This is the main journey in Yard Visit Portal. Carrier dispatchers need to schedule on behalf of drivers slot appointments that buyers and suppliers have assigned in their yards in order to avoid congestion. Every Route Manifest and Yard Visit has a schedule appointment button as its main action. When this icon is clicked, they enter the “scheduling flow” (above), where dispatchers see a list of yards drivers will have to stop for pick up or delivery and for which appointments need to be scheduled. Each yard will initially show max seven available slots, but clicking “All slots” displays the full list available on the day or date range.
By removing unavailable slots we were able to add more useful information to carriers. Clicking on “Yard Information” shows a map of the yard and safety requirements.
Scheduling helpers
The scheduling helpers modal can be found clicking on the "Yard Information" link in the scheduling flow.
In Yard Visit Portal we want to make the experience of planning a yard visit as smooth as possible and if the new UI is not enough, then the scheduling helpers will hopefully make the difference.
They’re not one but a series of features to give carrier dispatchers more yard insights.
Yard Map (Trimble Maps)
Yard Visit Portal is integrated with Trimble Maps so that carriers dispatchers can a birds-eye-view of a yard and gauge the complexity their carriers will have to deal with and plan accordingly.
Safety standards
Carrier dispatchers can view the yard's safety standards.
Requirements checklist
Despite being called a checklist, we are not forcing dispatchers to check them at the point of scheduling anymore as we see it more as a guide for driver allocation. Proper checking will be done at the yard arrival.
Appointment details
Once ta slot has been selected, the carrier dispatcher will usually need to add extra information required by yard managers, those usually are: driver name, mobile number, vehicle information etc.
We understand that this is currently a pain as dispatchers want to guarantee their slot but don't know which driver/vehicle will be assigned to the job until a few days in advance.
In next-gen TSM, yard managers have the option to make these non-mandatory. So please talk to your yard manager partner to relax their rules as dispatchers adding placeholders such as a dot "." in place of a driver name will not make their yard safer or their data quality better.