Overview
The operations configuration allows Operators to set Opening hours, Closed days, Scheduling modes, Customer and Driver related parameters for bookings. Read a short intro about it here, or read on to get a full guide on how to set it up:
- Step-by-step guide
- Scheduling modes
- Timeslot configuration
- Scheduling parameters
- Opening hours
- Closed days
- Impact of updates
Details
Step-by-step guide
- Click on Settings, then click on Scheduling configuration.
- Edit existing Operations configurations, or click on Create new configuration to add new ops settings for different service areas.
- Hit Save button on the bottom left corner.
Scheduling modes
When creating a request for a service either as a booking from a customer or as a tour for a driver, MotionTools validates if the request time is valid based on the settings in the operations configuration. There are two types of scheduling modes:
Instant
Enable this mode to allow if you want to offer your services "instantly", so basically without any lead time. Customer can then create a booking for "now", basically signaling that they want to get the job done be done as soon as possible. In this case the option to book for "now" will appear in the Webbooker. An instant booking typically gets converted into an instant tour, which means that it wcan be started by drivers immediately in the driver app after it was made visible to them.
Scheduled
If you enable the scheduled mode, than service can be scheduled to be started at some point in the future. In the timeslot configuration, you can also detail out which timeslots you want to allow to book for.
Timeslot configuration
Define the Customer related parameters for scheduled bookings.
Timeslot increment in seconds
Shows the available window period for delivery when making a scheduled booking, which needs to be set to 600 sec and higher. Note: This is relevant for the Webbooker only.
For example, this parameter is set to 1800, which appears as a 30-minute window per delivery.
Lead time in seconds
Shows the earliest possible timeslot a customer can start to schedule a booking (also via API). For example, this parameter is set to 3600 and the current time now is 13:00, indicates the earliest timeslot to schedule a booking will be at 14:00.
Show time window
Shows the exact window period for delivery when creating a booking in the Webbooker.
Scheduling parameters
The scheduling parameters define how a scheduled tour behaves to Drivers for scheduled tours. So this won't apply to bookings.
Start before, min
Driver will be able to start the trip X minutes before the actual scheduled time. For example, the tour is scheduled at 14:00 and this parameter is set to 60, indicates that the driver can start the tour at 13:00.
Remind driver before, min
Driver will be reminded to start the tour Y minutes before the claimed tour expires. For example, this parameter is being set to 5. The driver has claimed the trip at 14:00 previously, and he will get a notification to start the actual trip at 13:55 if the tour has not been started then.
Note: Drivers need to start the tour after claiming, otherwise the claimed tour will expire and convert into an instant tour for other drivers after Z minutes.
Expire before, min
The claimed tour will expire Z minutes before the scheduled time, if the driver fails to start it. For example, this parameter is set to 10. The tour is scheduled for 14:00, hence driver needs to start the tour latest by 13:50. Otherwise it expires at 13:51 and switches from ‘Accepted’ to ‘Pickable’ to find the next closest driver who is available to accept the tour.
Opening hours
Define opening hours for each day of the week.
Bookings can be made between the ‘Start hour’ and ‘End hour’ of your opening hours, but it is not possible to create bookings that are beyond these opening hours defined. For example, the ‘Start hour’ and ‘End hour’ are set from 14:00 to 17:00 daily, which means that the only available time to have a booking executed will have to be between these timings.
Customers can schedule a booking at any time of the day, as long as they are selecting a pick up timeslot that is within the opening hours. For example, you can schedule a booking in the middle of the night, for a delivery to be made at 14:30 later.
If the working hours extend to the next day (e.g. 10:00 on Monday - 03:00 on Tuesday), check ‘Closes next day’ box. Checking this box will not affect the next day's opening hours.
Closed days
Specify on which days the service area will be closed all day, regardless of other parameters (Opening day, Opening hours) set previously. Closed days will impact the available pickup dates that can be chosen by your customer. This feature helps to manage holidays, blocked-out days or other non-operational periods.
For example, Closed days are specified as 2021-12-29, 2021-12-30, 2021-12-31, which means that the system will recommend the next possible opening day (1 January 2022) to be allowed a scheduled booking, if any of the specified dates are being selected.
Impact of updates
Once a service is requested as booking or tour in a particular configuration, any changes made later to the parameters will not be applied. To apply the new parameters, a new request will then have to be created.
