How to group tasks by recipient?

Grouping tasks for the same recipient at the same address on the same date is cost and time saving, and the recipient will only need to be available once during the day. 

Grouping tasks implies that tasks will be grouped in the same round and one after the other in terms of sequence but all of them stay independent tasks.

Overview

1. Grouping criteria
2. Service Time calculation
3. Configuration
4. Remarks

1. Grouping criteria

Tasks can be grouped in one round if the following criteria are true:

• Same coordinates (longitude & latitude)
• Same type (pickup/delivery/service)
• Same timeWindow1 start & end
• Same timeWindow2 start & end if configured
• No dependency towards any other task (linked pick-up and deliveries)
• Same presetRoundName if preset rounds are used

You can push grouping one step further by adding conditions on the recipient (one or more):

• contact.person
• contact.name → usually the company name
• contact.email
• contact.phone
• contact.account
• collection.point → if Click&Collect is used

When adding conditions, it's important to keep in mind that "empty" values can lead to grouping too. For example, two tasks without a company name could be grouped if all general criteria are met and if the additional grouping criteria is contact.name which is twice "empty" in this example. 

2. Service Time calculation

When several tasks are delivered at one place, the total service time is usually different from the service time for one single task (more parcels to handle, less waiting for the recipient etc.). For this reason, the service time that is applied to grouped tasks should be recalculated. The system takes care of the calculation, only the logic needs to be set up. 

The service time per task can be...

• the sum of Service Times
• the longest Service Time amongst all grouped tasks
• the average Service Time of all grouped tasks

... divided by the number of tasks that are grouped.

Example:

5 tasks are grouped together with a service time of 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes and 5 minutes respectively:

• If you choose SUM: the service time per stop will be 3 minutes → (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5) / 5
• If you choose LONGEST: the service time per stop will be 1 minute → 5 / 5
• If you choose AVERAGE: the service time per stop will be 36 seconds → ((1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5) / 5) / 5

Note:

The recalculated service time per task will be displayed in the round overview once tasks are grouped but the individual tasks keep the service time as it was announced. In case you would like to separate one task from a group it is important that the service time corresponds to the initially announced one to keep it realistic for the driver. 

3. Configuration

Task grouping can be configured for each optimization that is available on your platform (Administration > Optimizations > Optimization).

4. Remarks 

• Vehicles that are configured on your platform have a maximum number of tasks they can hold. Grouped tasks are considered as being one single task during the optimization. This allows for more than the usual number of tasks to fit in a vehicle.
  Eg. 5 tasks + a group of 3 tasks = 6 tasks
• Task grouping and linked pick-up & deliveries do not work together. It's a technical limitation.