump
- Change Driver
- Unassign
- Unschedule
- Open the task's details
If you have the Driver Info column open at the same time, you can select or deselect certain drivers to show or hide their columns and routes on the map.
Collapse/Expand All:
If you don't want to see each task's details on the task cards, you can collapse all the tasks on the Dispatch Board into smaller rectangular cards.
Filters:
The "Filters" button allows you to narrow your focus to just seeing the specific information you need to at the moment.
Event Types, Statuses, and Readiness all refer to tasks created in your Docket account.
TIP: If the Readiness filters don't seem to change the tasks displayed on the Dispatch Board and/or you're not seeing the 'Ready' / 'Not Ready' indicator at the top of your tasks, double-check that the 'Show Option to Mark Tasks as Ready' setting is turned on in Task Settings.
By default, the Equipment Types, Dumpster Sizes, and Rental Categories Filter fields have all the options preselected. To clear the preselected options, just click the 'x' in each field and select just the options you want to see.
Filters are sticky, meaning that if you click "Apply Filters" to narrow what appears on the Dispatch Board, leave the Board to go to a different section of Docket, and then go back to the Board, you'll still only see the filtered view.
You can quickly check if there are filters applied to your view of the Dispatch Board by looking at the "Filters" button to see if there's a blue dot on it.
A blue dot means you have filters applied that you'll need to reset in order to go back to your full view.
Settings:
This button controls whether the Settings list appears on the Dispatch board for you.
Learn more in the section about these settings below.
Print All Schedules:
This button will immediately open your computer's Print screen so you can print out physical copies of every driver's route.
Each driver's route will begin on a new page so it's easy to sort and staple them all together for each driver that has tasks assigned to them for the day.
TIP: There's a way to just print out individual drivers' routes covered below.
Change Date to Today / Calendar Navigation:
Clicking on each of the arrows next to the day's date will take you forwards or backwards day by day.
Clicking on the day's date will pull up a year-over-year calendar that you can use to jump to a particular date.
Clicking the "Change Date to Today" button jumps you back to the current day you're on.
Please Note: Calendar changes aren't sticky, meaning that if you change the Dispatch Board to a different date, leave the Board to go to a different section of Docket, and then go back to the Board, you'll default back to the current day you're on.
"Optimize Day" Button:
This button will only appear if you have IronRoute AI included in your Docket account.
To learn how to use this button during daily dispatching, please click here.
Search Field:
The Search field at the top of the Dispatch Board can be used to quickly find tasks based on their information.
You can search for tasks using the below information:
- Service Address
- Client Name
- Client Email Address
- Client Phone Number
- PO Number
- Project Name
- Notes (Dispatch, Driver, Office)
- Dumpster Size
- Dumpster Category
- Task Type (Drop Off, Exchange, Dump and Return, Live Load, Pick Up, Relocate, or Service)
- Invoice Number (if attached to task)
- Pricing Type
Driver Info Column
This column holds a list of all your drivers, defined as Employees with the Technician option toggled on in their profile.
TIP: If someone isn't showing in your Driver Info column, confirm that the Technician option is toggled on in their profile.
The Driver Info column allows you to quickly select specific drivers to focus your attention on. The selected drivers will determine which columns are displayed on the Card View as well as which tasks are displayed in the Map view and the Timeline view.
From the Driver Info column, you can click the checkbox next to each driver to show or hide their specific column on the Dispatch board.
A blue checkmark next to the driver's name means that their column will display while an empty checkbox means their column won't display.
This is helpful when a driver is out sick or on vacation so the Dispatch Board only shows drivers working that particular day.
Expanding a driver's card in the Driver Info column gives you a brief list of the assigned tasks they still need to Start/Complete for the day.
As the driver completes their tasks, those will disappear from their card in the Driver Info column (but the completed tasks will still appear in the driver's column).
Search: Use this to quickly find a specific driver by name.
Sort: This holds additional sorting options for the list of drivers in the Driver Info column.
- Alphabetical
- Total Tasks Assigned
- Number of Failed Tasks
- Custom Order
Clicking on the column icon at the top gives you the option to turn on/off the Route Status.
Keeping the Route Status turned on allows a quick understanding of how each driver's route is progressing during the day so you can focus your attention where it may be needed in any moment.
If you have a long list of drivers and a lot of columns to scroll though, you can click on a driver's name and jump straight to that driver's column on the Dispatch Board.
Task and Dump/Yard Locations Column
The list of tasks that appear in this column depend on what section of the column you're looking at.
Unassigned: These tasks haven’t been assigned to a driver for completion yet.
Unscheduled: These tasks are missing a Date under the Scheduling section.
Outstanding: These are tasks that were previously scheduled and assigned to a driver, but weren’t marked as complete.
Yards: This contains a list of your yard locations that you can assign to drivers as stops to make.
Dumps: This contains a list of your dump locations that you can assign to drivers as stops to make.
The list of filtering options at the top of this column gives you even more ways to review the tasks.
Collapse/Expand All: If you don't want to see each task's details on the task cards, you can collapse all the tasks on the Dispatch Board into smaller rectangular cards.
Move Unassigned Tasks: This is a convenient way to move multiple unassigned tasks to a different day without editing each individual task.
TIP: This prompt has it's own filter, sort, and search options so you can easily navigate a long task list.
Filter: This holds all of the same filter options as the main top-level navigation "Filter" button has, but it only filters through the list of tasks in the Task and Dump/Yard Locations column.
Sort: This holds additional sorting options for the list of tasks in the Task and Dump/Yard Locations column.
Search Field: Use this to quickly find tasks through their task type (Drop Off, Pick Up, etc...) or their associated address.
Please Note: The filter and view options in the top-level navigation menu apply to all the tasks shown on the Dispatch Board.
Driver Columns
Each of your drivers (defined as Employees with the Technician option toggled on in their profile) has their own column on the Dispatch Board that contains a list of all of their assigned tasks for the day.
You can easily drag and drop tasks from one driver's column to another and from the Tasks and Dump/Yard Locations column to a driver's column.
At the top of each driver's column, there's a list of additional actions you can take.
Send Text Message: Easily send a text message to a driver using this option.
Please Note: You must have your Local Phone Number set up, enough message credits to send a text message, and have a phone number in the employee's profile in order to use this feature.
Send App Notification: Quickly send in an in-app push notification to a driver instead of a text message. hello
Please Note: The driver must have push notifications enabled in Docket's app settings on their mobile device in order to use this feature.
Create Dumpster Task: Use this to create a Dumpster task that is assigned to this driver by default.
Create Rental Task: Use this to create a Rental task that is assigned to this driver by default.
Create Task: Use this to create a to-do type Task that is assigned to this driver by default.
Assign Vehicle: In order to successfully use IronRoute AI to set up your drivers' routes, each driver must be assigned to a vehicle. Use this to easily assign a vehicle to a driver without leaving the Dispatch Board.
Unassign Vehicle: If a driver already has a vehicle assigned to them, you can use this option to unassign it from them.
Reassign Tasks: If you want to reassign a driver's tasks, you can use this option to individually assign tasks to other drivers or assign all of them to another single driver at once.
Swap Tasks: Use this option to quickly swap one driver's list of tasks to another. There are three ways to swap tasks between two drivers:
- Swap all of Driver 1's tasks to Driver 2 and also swap all of Driver 2's tasks to Driver 1.
- Swap all of Driver 1's tasks to Driver 2.
- Swap all of Driver 2's tasks to Driver 1.
View Employee: Use this to jump to the driver's Employee profile.
View History: Use this to review each driver's activity log for the day.
Locate Employee: Use this to quickly find the driver's pin on the background map to see where they're currently located in that moment.
Please Note: The driver must have location permissions turned on in Docket's mobile app settings on their mobile device in order to use this feature
Print Schedule: Use this to print out a specific driver's route for that day.
Dispatch Board Settings
Clicking the Settings button at the top of the Dispatch Board will open a list of settings specific to the Board that you can use to customize your view.
Enable Drag and Drop: This is ON by default and controls whether or not you can drag and drop tasks across the Dispatch Board.
Show Map on Card View: This is ON by default and controls whether or not the map appears in the background of the Card view.
Total and Completed Task Counts: This is OFF by default and controls whether or not location-related (dump/yard) tasks appear in task counts.
Show Assets: These are OFF by default and controls whether or not you'll see asset-related pins on the map background.
Show Locations: These are OFF by default and controls whether or not you'll see location-related pins on the map background.
Show Extra Tasks: These are OFF by default and controls whether or not you'll see unassigned, unscheduled, and/or outstanding task-related pins on the map background.
Show Device Info: This is OFF by default and controls whether or not certain mobile device information appears at the top of each driver's column.
Show Index Number: This is OFF by default and controls whether or not each task card in every driver's column displays a number indicating their order.
Show Dumpster Size on Map Pins: This is OFF by default and controls whether or not the size of the related dumpster appears in task pins on the map background.
Customize Task Cards: This option is split into two sections:
- Expanded View (task cards square and fully detailed)
- Collapsed View (task cards rectangular and minimally detailed)
Every detail that could be listed on a task card exists in both sections. You can turn on or off certain details that you want displayed or hidden on task cards when they are expanded or collapsed. Most task details will be turned off by default for the collapsed view and all of the tasks and details will be turned on by default for the expanded view.
Dispatching-Related Settings
Outside of the Dispatch Board, there are a few settings related to it that control what appears on the Board and how it works.
Yard & Dump Locations
In order for your yard and dump locations to appear on the Dispatch Board so you can assign them as stops to drivers, they must be set up in the Dumpster Management: Locations area of your Docket account.
Average On-Site Duration
In order for you and/or IronRoute AI to correctly estimate completion times for tasks assigned to each driver, on-site durations must be set up in the Dumpster Management: Scheduling Options area of your Docket account.
Route ETA Mode
In order for you and/or IronRoute AI to correctly estimate the timing of each of your drivers' routes, you'll want to make sure that the 'Use Routing ETA' option is turned on in the Routing ETA area of your Docket account.
Turning this on means that Docket will use road-based travel time instead of straight-line distance.
If you have any questions, please reach out to our Support team through the chat widget on the bottom of this page or by sending an email to support@yourdocket.com!