Our team has been working to bring you new features and product enhancements and we would love to present them to you with this update!
Feature highlight: Auto-merger
WHAT’S NEW
MotionTools now has the option to automatically merge incoming instant and scheduled bookings into optimized driver tours. Here are some key points: bookings must start from the same Saved place; there must be drivers available nearby; tours are dispatched immediately upon creation.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT
This feature takes the pressure off dispatchers by reducing their need to watch daily operations closely and manually merge bookings. This is particularly helpful when dealing with many delivery requests in just a few minutes.
WHAT’S NEXT
In future updates of the Auto-merger, we're looking to add more features, like re-merging, assigning drivers, and setting limits on things like tour distance or how many bookings can be merged.
WHERE TO LEARN MORE
To learn more about the Auto-merge feature and check if it works for your operations, head to our Help Center.
More features and updates
Building the business
Scheduled bookings matching lead time configurability
Scheduled bookings matching lead time define when MotionTools converts an unclaimed scheduled booking into an instant booking. Until recently, this time had a global, not configurable default of 60 minutes but now admins can configure it for each Service individually on the Dashboard in the settings.
Optimizing operations
Auto-dispatching On Hold bookings and tours
With the Auto-dispatch feature, a booking in the On Hold status will be dispatched automatically at the trigger date and time. This trigger time can be set when creating a booking or added later on the Booking Details page. Here's a small tip: If a trigger is set to a time in the past, a booking will be dispatched instantly. Learn more about this feature in our Help Center.
Linking a stop to a Saved place
Until now, MotionTools didn't allow linking a stop to a Saved place when creating a booking unless the Saved place was a hub. This meant that it wasn't possible to know if a stop of a booking was a Saved place or just some location. We’ve lifted this restriction, allowing any Saved place to be linked to a stop when creating a booking. Learn more about Saved Places in our Help Center.
Linking a stop to a Saved place in the Bookings CSV uploader
Stops can now be linked to Saved places when creating bookings via CSV uploader. Download the updated template from the Dashboard and check the new columns: “Pickup: place ID” and “Drop-off: place ID”. Columns are optional, so we maintain backward compatibility with the previous CSV templates. Learn more about the Bookings Importer in our Help Center.
Import packages without known coordinates (Packages Extension)
In the updated version of this feature, packages without destination coordinates can now be created using the Packages CSV Importer on the Dashboard. Just skip the coordinates in your CSV file to take advantage of MotionTools’ geocoding capabilities. Learn more about the Packages Importer in our Help Center.
Package Webbooker (Packages Extension)
We've introduced the Package Webbooker, a new feature that lets customers and admins create a single package. The Package Webbooker offers an interface similar to our standard Webbooker, providing a familiar and straightforward experience. After creating a package, users can immediately print out a package label to stick on their shipment.
Packages analytics (Packages Extension)
We have introduced package statistics to our Analytics page. It offers valuable insights that can help optimize the performance of your package delivery business. Learn more about the Analytics page in our Help Center.
Executing the tasks
Packages load queue in the Driver app (Packages Extension)
We’ve updated the recently released Package Scanner feature. If a scanned package is in the "Scheduled for Delivery" status and a tour hasn’t been dispatched, the app will show the full load queue of that tour.
This feature is helpful for drivers and hub workers who use the app’s scanner to ensure all packages are loaded according to the delivery route. Check out Scan and View Package details via the Driver app article to learn more about Package Scanner.
Navigating drivers back to a hub (Packages Extension)
When creating package drop-off tours via Package Dispatcher or Drop-off Tours Auto-planner, admins can now add a hub stop at the end of the tour. This is to cover the case when drivers must return vehicles back to a hub after each drop-off tour. The route of such tours will be optimized accordingly to ensure that drivers still spend the least amount of time on the road completing drop-offs. Learn more about Automatic planning for Package tours in our Help Center.
Engaging with customers
Tracking code and parent ID on tour stops
MotionTools now returns the tracking code and parent booking ID on a tour stop in the API response. This means that API clients won't need to do any extra work to figure out the parent stop and get the tracking code. It's a small improvement that saves time and effort.
