Stop groups

This article explains how stop groups work, how stops get grouped, and how a grouped stop appears to a driver.

What a stop group is

A stop group ties together stops of a tour that follow each other and happen at the same location, so that a driver works them as a single stop. Completing the first stop of the group completes the others with it, as long as the conditions for grouping are met.

This is useful whenever a tour is built from several bookings that share an address, for example a hub, a restaurant or an office building. Without stop groups, the driver completes the same location several times in a row before moving on.

When grouping applies

Sharing a group is not enough on its own. Stops are treated as a group only while all of the following is true:

• They follow each other directly on the tour.
• They have the same stop type, for example both are pickups.
• They are at the same destination, either created from the same Place or otherwise at the same location.
• Their proof of completion configuration matches.
• Neither of them has packages on it.
• Neither of them has been failed with a recovery outcome, see Completing and failing a grouped stop.

Whether a group applies is evaluated on the fly rather than fixed when you set the group, so a later change, such as a stop inserted in between or a different proof configuration, takes effect immediately.

INFO

Custom Content that differs between the stops does not prevent grouping. It is merged for the driver instead, see What the driver sees. This changed with the smarter stop grouping rules.

How stops get grouped

Automatically, from a Place

A stop created from a Place is assigned a group automatically, derived from the stop type and the Place. Nothing needs to be configured: when two bookings are picked up at the same Place and are later merged into one tour, their pickup stops are already grouped when the tour is built.

Automatic groups are kept up to date. When the type of such a stop changes, its automatic group follows. A group you set yourself is never overwritten by an automatic one.

An Example

1. Two bookings are created, each with its pickup at the same Place, your warehouse, and a dropoff at a different address.
2. Both bookings are dispatched into one tour, so the tour runs pickup 1, pickup 2, dropoff 1, dropoff 2.
3. At pickup 1, the driver also sees the Custom Content, notes and documents of pickup 2.
4. When the driver completes pickup 1, pickup 2 is completed with it.

INFO

A stop that was not created from a Place is only grouped when a group is set on it explicitly.

Set a group in the dashboard

Admins can set a group on any stop, as long as the stop is still in the scheduled status, meaning that no driver is on the way to it yet. Stops that share the same group name form a group. When you change the group of a tour stop, the change is propagated to the stop of the underlying booking, and the other way round.

To set a group:

1. Open the booking.
2. Go to the stop you want to group. Next to Stop group, click the current value, which shows Not set if the stop has no group yet.
3. Enter a Group name. Use the same name on every stop that should be grouped.
4. Click Save.

To remove a stop from its group, clear the Group name and save.

Set a group via the API

Admins can also set the group through the API, under the same conditions, by providing the group attribute at stop level when creating a booking or by updating it on an existing booking. Please refer to our API documentation for examples of requests and responses: Creating a booking and Managing groups.

What the driver sees

In the Driver App, a group appears as a single stop carrying a label with the number of stops it stands for, and it counts once in the tour's stop numbering.

Everything attached to the stops of the group is presented together on that one stop:

• Notes to the driver and Custom Content are merged into one card and duplicates are removed. An instruction attached to both stops appears once, and checklists that share a title are combined into a single list.
• Documents and photos of all stops in the group appear in one list and one gallery.
• On the map, the stop carries a dedicated icon for grouped stops.

WARNING

A group counts as one stop for the driver, while the dashboard lists every stop individually, so the stop numbers can differ between the two. What is stop 3 for the driver may be stop 4 on the tour in your dashboard. When talking a driver through a tour, refer to the address or the recipient rather than to the position.

Completing and failing a grouped stop

Completing the first stop of the group completes the other stops in the group with it. The same proofs of stop completion the driver collects are automatically added to every stop in the group.

Failing the first stop fails the others with it, unless a recovery outcome other than skipping the recovery is chosen. The failure reason is recorded on the first stop only. A stop failed with a recovery outcome leaves its group: the remaining stops are not failed with it, and the driver continues with the next one. The remaining stops stay grouped with each other.

Drivers cannot change the order of stops of a tour that contains a group. The Update route button is not offered for those tours, see Reorder stops of an ongoing tour as a driver.