How to work with Associated Platforms?

If you work with external transportation companies or subcontractors and want to give them access to all the information related to the rounds they handle, you can do so by creating associated platforms for them.

The advantage of this feature is that your service providers only access information relevant to them, such as their tasks, rounds, and real-time tracking. They do not see any data that does not concern them.

Overview:

1. Creating an associated platform
2. Task allocation
3. Round allocation

1. Creating an associated platform

Please note: this feature requires initial activation by your Customer Success Manager or Customer Support.

On the left side of the screen, you see the associated platform(s) that are already existing, and you have the possibility to add new ones.

Once you choose to add a new associated platform, you'll need to enter its details, along with the contact information of its representative, in the panel on the right side of the screen. All fields are mandatory.

You can then filter the hubs by selecting those that the associated platform is allowed to access. The level of access the platform has to your rounds and tasks can be customized using the available toggles.

If your role and access rights permit, you can also switch to one of your associated platforms. Your Customer Success Manager or Support can confirm whether you have the necessary permissions.

2. Task allocation

Once you set up an associated platform, you will, of course, want to define how tasks and rounds will be allocated to the new platform.

The allocation rules are set in Administration > Platform > General > Carrier.

The five available options:

• No carrier allocation rules are defined: as the name suggests, if this option is selected, no rules will be applied to carrier allocation. Any carrier can be assigned to tasks belonging to the authorized hubs it is linked to.
  
  
• Simple rule-based carrier assignation: is a way to automatically decide which delivery company (carrier) should handle each delivery task based on custom rules you write.
  Think of it as an automated decision-maker that looks at each delivery and says "This delivery should go to Carrier A" or "This delivery should go to Carrier B" based on rules you set up.

• Rule-based carrier assignation: allows you to add one condition to the rule you set up.

In the example, you can see below, tasks with the value “Bruxelles” in the field “City” will be allocated to the carrier “Help Center”.

If the value is “Paris”, tasks are not allocated to an associated platform, unless the rule exists.

• Rule based on criteria: allows you to define carrier assignment rules based on multiple criteria.

  When you select this rule type, you can configure several conditions using the logical operators AND and OR. You can create as many rules as needed.

  In the example below, the selected carrier is "Carrier for Urbantz". Tasks will be assigned to this carrier based on the indicators selected from the criteria drop-down menus.

  In this case, the assignment rule for "Carrier for Urbantz" is based on two criteria: hubs and days of the week.

Tasks and rounds that have been allocated to associated platforms remain visible on your initial platform.

If you allocate tasks to an associated platform, you can authorize optimizations on that platform.

It will be possible to optimize via the announcement page, via “Round creation” if activated, and in the Round Editor. If the corresponding feature is activated, drivers will also be able to create their own rounds on the associated platform.

To enable optimizations on the associated platform, you can use the toggle “Transfer the right to create rounds on associated tasks to this carrier” (Administration > Platform > General > tab Association). To save, click on “Create Platform” if it’s a new one or on “Save Association” if you want to activate this option on an existing platform.

If you would like to learn more about each criterion, please refer to this article.

3. Round allocation

Once you created your rounds and decided which one you would like to allocate to your service provider, you can go to your Dashboard and click on “Round allocation”.

If rounds are available, you will see their number appear inside the red dot.

When you click on “Round Allocation”, a new page opens, allowing you to allocate rounds to the associated platform by drag and drop.

Once allocated, you will see that the number of rounds to distribute diminished, and the number of rounds on the associated platform increases.

The result of this action is visible below: the round R02 that has been allocated to the associated platform is now visible on that platform (here: Carrier for Urbantzz).

You can adapt the round allocation until the moment the rounds are started.

Note: If you want to switch between the platforms you have access to, you can click on the platform name or logo in the top-left corner. A list of your platforms will appear, allowing you to select the one you would like to work on.