Much of this release was improving the caching functionality to improve performance and remove stale data. The other main changes involved adding default pricing tiers and showing the status of dispatches on the schedule so that dispatchers won’t have to go to the “Truck Dispatch List” as often.
To reduce the amount of time the dispatcher spends navigating between the Schedule and the Truck Dispatch List, we changed the truck assignment background color and border to indicate the dispatch status.
Below is a screenshot of the schedule showing the new colors. The red numbers on the diagram tie to the explanation in this list.
Other than the color changes and added icons, you will still dispatch the same as before. This shouldn’t change any of the menu options or any other behavior.
We also had requests to show the Time on Job on each of the truck tags so dispatchers can see what time various trucks should be on the job without having to click on the utilization menu or navigating to the Truck Dispatch List.
To see these times on the schedule, you will need to check the “Show stagger times” checkbox under the “Dispatching & Messaging” settings. By default, this setting is disabled.
Notice how the Truck Assignments now show the time before the truck code.
We added a new “Hide Verified Tickets” to the top of the “Tickets by Driver” screen. When you click this option, the verified tickets won’t be displayed. This will save you from having to scroll through a potentially long list of verified tickets.
Added a default “Retail” pricing tier and set it as the default on existing customers. This will allow us to roll out the concept of pricing tiers to all tenants without requiring any additional data entry. Then, if you choose to use the tier-based pricing, you can add additional tiers and assign them to customers.
Fixed the chat messages so that they get marked as read after they have been read.
Added a red “COD” to the top of the “Job Edit” screen so it is easy to see when you are putting in a job for a COD customer.
Updated the Azure Identity library to the latest version to enhance security.
Optimized the method for loading the profile pictures in chat to improve performance.
Changed some synchronous methods to async to improve performance.
Improved the token renewal process for the PWA Driver App to reduce the frequency with which the driver has to log in.
We added a Redis cache so that we can scale to add servers during high usage periods.
Moved Messaging and SignalR to their own server to reduce the load on the main server.
One large fleet has been using the new React Native Driver App. This new driver app will include messaging, can show multiple dispatches at the same time, and has more flexibility than the current PWA Driver App.
We will make this new RN Driver App available to other companies in the next few weeks. If you are interested in this new driver app, let us know. Note that it is currently only available for the Android OS. We are working on making it available for iOS as well. Before requesting to use this new driver app, keep in mind that it is new, and we are still working out the kinks. Since it is more flexible and has more capabilities, it is also more complex.
Following are a few issues we cleaned up on the RN Driver App since it was released a couple weeks ago.
