Overview
- How to create zones
- Usage options
1. How to create a zone
By default, when you open the Zones tab (Administration > Platform > Zones), the map is centred around the headquarter of the company, configured in General> Contact, which is highlighted by a building icon.
On the left side of the screen, a map is displayed and on the right side, you can see the list of existing zones and a possibility to filter.
To draw a zone you need to click on the hexagon icon in the top left corner of the map. Then place your cursor on a border point of the zone you want to draw and repeat until the zone is completed. If you misdrew the zone, you can move the white points on the map to correct the zone drawing.
To finalize double-click or click on the last point you have placed on the map. This action will trigger a pop-up allowing you to name the zone and link it to a hub of your choice (optional).
Below you can see an example with different zones, for different hubs.
1. The colour that the zone will be displayed in on the map
2. Show/hide a zone
3. Edit: chose zone colour, adapt name or linked hub and delete the zone
2. Usage options
- Planning: time slots can be made available (or not) to your customers based on zones.
- Optimisations can be split using zones (eg. north vs. south of a city) - ask your CSM for advice.
- Drivers can be assigned to preferred (but not exclusive) zones if the classical fleet assignation is used (Optimisation setup).
After a zone has been created, you can link it to a driver who prefers to deliver there. To do so, hover on the menu on the left of the screen, click on Back and find the section Users. Click on the driver's name to open its details and scroll down to find the field named Preferred Zones. There you can link one or multiple zones to that specific driver. To be sure that the system will take these preferences into account, we have to check the optimisation configuration.
Hover on the menu on the left of the screen, click on Optimisations, and go the tab Fleet Assignation. During the first configuration of the platform, usually a virtual fleet is used, meaning that the optimisation is based on the vehicle's availability. For the preferences to be taken in account, first deactivate this toggle and configure the optimisation based on drivers.
Click on the plus sign on the bottom right corner and add the drivers. Then click on Save. Navigate back to the tab General and scroll down until the section Driver Preferences. Now you have the possibility to activate the toggle Use Zone Preferences of the drivers.
Something very important to remember is that this is just a preference. It means that the optimiser will try to respect it if it can, but this is not a mandatory criteria to create the rounds. For instance, if there are two zones and the driver prefers to deliver in zone 1, but there are a lot of tasks to be delivered in zone 2, then the optimiser will assign a round in zone number 2 for this driver, even though it does not respect his preferences.