What's New

Welcome to the What's New page.

This topic lists information about previous releases of Verizon Connect® Dispatch™ and what has been improved in each version.

The current release is 1920 (May 2019). Information regarding this release can be found below.
 

May 2019

New Features and Enhancements

•Added a new "Detailed" style to the map. This new map style closely resembles the default high contrast and high color map appearance used in previous releases of Dispatch. Switch between the new high contrast "Detailed" map style, the existing "Low Contrast" map style, and the "Satellite" map view using the Map View button located on the map toolbar.
•Added a new Route Color button to the map toolbar. Use this button to change the color of routes and jobs drawn on the map, and to differentiate these from nearby or overlapping routes that use similar colors. Only available when when using the 'Color By Route' map mode.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed a bug that caused animated route traces drawn on the map between stops to move too quickly.
•Corrected a fault that could allow more than one "timeout" error dialog to be shown at the same time.
•Fixed a bug that caused an exception message to be shown when selecting "All Territories" from the territory selector, and then clicking the Create Route button.
•Fixed a bug that could stop breaks from being added, or existing breaks from being edited, in routes.

 

April 2019

New Features and Enhancements

•Renamed the Verizon Connect® Plan™ and Verizon Connect® Plan & Response™ products to Verizon Connect® Dispatch™.
•Added a new option to the Job Color Selector menu above the map: 'Color by Route'. When this option is selected, jobs drawn on the map that are assigned to a route use the same color currently used to highlight their route on the map.
•Added a new Show All Routes button to the column header of the Daily Routes grid. Click this button to draw all routes in the grid on the map. If routes are currently drawn on the map, click this button to hide them all.
•Updated the map to improve the visibility of highlighted routes and jobs, and map loading speeds. As part of this change, the map can now be rotated and tilted using your mouse. Click and drag the new Reset button in the bottom right corner of the map with your mouse, or right-click and drag the map with your mouse, left or right to rotate the map view or up and down to tilt the map.
•Updated the behavior of the Advanced Filter icon located above the Jobs List. This button now changes to a narrower, compact version when surrounding space is not available.
•Updated the new Job Overview dialog box to display the position number of the job in a route if the job is assigned to a route, and to add left and right arrows to move between the other jobs on the route.
•Updated the Create Route dialog box to automatically populate the start and end depot sections with the selected driver's base marker and (if applicable) secondary location.
•Removed the Optimize button on the Daily Routes panel as a default feature in all accounts. When accidentally pressed, this button could cause unwanted changes to routes. If you require this feature, contact support. To manually optimize routes without this button, use Rebuild Existing Routes.
•Removed the Always Show Stops option from the map tool bar. This button was used to toggle on or off the permanent visibility of stops on highlighted routes.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed a fault that caused an error to be shown when saving a driver's details without a base location.
•Fixed an error shown when creating a new route with "All Territories" selected from the territories menu.
•Corrected a timeout message that could be shown when using Dispatch on networks with unusually high lag.

 

March 2019

New Features and Enhancements

•Added support for adding secondary location for drivers. This additional location can be used as either the start or end depot when building routes for the driver.
•Added the option to manually enable or disable the Capacity Metrics feature. This option is only available in Dispatch, and only for suitably configured 'main' users.
•Added the new Job Overview dialog box, on which you can view a summary of a job, and perform actions such as editing, deleting, assigning or unassigning. This overview can be opened instead of the Edit Jobs dialog box when clicking a job name in the Jobs List, if configured to do so.
•Added the ability to see jobs and routes completed up to one week in the past. Previously, only jobs and routes on the current day, or for future days, could be viewed.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed an exception message shown after selecting a recurring job and then hiding the map.
•Corrected a fault that could prevent route selection when using the Group by Date feature.
•Fixed a caching fault that could stop routes being built, and an error message to be shown, if experiencing unusually high network delays.
•Fixed a bug that caused the advanced filter in the Recurring Jobs screen to replace previously-specified operators in a multi-query filter operation with the initial and default 'Property' operator.
•Corrected a fault that stopped the time on site and time window values in recurring jobs inheriting the default values from their job type.
•Fixed a bug that caused the allowed days in a job time window to change when changing the job type.
•Fixed a error message shown after saving a driver without a base location and then attempting to edit the driver details again.

 

February 2019

New Features and Enhancements

•Added support for all global currency symbols, including euro (€) and pound (£) currency symbols, in addition to the existing dollars ($), in cost fields (Route Cost, Total Cost, Group Costs, Build Route Costs etc.), and to cost grid column headings. The currency symbol displayed is determined by your regional and language settings (configured from the User tab of the main platform Settings dialog).
•Improved the visibility of the completed segments of real-time routes on the map. These segments now use darker colors.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed a user interface issue that cut off some toolbar items when viewing at lower screen resolutions. These buttons are now visible at resolutions of 1240x960 and higher.
•Corrected a bug that could stop build route operations completing successfully, resulting in an error message being shown.
•Fixed a fault that could stop the Edit Vehicle dialog opening if an account did not have the load management feature.
•Fixed a bug that prevented assignment of shift patterns on the Drivers screen when using the Set Shift Pattern button and the 'select all' checkbox if more than one page of drivers was available.
•Corrected a bug that stopped the History panel listing unsuccessful job assignment operations, and displaying faulty links to jobs and routes.
•Fixed a problem that could allow drivers to have more than shift pattern assignment for the same time period when importing shift patterns.
•Fixed a bug that caused time zone changes in a territory to change the actual start or end time of routes.
•Corrected a user interface issue that reduced the visibility of some icons in the Jobs List and Daily Routes grid when a job or route was selected.
•Fixed a bug that allowed a route to remain visible in the Route Timeline after changing territory.

 

January 2019

New Features and Enhancements

•Added a new role right to allow or restrict access to the Optimize button above the Daily Routes grid. This right also controls access to the Shift+O optimize routes keyboard shortcut. Users that are not assigned this right can still manually modify and re-sequence routes. This role right is controlled and assigned from the Roles screen located under the Tasks section of the navigation menu.
•Added support for linked stops. These are stops that must be performed immediately after another stop, with no intermediate stops. Linked stops are used to ensure that jobs are completed in the required order: for example pick-ups ahead of drop-offs.
•Updated the Create Job dialog box to use location hints based on the current map view when searching for addresses in the Location field. This ensures that address suggestions are suitable for the map location (for example, street address suggestions in New York when the map is centered over New York).
•Updated the minimum supported Fixed Time On Site for Job Types to 30 seconds rather than one minute (configured from the Defaults tab of the Job Types screen). This change improves consistency with the rest of the platform.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed a bug that could allow locked jobs from the previous day to be modified when performing a route building operation for a given day.
•Corrected a fault that caused the map width to reset if the height of the map was adjusted.

 

December 2018

New Features and Enhancements

•Added the new advanced filter system to the Jobs List.
•Added support for the Ctrl+Enter keyboard shortcut to all dialog boxes. Use this shortcut to trigger the primary button on any dialog box: typically Save or OK.
•Added the new 'Linked Job Marker' and 'Linked Job Time on Site' columns to the Jobs List. Only available in accounts that support linked jobs.
•Added support for saving and closing dialog boxes by pressing Ctrl+Enter on your keyboard, when the Save button is highlighted.
•Updated the behavior of the Create Job button to disable automatically when the current subuser account has only read-only rights.
•Updated the display of shift timestamps to use truncation rather than rounding, improving their consistency with values shown elsewhere in Dispatch.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Corrected a fault that allowed all days to be selectable from the Time Windows tab of the Edit Job dialog box, when not all days had been specified as available.
•Fixed a bug that caused grid contextual menu options that should have been available for selected jobs and routes to be temporarily unavailable.
•Fixed a fault that allowed jobs on a route to be shown on the Jobs List for the following day, but not the route on the Daily Routes grid, when the route's shift ended at midnight.
•Fixed a problem that stopped Hours of Service checks being performed before saving a new or updated shift pattern.
•Corrected a bug that could prevent a second job being created immediately after creating an initial job.
•Corrected an alignment problem that resulted in columns appearing too far to the right of the Jobs List when adding a new custom property.
•Fixed a minor cosmetic tool-tip bug in the Jobs List that caused 'Route Menu' to be shown instead of 'Job Menu'
•Fixed a console error message displayed when creating a Scenario in Dispatch.
•Miscellaneous changes and improvements in preparation for upcoming major features.

 

November 2018

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Miscellaneous changes and improvements.

 

October 2018

New Features and Enhancements

•Added three new columns to the Jobs List: 'Time Window', 'Time Window 2', and 'Requested Dates'; and removed two columns: 'Earliest Arrival', and 'Latest Arrival'. These changes are designed to reduce confusion when importing and viewing jobs with two time windows.
•Improved the consistency of the Create buttons used on the Territories, Job Types, Shifts, Shift Patterns, Recurring Jobs, and Capacity Metrics screens.
•Improved the ordering of shifts on the Shifts screen to reflect their correct order on each day based on start time.
•Updated the 'Weight Limit' column on the platform Vehicles list to display the System Weight capacity metric's weight unit (kg, lb. etc.) when specified in Dispatch.
•Updated the behavior of the Recurring Jobs import system, making secondary time windows values optional rather than mandatory.
•Updated the job filtering tool to support filter queries for job loads of arbitrary capacity metrics, and removed the previous 'load' filter query option ('job.load').

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed a fault that could result in unassigned jobs locking temporarily when hovered over with a mouse cursor.
•Corrected a bug that could stop capacity metric weight units saving correctly.
•Fixed a fault that prevented the System Weight capacity metric unit type displaying correctly on the Edit Vehicle and Edit Capacity Limits dialog boxes.
•Fixed a problem that could stop shift patterns importing correctly from the Shift Patterns screen.
•Corrected a fault that caused the Jobs List 'Time on Site' column to display incorrect durations (one day longer than the actual duration) when specifying unusually long Time on Site values.
•Fixed a problem that stopped more than 25 shift patterns from being specified. Up to 150 shift patterns are now permitted.

 

September 2018

New Features and Enhancements

•Added option-controlled support for importing linked stops using the job importer, and corresponding mapping fields on the importer tool. Linked stops use three new fields: 'LinkedStopJobID', 'LinkedStopMarkerID', and 'LinkedStopTimeOnSite'.
•Added support for displaying up to four capacity metric columns, including System Weight, to the platform Vehicles list.
•Added support for more than one driver shift per day.
•Updated the Recurring Jobs system to allow all fields, including the 'Allowed Days' field on the Frequency tab, to be edited. Custom properties remain read-only.
•Improved the capacity metrics system to display the unit type used for the System Weight metric on all relevant screens, dialog boxes and tool-tips; and to use the user's default weight unit when creating a system weight.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed a bug that caused jobs to be assigned to a new route using drag-and-drop before the mouse button had been released.
•Corrected a fault that caused new critical violations to be shown to customers when no edits or changes had been made.
•Fixed a bug that displayed raw code when specifying a recurring job name containing HTML.
•Fixed a fault that stopped new capacity metrics being added even though fewer than the maximum of four capacity metrics existed.
•Corrected a fault on the Overview tab of the Recurring Jobs screen that caused all 'Time On Site' values of less than 60 seconds to be shown as 0 seconds.
•Corrected an error message that could be shown when editing 'Preferred Driver', 'Priority', or 'Job Type' values.

 

August 2018

New Features and Enhancements

•Improved the capacity metrics system. If your subscription includes this feature, now will now see a single 'system weight' metric (measured in pounds, kilograms, metric tonnes, US short tons, or UK long tons) that cannot be removed, and up to three additional capacity metrics of your choice, for a new maximum of four load capacity metrics. All capacity metrics now include a utilization percentage column in the Daily Routes grid. As part of this upgrade, the previous 'Weight' and 'Volume' options have been removed from most customer accounts, together with the 'Description' field.
•Improved the filtering tool in the Recurring Jobs screen to support advanced filtering of jobs using comparison operators such as 'is', 'is not', 'less than', 'less than or equal to', 'greater than', and 'greater than or equal to'.
•Added the new 'Driving Hours' columns to the Daily Routes grid to complement the driving violation column if a driver has exceeded their maximum number of hours. This column is disabled by default.
•Updated the names of the 'Arrival Time', 'Departure Time', 'Actual Arrival Time', and 'Actual Departure Time' columns on the Jobs List. These are now 'Planned Arrival, 'Planned Departure', 'Actual Arrival', and 'Actual Departure'.
•Updated the minimum supported 'Depot Time on Site' duration, specified as the default for territories or individually for routes. Previously, the minimum duration supported was one minute.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed a bug that caused right-clicking in the Jobs List to open the browser's context menu rather than the Dispatch context menu.
•Corrected a problem on the Create Job and Create Route dialog boxes that caused an error to be thrown after typing in a territory name that did not exist.
•Fixed a fault that could stop routes building and cause an error to be thrown when building a route if the route's driver and vehicle were assigned to different territories.
•Fixed a problem that incorrectly hid the 'Load Management Volume' section on the Units tab of the main Settings dialog from main accounts that had support for the Load Management feature.
•Fixed a bug that stopped new driver breaks saving correctly on the Shifts screen.

 

July 2018

New Features and Enhancements

•Moved Dispatch and all job-related activities, including the Recurring Jobs, Job Types, Capacity Metrics, Job Import and Territories screens from their current locations within the Main and Tasks sections of the main menu to a new Jobs & Routes menu section.
•Improved item selection behavior on the Jobs List and the Daily Routes grids to allow Shift-Click and Ctrl-Click selection of items by clicking blank areas within rows.
•Updated the minimum supported 'Time on Site' duration for jobs to 30 seconds. Previously, the minimum duration supported was one minute.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Corrected the vertical alignment of content shown in most text fields and drop-down boxes. Previously, text values were rendered slightly too high within these boxes.
•Fixed a bug that stopped the Violations column on the Violations panel ever showing text.
•Fixed a a fault that could stop sorting of routes in the Daily Routes grid by 'Start Time' if the routes occurred in different months.
•Corrected a problem that stopped ticking the check box as the top of the Jobs List appearing to have selected all jobs in the grid, despite all jobs actually being selected.
•Fixed an out of range exception thrown when attempting to assign a job to a route, rather than gracefully alerting of a failed assignment operation.
•Corrected a cosmetic issues when using the Edge or Internet Explorer browsers that caused selected jobs in the Route Timeline to contain an extra border.
•Fixed a bug that could allow the interface to enter a permanent loop and lock up when attempting to recalculate the cost of a route.
•Fixed a fault that could result in jobs being automatically assigned to routes when dragged over areas in the user interface that do not support this action.
•Corrected a problem that prevented shift time calculations updating after editing the shift's 'Max Hours' and 'Latest End Time' values.
•Fixed a cosmetic issue that could add a blue border to progress icons shown on the Jobs List.

 

June 2018

New Features and Enhancements

•Added support for 'Tags', 'Driver Requires', 'Vehicle Requires', and 'Forbidden Drivers' to the recurring job importer system, and support for secondary time windows.
•Added the new 'Same Side Routing' column to the Daily Routes grid. If an icon () is shown in this column, the turn-by-turn directions of the route beside it ensure that the vehicle approaches stops on the same side of the road as the stop entrance, preventing crossing the street and oncoming lanes of traffic. If there is no icon, the route will be generated without taking the side of the stop into consideration.
•Added the new 'Last Modified' column to the Daily Routes and Jobs List grids. This column shows the time and date that details of a job or route were last changed, allowing them to be sorted.
•Added the new 'Update marker details if ID already exists' checkbox option to the Marker Import tool to selected whether to overwrite or update the details of an existing marker, if present in an import file.
•Added support for 'Max Driving Time' critical route violation when using Hours of Service, accessible from the Plan tab of the main Settings dialog box ('Driver over max driving time').
•Added buttons to open the Route History and Job History panels to the bottom left corners of the Edit Job and Edit Route dialog boxes.
•Improved the performance of job unassignment operations. Previously, these operations could take more than 60 seconds to complete.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed a bug that allowed routes that ended at the 'Time Range Start' to be incorrectly included in route rebuild operations.
•Corrected an 'Invalid Name' exception when renaming a job or route with no characters (that is, a blank name).
•Fixed a cosmetic problem that cropped the edge of the 'Shift and Driver Availability' calendar on the Shift tab of the Edit Driver dialog box.
•Corrected a bug that stopped the Shift Override calendar working correctly immediately after creating a new driver.
•Fixed a fault that caused Shift Overrides to be created one day after the selected date when selecting a computer time zone of 'PST'.
•Corrected a cosmetic bug that allowed line break code to be seen on Job History windows.
•Fixed a fault that could prevent time windows running from midnight to midnight saving correctly.
•Fixed a bug that stopped job assignment results displaying correctly after a failed auto-assignment operation.
•Corrected a bug that stopped the Job Dialog opening, when closing and opening the dialog several times in rapid succession.
•Removed an exception thrown when using secondary time windows in recurring job import files.
•Fixed a fault that could cause the 'Return to Depot' options to be removed from the Routing Settings tab of the Territories screen.

 

May 2018

New Features and Enhancements

•Added column sorting to the 'Violations' column on the Jobs List and the Daily Routes grid.
•Updated the time format shown on the Recurring Jobs screen to remove seconds precision, thereby conforming with the time formatting used elsewhere in the platform.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Corrected a memory leak associated with the Create Route dialog box.
•Fixed a cosmetic bug that allowed the context menu icon () to remain visible when clicking on grid and list items.
•Corrected a missing text translation for configuration errors on the Violations window's group heading.
•Fixed a bug that could result in the Jobs List column headings losing synchronization with column values after changing to a different territory.
•Fixed a cosmetic problem that resulted in the incorrect alignment of depot icons rendered on the map. The icon's position has been adjusted one pixel to the left.
•Corrected a fault that could stop all routing activities after requesting a recommend routes operation.
•Fixed a bug that stopped special characters being recognized or accepted in the 'Name' field on the 'Details' tab of the Recurring Jobs screen.
•Fixed a fault that moved the base date, start date and end date of recurring jobs back one day every time the recurring job was modified and saved.
•Corrected a fault that causes the Shift Override calendar to crash, and exception errors to be shown, when it was used to override days without shifts.
•Fixed a fault that could cause a rebuild routes operation to remove the assigned jobs from existing routes.

 

April 2018

New Features and Enhancements

•Added the new Shift Override feature which can be used to specify a different shift on specific days for individual drivers, overriding their default shift patterns. This calendar-based tool can also be used to indicate days that drivers are unavailable (for example, if they are sick or on vacation).
•Added a new Re-evaluate () button to the menu bar above the Daily Routes grid. This button is used to recalculate route costs, distances, driving times and violations, without performing a new optimization or re-sequencing operation.
•Added shortcut () buttons to various tabs on the Edit Route and Edit Job dialog boxes. These buttons allow you to instantly view the details of each item in the Job Types, Edit Driver, Edit Vehicle, Marker Details, Territories and Capacity Metrics dialog boxes and screens.
•Added easy access to contextual menus on the Jobs List and Daily Routes grids. Click the three blue dots () to the right of jobs and routes shown on these grids to open their contextual menus and perform additional tasks relating to routes and jobs.
•Added a Layout Toggle above the map. This toggle control includes five options that are used to indicate which of the available Dispatch panels you want visible or hidden.
•Added support for ascending and descending sorting of custom property columns in the Jobs List, and to the grid shown when selecting a new shift from the Shift Override calendar.
•Updated the Jobs List and Daily Routes grids to display driver names under the 'Driver' and 'Preferred Driver' columns, marker names under the 'Marker' column, and job numbers under the 'Jobs' column as links. Use these to open the Edit Driver and Marker Details dialog boxes, or to filter the jobs shown in the Jobs List to include only jobs assigned to a route.
•Improved the tooltips shown above the Resequence and Optimize buttons above the Daily Routes grid to better explain how the two operations differ.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Improved the 'Notes' tab of the Recurring Jobs screen to remove the impression that the non-editable Marker Notes field could be edited.
•Removed visible code shown on the Violation panel when a violation existed on a route that included an ampersand in its name.
•Corrected a missing translation description shown on the Violations panel for violations that relate to a route's configuration.
•Fixed a persistence failure on the Recurring Jobs screen when choosing custom properties from the column selection tool. The chosen columns are now shown when later returning to the screen, rather than being reset.
•Corrected a fault that stopped job assignment results being shown, despite the 'Show Job Assignment Results' checkbox being selected on the Plan Settings dialog box.

 

March 2018

New Features and Enhancements

•Updated all login screens, terms and conditions, company names and logos within the platform to use updated 'Verizon Connect' branding. See https://www.verizonconnect.com/customer-brand-announcement/ for more information.
•Updated various pages (including the Capacity Metrics screen) to include grids and pagination options (next, previous, last, first, and direct page number entry).
•Updated the previous 'candy bar' button icon used to draw a route highlight on the map with a new 'eye' icon ().
•Changed the 'Show Job Insertion Results' checkbox text on the Plan Preferences dialog box to 'Show Job Assignment Results'.
•Added all visible columns to the column selection tool. Previously, columns that were always enabled such as 'Description' and 'Load Time', were not listed.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Removed a browser memory leak caused by the Create Job and Edit Job dialogs.
•Fixed a bug that could cause 'invalid date' to be shown on the User History panel if using DD/MM/YYYY formatted dates.
•Fixed a problem that could stop jobs being drawn on the map when selecting or de-selecting all jobs. As part of this fix, a maximum of 200 jobs can now be selected in the Jobs List or viewed on the map.
•Corrected a bug that stopped search results in the UK being displayed on the first attempt when create a job.
•Fixed an exception that could be thrown when opening the Recurring Jobs screen, and a system freeze on the same screen triggered when a non-administrative user attempted to view a recurring job that used markers the user did not have access to.

 

February 2018

New Features and Enhancements

•Added the new 'Days' column to the Jobs List grid. This column details the permitted days of the week that a job can be serviced. Days of the week are represented by single letters, beginning with Monday (M) at the far left and ending on Sunday (S) at the far right. Available days are shown using dark text, while unavailable days are shown using light text.
•Added the new Custom Properties tab to the recurring jobs setup screen. This tab is used to view read-only job properties, if present, after importing jobs from an external service such as Verizon Connect® Data Exchange™ or Verizon Connect® Scenarios™.
•Added the new 'Forbidden Drivers' field to the Details tab of the recurring jobs setup screen. This option allows drivers to be specified that will never be assigned to complete these recurring jobs.
•Improved the User History system by adding a history type selector. This allows you to see historical changes made by all users by selecting the All drop-down option, or to see only changes made by the viewing account by selecting Mine.
•Consolidated all rights associated with Dispatch on the platform Roles screen under the new 'Work Management' section.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Updated all instances of 'Schedule' in the user interface to use the term 'Recurring Jobs' in order to reduce confusion about the purpose of this feature.
•Fixed a bug that stopped job time windows accepting values that used 24-hour formatting after changing region (from the 'User' tab of the main 'Settings' dialog).
•Corrected an issue that caused the 'Location' suggestion list (on the Job Details tab of th Create Job dialog box) to close immediately, stopping any suggestion from being selected.
•Fixed an exception that could be thrown after clicking a job row in the Jobs List.

 

January 2018

New Features and Enhancements

•Added a territory drop-down menu to the recurring jobs system to filter the list of recurring jobs to include only those within the selected territory, and a new search bar to filter the list by recurring job name.
•Added an informational tool tip to the Create Job dialog box (above the arrow location selector) to explain why the arrow button is disabled (the current account does not have permission to create markers or to set marker categories).
•Added a refresh button to the Capacity Metrics screen avoid the need to close and then re-open the screen.
•Added the new 'Hide' option for 'No driver assigned to route' and 'No vehicle assigned to route' warnings. Selecting this warning option hides the corresponding route violation on the 'Violations' column, and the Violations dialog box.
•Updated the appearance of the Plan tab of the main Settings dialog, widening the violation drop-down menus, removing the sorting feature and the grid lines, and changing the table heading text.
•Updated the date format used on the recurring jobs panels to match the date form used elsewhere in Dispatch, rather than a hard-coded short date format.
•Updated the name of the 'Base Date' field on the Shift tab of the Edit Driver dialog box to 'Anchor Date'.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed a fault that could stop the Jobs List loading correctly when attempting to load jobs.
•Fixed a bug that limited Time On Site to a maximum of 12 hours when specifying a recurring job via the user interface, but up to 24 hours when importing a job as a file. Both now permit up to 24 hours.
•Corrected a problem that could cause an exception message to be shown when clicking on the map.

 

December 2017

New Features and Enhancements

•Added the new shift, shift pattern and shift break import systems. These allow shifts to be imported or created, then assigned to shift patterns describing one or more driver work days. In the future, these shift patterns will be assignable to drivers, taking priority over territory shift defaults.
•Added the new recurring jobs system, used to configure jobs that repeat at specified intervals. These recurring jobs can be created using the new recurring jobs user interface, or imported as CSV files. This feature has been introduced in preparation for the future automatic creation of repeating jobs in Dispatch.
•Added a new 'Job Violations' column to the Jobs List grid.
•Deprecated the 'QuickRoute' and 'Schedule' product names. All previous QuickRoute functionality continues to be provided, however.
•Moved the day start time and route card map settings from the 'Dispatch' tab of the main platform Settings dialog into the Plan Preferences dialog.
•Improved the appearance of route highlights and job icons on the map with new border and outline styles that make them easier to see.
•Improved Dispatch's date handling when crossing midnight in the currently-selected territory. The date selector now automatically updates to the correct day, but continues to show the day as 'Today'. The Daily Routes grid also updates, showing routes scheduled for the start of the new day.
•Improved the behavior of the History panel. Previously, the panel was updated as soon as Dispatch was opened. This could result in an unwanted duplication of values and the subsequent display of error messages. The History panel now only requests data after it has been opened.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed a bug that stopped routes refreshing correctly, and that could cause them to be locked.
•Corrected a fault that prevented location searches on the Create Job dialog box returning results until the Location field was re-selected using the mouse cursor.
•Fixed a fault that stopped the 'Marker Name' column being shown on the Jobs List.
•Corrected a fault that could stop job names being shown on the Violations panel.
•Fixed a bug that resulted on horizontal scrollbars appearing after adjusting the column layout of the Jobs List grid.

 

November 2017

New Features and Enhancements

•Added support for job time windows. These windows, which specify the times of day and the days of the week that a job can be serviced, are configured from the Time Windows tab of the Add Job and Edit Job dialog boxes. Up to two time windows to be specified for a job, together with the days of the week that the job can and cannot be serviced. Jobs are not routed outside their specified windows.
•Improved the behavior of the map when opening Dispatch. Previously, the map could initialize before a suitable depot location and map center had been found, resulting in the map loading and then immediately panning. The map now initializes only after the map center has been determined, preventing unnecessary panning.
•Added support for the Ctrl+Enter keyboard combination to save or acknowledge opened or edited dialog boxes. Note that this combination selects the default button on a dialog, which might also include the 'Close' or 'Cancel' buttons in some dialog boxes.
•Updated the appearance of job tool tips. These now include the job type in their headings. In addition, when hovering your mouse over a map location with several jobs, the tool tip now displays the details of up to three of these jobs as a 'stacked' tool tip.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Corrected a fault that stopped edited Job Type names (updated from the Job Types screen) from being shown under the 'Job Type' column in the Jobs List.
•Fixed a bug that removed the time value labels shown on the Gantt chart when using the grouping feature.
•Fixed a cosmetic bug that caused the height of the lower border around the drag-and-drop assignment box to be less than the upper border.
•Corrected a fault that caused some future jobs that should have been editable to be locked.
•Fixed an edge case that could allow job icons to overlap one another on the Daily Routes Gantt chart.
•Corrected a fault that caused unwanted text to be shown on the Violations dialog box.
•Fixed a bug that could cause the check box column to disappear from the Daily Routes grid when adjusting the order of grid columns.

 

October 2017

New Features and Enhancements

•Added the new Violations panel, containing details of all critical and non-critical route violations detected on a given day within a single territory.
•Added separate 'Time On Site' duration values for route start and end locations (configured from the Create Route dialog box), and as default settings for territories on the platform Territories screen (Routing Settings tab).
•Updated the right-click Route and Job contextual menus so the route 'Edit' option changes according to route state (that is, to either 'Edit' or 'View') and to ensure that only 'Select' or 'Deselect' is shown at the same time, not both.
•Updated the territory picker in the upper right corner above the map to be case-sensitive (A-Z, then a-z).
•Updated all Dispatch customer accounts to permit access to the Job Importer tool. Previously, some customer account configurations prevented access to this tool.
•Improved the translation coverage of violation types shown to users. Previously, some of these types were not presented in a friendly, human-readable form.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Corrected an exception message thrown when attempting to create a territory that used the same name as an existing territory.
•Fixed a fault that could cause routes for the wrong dates to be shown when selecting 'All Territories' and the available territories extended across multiple time zones.
•Corrected a bug that could hide imported jobs from the Route Timeline if there were no depots specified in the import file.
•Fixed a bug that stopped new jobs being created with a default priority setting of 'Normal'.

 

September 2017

New Features and Enhancements

•Added a link to view the job history from the Job contextual menu and a link to view the route history from the Route contextual menu.
•Added a new option to the Plan Preferences dialog box to automatically clear the filter when the item selection in a list is also cleared.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed a bug that resulted in read-only users always seeing a route count of zero when looking at grouped sections.
•Corrected a bug that allowed dialog boxes to be taller than the Dispatch screen, hiding their Close and Save buttons and making them impossible to close.
•Fixed a map bug that caused jobs for new routes to be hidden on the map when selecting the new route if other jobs were already showing on map.
•Fixed a bug that stopped some customers opening the Settings dialog after saving changes.
•Corrected a problem when auto-assigning a job to a route that was too far away that could cause Dispatch to freeze rather than display a 'job too far from route' warning message.
•Fixed a fault that could cause the Daily Routes Gantt chart to incorrectly draw a route.
•Fixed a fault that caused the calendar picker tool to show the wrong date (the previous day rather than the current day).

 

August 2017

New Features and Enhancements

•Updated the multi-day grouping feature to include grouping of routes by day, as well as by driver.
•Added new informational tooltips to the circular 'draw routes on map' buttons located on the multi-day calendar day/date grouping sections.
•Updated the Dispatch user interface to better support custom branding and colors.
•Improved tooltip handling of long text message. These messages are no longer shown in their entirety to prevent excessively large dialog box sizes.
•Changed the default and initial map view (the map center location and zoom level) to include all depots in the currently selected territory and, if 'All Territories' is selected, all depots across all territories.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed a tooltip error on the Jobs List show/hide buttons that resulted in their text failing to update to reflect the current action of the button.
•Corrected a problem that could stop the route build period including all of a given day if the day included a change in daylight savings time.
•Corrected a fault that could significantly delay highlighting of large collections of routes on the map (using the contextual menu option Selection > View on map). Under these conditions, route highlights are now drawn instantly as straight lines between jobs until the underlying road path is calculated. Once calculated, the highlight is then updated to include correct turn-by-turn route highlights.
•Fixed a bug that could stop the calendar tool closing after a date had been selected when using the Microsoft Edge browser.
•Fixed several faults that prevented the advanced search tool in the Jobs List clearing correctly when an account included the new multi-day calendar system.
•Fixed a bug that could hide jobs assigned to a route from the map, despite the number of jobs being lower than the maximum number displayable on the map (100).
•Corrected a bug that could cut off the utilization bars (when using the grouping feature) on lower resolution displays.
•Fixed the horizontal alignment of the check boxes in grouped route sections.
•Corrected a bug that could allow a locked job to be assigned to another route by dragging it from the map to a different route in the Daily Routes List.

 

July 2017

New Features and Enhancements

•Added the option to display routes scheduled for up to seven consecutive days when using the new multi-day date picker. Previously, only routes for a single day could be shown. This new feature can also be used to group routes by their drivers.
•Added a new Unassign button to the Jobs List toolbar. This button is used to unassign the selected jobs (chosen using the job check boxes) in the Jobs List from their currently assigned routes.
•Added support for the existing 'StopLoadOverVehicleCapacity' violation type, generated by the RouteCloud optimizer when using the capacity metrics feature, to the 'Violations' dialog box.
•Updated the formatting of various 'Load Time' labels on the Add Job and Edit Job dialog boxes to use the '00h:00m:00s' format, with unit indication letters, rather than the previous '00:00:00' format.
•Updated the appearance of tooltips shown when dragging a job to a route in the Daily Routes List or on the map, or to a new position within an assigned route, and the color of the 'Auto Assign' and 'Unassign' drag regions. These are now blue.
•Updated the 'Weight Utilization' and 'Volume Utilization' metric columns in the grouped driver view to display values using a graphical progress bar rather than only as a number.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Fixed several error messages that could be generated when attempting to automatically assign a job to a route using the Auto Assign button on the Jobs List toolbar.
•Fixed a bug that caused routes shown on the Violations dialog not to display their names. These routes were instead labeled as 'Unnamed Route'.
•Corrected a configuration error that stopped some customers with a Dispatch subscription from seeing the 'Route Cards' section on the Plan tab of the main Settings dialog. This setting is used to specify whether PDF route cards include maps and, if they do, what type.

 

8.1

New Features and Enhancements

•Added support for comma currency formatting to the 'Total Cost' value above the Routes List when displaying high-cost routes.
•Added the new Clear Selection on Task Start checkbox option to the Plan Preferences dialog box. Select this checkbox to automatically clear your checkbox selection once a task has been performed on that selection.
•Updated the 'Total Cost' field to always display the current route cost and the most recent cost change, if any (in red with an upward-facing arrow if the cost change was an increase, or green with a downward-facing arrow if the cost change was a reduction). Previously, cost changes were shown only briefly and then hidden.
•Updated the job status name of 'Unassigned' in the jobs filter drop-down list above the Jobs List to 'Unassigned (Current Day)' to better differentiate it from the 'Unassigned +/-7 Days' status.
•Removed the 'User Arrival Time' and 'User Departure Time' columns from the Jobs List and the column picker. Times converted to your time zone rather than the time zone at the job location are now shown in a tool tip when hovering your mouse over a time value.
•Fixed a bug that could cause the continuous recalculation of route costs if no depots had been specified for the route.
•Fixed a fault that could generate an error if jobs were unassigned from several territories at once when using the 'All Territories' territory filter option.

 

8.0

New Features and Enhancements

•Updated the Dispatch interface with an all-new appearance, including new colors, buttons, features, and functionality.
•Added a new Plan Preferences dialog box, accessed from the upper right corner of the screen. This dialog box includes options for specifying what route and job actions require manual confirmation to proceed, and the default state of the Route Timeline (that is, whether it is open or closed when Plan is launched).
•Added a Job Assignment column to the Jobs List panel. From here, you can now automatically assign jobs to new routes, and quickly identify unassigned jobs, using simple circular icon buttons.
•Added a new "select all" checkbox tool to the Jobs List. This feature is used to select up to 100 jobs with a single mouse click.
•Added the new job status of "Unassigned +/- 7 days" to the job status filter drop-down. Choosing this option will cause the Jobs List to display only unassigned jobs from the previous seven days relative to the selected calendar day, and the following seven days, in addition to the currently selected calendar day (a total of 15 days).
•Added a new Information () button at the top of the Daily Routes panel to open and close the Route Timeline detailed view.
•Updated the Jobs List panel Auto Assign () button, and the Daily Routes panel Resequence () and Optimize () buttons. These are now larger, and include descriptive text in addition to icons.
•Updated the behavior of the Route Timeline panel. This panel can now be opened by double-clicking on a route in the Daily Routes panel, and subsequently changed to a different route by single-clicking any route in the Route Timeline.
•Updated the layout and behavior of the map. You can now change the route highlight color using a new the Change Color contextual menu option (right-click a route highlight and then select Change Color). The map zoom buttons have been moved from the upper left corner of the map to the lower right; and the territory selection drop-down menu has been moved from the upper right corner of the map to a new position above the map.
•Increased the number of job locations that can be rendered on the map using the Show Filtered Jobs button () to 100, up from the previous maximum of 50.
•Moved the Route Timeline detailed view panel, which is now nested within the Daily Routes panel, and improved the graphical display of routes. These now include numbering of jobs. Note that driver breaks are regarded as stops in graphical route representations, but are not be numbered on timelines and are shown as narrow gray blocks (for example, a route containing two jobs with a break between them will be shown as "[1] Job, Break, [3] Job', not '[1] Job, Break, [2] Job". The break will be shown on the timeline as a squat gray bar rather than a green job).
•Moved the estimated route cost from the bottom of the Daily Routes panel to the top.
•Moved the "Selected" and "Drawn on map" route grid filter checkboxes to a new drop-down menu in the upper right corner of the Daily Routes panel, and added the new option "Routes for Selected Jobs".
•Removed the Route Settings button, which previously displayed the "Show shifts", "Enable wheel to zoom" and "Show total cost" options, in addition to standard column picker items. These options are now permanently enabled.
•Removed the previous History panel. Historical route and job information is now accessed from the History button located in the upper right corner of the screen.

 

7.5

New Features and Enhancements

•Updated the sorting behavior of the the jobs and routes grids on the Jobs List and the Daily Routes panel. Previously, editing a job or route, or using the filter, could cause the order of items in these grids to change unexpectedly. This will no longer occur.
•Corrected a bug that disabled the OK button on the Add Driver dialog box when attempting to add a forbidden driver.
•Fixed a bug that stopped the Quick Filter selection button on the Daily Routes panel from filtering the routes grid to include only selected routes.
•Corrected a fault that caused a job at a marker whose territory was changed to remain in the previous territory, as well as the new territory.
•Fixed a problem that stopped deleted jobs being permanently removed, but instead showed them as locked jobs.

 

7.2

New Features and Enhancements

•Updated the Dispatch interface. The locations of the lower History and the Daily Routes panels have been swapped. The History panel can now also be hidden entirely by clicking the vertical divider that separates the panel from the Daily Routes panel to its left.
•Fixed a problem that stopped the "We are currently experiencing technical difficulties, not all operations are available" status bar from being shown when a network connection error caused re-sequencing operations to fail.

 

7.1

New Features and Enhancements

•Added the Forbidden Drivers system. Use this tool to prevent drivers from completing jobs at customer locations. This feature is useful if a conflict has arisen between a customer and a driver, or if customers request that a particular driver or drivers not be used to complete their jobs.
•Added Custom Job Properties. This feature is used to add properties to jobs (typically to allow the display of custom properties imported from Verizon Connect® Data Exchange™), which can then be used for filtering and sorting operations on the Jobs List.
•Added the new Assign button to the Jobs List menu. Use this button to automatically assign selected jobs to the most appropriate route(s).
•Added the new Show Filtered Jobs button () to the map toolbar. Use this button to render all jobs currently visible in the Jobs List on the map (up to a maximum of 50 jobs). When disabled, the map will show the location only of selected jobs.
•Added the new "edit" role right for Dispatch. This right is used to specify whether roles can edit jobs and routes. Accounts without this right are able to create route cards, but not edit routes or jobs. This option is configured from the Plan section of the Roles screen, under the main platform Tasks menu section. See the 'Roles Screen' page in the platform help for more details.

 

7.0

New Features and Enhancements

•Updated route warnings to include two categories rather than one. These are critical violations and non-critical violations. Non-critical violations will be shown on the Routes List, the map, and in pop-ups in orange. Critical violations will be shown in red. To specify which violations are regarded as critical and which are regarded as non-critical, a new Critical Violations control has been added to the Plan tab of the main platform Settings dialog box.
•Added the new Road Crossing Behavior system. Use this tool to specify whether vehicles are permitted to cross the road at their stop destination across oncoming lanes, or whether the route must be optimized to approach the stop on the correct side (stops on the right in left hand drive traffic territories). This feature is controlled from the new Routing Strategy section on the Customer tab of the Settings dialog box.
•Added support for multi-day job windows. Jobs can now be assigned a range of days within which they must be completed, rather than a single day.
•Updated jobs to support several new options, including Job Priority (Lowest, Low, Normal, High or Highest), specifying a Preferred Driver, indicating attributes that the Driver Requires, and those that the Vehicle Requires in order to complete the job, the Job Type, and arbitrary Tags that can be associated with a job (and used for filtering).
•Added seven new columns to the Jobs List. These are "Due on Date", "Priority", "Preferred Driver", "Driver Requires", "Vehicle Requires", "Job Type" and "Tag"'.
•Updated the Jobs List to allow independent column configuration when viewing only assigned or only unassigned jobs.
•Added job requirements. These driver and vehicle tags are used to specify special driver skills or qualifications, and vehicle properties and capabilities, that might be needed for jobs.
•Added a new Total Cost option to the Daily Routes panel, indicating the estimated total cost of all routes currently displayed. To enable this feature, click the Settings button () in the upper right corner of the Daily Routes panel, and then select the box beside Show total cost on the options menu.
•Added a new Defaults tab to the Job Types screen. This tab sets the default job arrival window and time on site for all new jobs.
•Added a new Routing Settings tab to the Territories screen. This tab allows default speed percentage, fuel cost, and vehicle fuel consumption figures to be configured for each territory.
•Updated job times to reflect the time zone of the territory containing the job (Territories screen, Properties tab), not the time zone of the currently logged in user (Settings | User).
•Updated route shift time windows to use Earliest Start and Latest End times, rather than the previous Earliest Start and Latest Start times.

 

6.1

New Features and Enhancements

•Updated the Dispatch interface to more closely resemble the newer Verizon Connect platform visual style.
•Added a new Shift Details tab to the Edit Route and Create Route dialog boxes. This tab contains information about driver shift hours and breaks.
•Added a new Notes tab to the Edit Job and Create Job dialog boxes.
•Added a new Snap to Roads option to the map control widget. Use this control to toggle between straight (point-to-point) highlights between jobs on the map and turn-by-turn highlights that follow roads.
•Added a new map preview to the Edit Job and Create Job dialogs.
•Added support for driver breaks to routes (accessible from the Shift Details tab of the Edit Route and Create Route dialogs).
•Implemented the new legal driver breaks feature.
•Added default driver shift hours and max hours to the Shift Details tab of the Create Route dialog box.
•Added the local time to mouse tool-tips shown above jobs in the routes list.
•Added the ability to change the driver start and end locations on a route.
•Added support for column sorting (ascending and descending) to the Delete Job and Delete Route dialogs.
•Added a satellite imagery view to the Add Job and Edit Job dialog box mini-maps. Map and satellite views can be toggled between by clicking the globe icon in the upper right corner of the mini-map.
•Added a search filter to the History panel.
•Added a warning to the Edit Route dialog box when changing territory using the Territory control. The newly selected territory and the previously selected territory will now be listed at the bottom of the dialog box.
•Updated the Unassigned (all days) status filter option on the Jobs List panel to include a maximum history of seven days prior to the currently selected date.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

•Corrected an exception thrown when re-assigning a job to a route it had previously been removed from.
•Fixed several cosmetic and functional problems when running Dispatch in Internet Explorer 11.
•Corrected a problem in the Gantt chart view that could prevent accurate job times being displayed following a time zone change.
•Fixed a fault that could cause duplicate jobs to appear on a route after the route was edited.
•Fixed a fault that prevented the route count updating after changing date.
•Fixed a problem that could permit jobs that were too far from a route being manually added by dragging and dropping.

 

6.0

New Features and Enhancements

•Dispatch released for testing.
•Online help is now available from the help menu within Plan Explorer.