What's New in Dispatch

Welcome to the Dispatch What's New page.

This topic lists information about previous releases of Verizon Connect® Dispatch™ and what has been improved in each version.

The current release is 2308 (February 2023). Information regarding this release can be found below.

February 2023

New Features and Enhancements

• Added a new "Forms" tab to the job overview dialog box. Use this tab to view all forms associated with a job. If any forms have been started or submitted for this job they can also be downloaded in PDF format from this new tab, or opened and viewed.

November 2020

New Features and Enhancements

• Updated the behavior of the Edit Routes dialog box to allow all fields to be edited on routes with a status of "Completed" or "In Progress" in suitably configured accounts.
• Fixed a cosmetic bug that caused the Jobs list to display "Unnamed Route" under the "Route" name column when the route did in fact have a defined name.

September 2020

New Features and Enhancements

• Updated the behavior of jobs not within a specified zone, for customers with a Scenarios driver zones subscription. These jobs are now set to "Unassigned" status when optimizing, building or auto-assigning routes, making them easier to locate using the filter tool.
• Fixed a bug that could cause error messages to be shown Dispatch after a valid publication from Scenarios.
• Corrected an error message that could be shown in error when editing job settings.
• Fixed an error message that incorrectly stated that a route had already started when it had not.

August 2020

New Features and Enhancements

• Added support for external ID values on jobs and routes. These values can be used to filter jobs and routes, and are shown on the route overview and job overview panels. Once specified, these ID values cannot be edited.
• Added the ability to change the drivers or vehicles assigned to routes with a status of "In Progress". Previously, these routes were locked.
• Corrected a null reference error that could be shown when calculating the cost of routes with shift times in the future.
• Corrected a bug that could cause Driver Shift date patterns to use the wrong date format and therefore the wrong date range.
• Fixed an error message that could be shown when assigning jobs to routes with a status of "Completed" on the current day.

July 2020

New Features and Enhancements

• Added support for assigning jobs to completed routes (routes with a status of "Completed") on the current day if shift time remains available for that route to use. Jobs assigned to these completed routes are optimized automatically, and the route's status updated to "In Progress". See Assigning jobs to routes for more information.
• Removed the Dispatch role rights "View current day Jobs and Routes in Dispatch", "Edit in progress route", "Access future jobs and routes in Dispatch", and "Edit future jobs and routes in Dispatch". Added the new rights "Access Dispatch", "Edit jobs and routes in dispatch", "Access job types", "Edit job types", and "Access territories". These changes consolidate existing rights and add support for managing job types and future or "In Progress" routes.

June 2020

New Features and Enhancements

• Added support for the generation of Route Cards for routes with a status of "In Progress". This feature is only available in suitably configured accounts.
• Removed several obsolete interface language translations.

May 2020

New Features and Enhancements

• Added a new violation type, "Driver not in zone", to the "Violation Severity Settings" section of the "Jobs & Routes" tab on the Settings dialog box. This violation setting is only available to administrators, and applies to all accounts when enabled.
• Removed the locked (padlock) icon from the "Jobs" list, aligning it with the behavior of the "Routes" list. 
• Fixed a problem that could stop non-numeric street address values, such as the "W4519" street number of "W4519 Lime Road", saving correctly when creating a marker. Previously, these street numbers were saved as "0".
• Fixed a fault that caused route distances to remain unchanged when crossing lakes, regardless of whether Ferry routing was turned off or on.
• Corrected a permissioning fault that allowed customers without the jobs feature to see vehicle "Time on Site" settings on Vehicle Information tab of the Fleet Vehicles dialog screen.
• Fixed a "value can not be null" error message that could be shown immediately after opening Dispatch.

April 2020

New Features and Enhancements

• Added the new Route Overview dialog box, on which you can view key information about individual routes, and perform actions such as editing, deleting, resequencing, or creating route cards. This overview can be opened instead of the Edit Routes dialog box when clicking a route name in the "Daily Routes" list, if configured to do so.
• Added support for defining the time on site values for a vehicle under "Vehicles" > "Edit Vehicle" > "Vehicle Information". These values override the time on site values defined for all vehicles within a territory (under "Territories" > "Routing Settings").
• Moved the "Time on Site" setting for the Mid-Route Return to Depot feature from the "Vehicle Details" dialog page "Capacity Limits" to the new "Vehicle Information" page.
• Added support for tags on HQ Markers. The tags assigned to these depot markers are now shown on the tooltips for depots on the "Map", "Route Timeline", and "Daily Routes" grid.
• Add the new "Address" column to the "Jobs" list. This column displays the street addresses of the markers at which each job occurs, is hidden by default, and can be searched using the Advanced Search tool.
• Added the ability to unassign any job, regardless of its status ("Completed", "In Progress" or "On Site" as well as the already-supported "En Route").
• Updated the user interface used to enable or disable Capacity Metrics. This is now controlled from the "Enhanced Features" section on the "Jobs & Routes" tab of the "Settings" dialog box.
• Added a "Description" field to the Recurring Jobs "Overview" screen.
• Removed the redundant "Is System Type" checkbox from Capacity Metrics. 
• Removed the permanently-enabled weight system capacity metric ('kg' or 'lbs'), and increased the maximum number of user-defined capacity metrics from three to four.

March 2020

New Features and Enhancements

• Added the new "Maximum Jobs Per Route" setting to the Capacity Limits tab on the Edit Vehicle Details dialog box. Use this field to specify the maximum number of stops a vehicle can complete on a single route. Once set, the optimizer avoids assigning a route more stops when this number is reached. Values specified are also visible under the "Max Jobs" column on the Vehicles grid.
• Added the new Requirements tab to the Edit Vehicle Details dialog box, containing the 'Driver Requires Tags' setting. Use this field to specify the tags required on drivers assigned to this vehicles. If the specified tags are not found on the assigned driver, the optimizer generates a route violation. Tags specified are also visible under the "Required Driver Tags" column on the Vehicles grid.
• Added new "Time Window" and "Maximum Working Times" hard constraint settings to the Routing Settings tab of the Territories screen. Use these check boxes to specify whether these violations should be treated as hard constraints.
• Added a new "Routing Objectives" section to the Routing Settings tab of the Territories screen. Use these routing settings to specify whether routes should be optimized to reduce the number of drivers used, to favor servicing jobs earlier on routes, or to load balance jobs evenly across routes and drivers.
• Changed the label for "Vehicle" to "Current Vehicle" in the Drivers Screen table and on the Driver Details Mini-map Tab.
• Updated Dispatch behavior when creating route cards. Routes are now costed automatically when a route card is generated.

February 2020

New Features and Enhancements

• Added the new Driver Pay Rate feature. Use this option to add details of your drivers' pay rates directly from the "Shift" tab on the "Edit Driver" dialog box, overriding the default value set on the territory containing the driver. Driver pay rate information is also now available directly from the platform Drivers grid under the new "Normal Pay Rate" and "Overtime Pay Rate" columns.
• Added a visual representation of the color being used for each job type to the Job Types screen, under the new "Color" column.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

• Corrected several untranslated column names in the advanced search tool.
• Fixed a problem that could cause return to depot times to be doubled.
• Fixed a bug that could give some users rights to perform tasks not included in their subscriptions.
• Corrected a fault that allowed the "Job Types" and "Territories" screens to add the same names with different capitalizations.
• Fixed a fault that could prevent truck restriction settings from being honored.
• Improved the wording on the "Territories" screen, and in vehicle preference violation messages, to make them less ambiguous.
• Corrected a fault that could stop column sorting working for the "Earlier Depot Requires" and "Later Depot Requires" columns.

December 2019

New Features and Enhancements

• Added a new "Reverse Route" button to the "Daily Routes" toolbar. Use this button to reverse the order of jobs that have not been started or that have a status of "En Route" or "Missed" in routes with a status of "Not Started" or "In Progress".
• Added support for .xlsx format files to the Route and Job Importer system, in addition to CSV spreadsheet files.
• Added support for importing shift details to the Route and Job Importer system, using the new "route.start_time", "route.end_time", "route.normal_working _time", "route.max_working_time", and "route.is_variable_shift" import columns.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

• Corrected a cache performance issue when repeatedly drawing large numbers of routes on the map.

November 2019

New Features and Enhancements

• Added to ability to edit custom properties directly from the "Custom Properties" tab of the Edit Job dialog box in suitably configured accounts.
• Added the ability to edit the location of jobs with a status of "Assigned" and "En Route" (that is, jobs that have not yet started, as indicated by a status of "On Site", "Complete", or "Incomplete").
• Added the ability to add jobs to routes with a status of "Not Started" if the route's shift end time is in the future, indicating that the driver is still available. Previously, these routes were locked.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

• Updated the wording of "Return to Depot" labels throughout the interface to instead use the less confusing "Mid-Route Return to Depot".
• Fixed a fault that could stop newly created jobs displaying in the Jobs list.
• Fixed a bug that cause an error to be thrown after selecting several routes from the Routes list, drawing them on the map, and then clicking the "Next Period" button.
• Corrected a bug that could stop jobs from being ordered by their recurring job name.

October 2019

New Features and Enhancements

• Added support for route name and job custom properties to the Route and Job Importer system, using the column types "route.name" and "job.custom.[custom property name]".
• Removed support for the job description column from the Route and Job Importer system.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

• Fixed an error message that could be shown when loading jobs.
• Fixed a bug that could stop routes building normally.
• Corrected a fault that stopped some historical routes that were drawn on the map from snapping to turn-by-turn roadways.
• Corrected a bug that could stop end depots being identified as the final stop of a route, preventing routes being classified as complete.

September 2019

New Features and Enhancements

• Added support for updating route cost, distance, driving time, driving violations, route start time, and route end time for completed routes modified outside of Dispatch. Previously, only non-completed routes were updated.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

• Fixed a fault that stopped Dispatch working when using Internet Explorer 11.
• Corrected a bug that prevented the bulk assignment of shift patterns to drivers.

August 2019

New Features and Enhancements

• Added support for updating the details of routes that were previously updated outside of Dispatch.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

• Corrected an issue that prevented the "Go To" tool prioritizing addresses based on the current map view.

July 2019

New Features and Enhancements

• Improved the Route and Job Importer systems. These tools now provide more consistent and useful error messages when provided with a malformed import file, and use regional date formats (for example, mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy) based in your platform settings. Support for preferred and forbidden drivers has been added, together with importing of both routes and either assigned or unassigned jobs. The confirmation screen now displays the number of markers being created following an import operation. As part of this update, the arrival time value for jobs has been removed, and the new fields "job.lat", "job.lon", and "job.lat_lon" added. Support for comma delimiters has also been added, and support for colon delimiters removed.
• Improved the Job and Route History dialog boxes. These now contain more detailed information and an updated appearance.
• Improved the visibility of selected jobs on the map. Previously, selected jobs were shown as solid black circles, but are now more easily identifiable as animated "sonar" icons.
• Improved the behavior of the Edit Job dialog box when launched from the Job Overview dialog box. When the edit dialog box is closed, the "Job Overview" dialog box now automatically re-opens.
• Improved the editing behavior of jobs assigned to routes. Routes are no longer locked once they have started, and you can now edit jobs that are assigned to completed and underway routes, if these jobs have not started or been completed.
• Updated Dispatch customer accounts to allow access to future calendar dates. Previously, these accounts could see only jobs and routes for the current and previous days.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

• Fixed a fault that caused the "Map" and "Daily Routes" to update extremely slowly after making changes to job assignments.
• Fixed a bug that caused jobs to remain highlighted on the map when they were no longer assigned to the selected calendar day.
• Corrected an error shown when attempting to delete a job at a linked stop. The "Delete" and "Recommend Route" menu options are now disabled under these circumstances.
• Corrected a bug that could stop the animated vehicle trail on a route highlight displaying correctly.
• Fixed a bug that stopped vehicle tooltips on the map containing both job and vehicle details when both a vehicle and jobs are at the same location (within 50 meters of one another).
• Fixed as rights and permissions bug that could stop routes building correctly after clicking the "Create Route" button.
• Fixed a fault that could generate 'Connection Timed Out' error messages, and significantly slow the performance of Dispatch.
• Corrected a bug that could cause routes to fall into an infinite cost processing loop, resulting in progress messages repeating indefinitely on the "Daily Routes" grid and in the "Route Timeline" detailed view.
• Fixed a map fault that could stop route highlights snapping to roadways, instead being shown as straight lines between jobs and depots.
• Fixed a Grouping fault that stopped "Routes by Driver" sections expanding correctly.

June 2019

New Features and Enhancements

• Added the new "Job Name" and "Ordinal" columns to the "Jobs" list when viewing individual jobs instantiated from Recurring Jobs. These columns display the name of the job as a link to the recurring job, and the order of the job in the route, respectively.
• Added map style persistence. When you close Dispatch and then re-open at a later time, the map style you selected in your previous session will be used.
• Removed support for HAZMAT values on Capacity Metrics.
• Removed the current Dispatch version from the platform Version dialog box.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

• Corrected a fault that stopped the map style used by the map on the Job Overview screen matching the style used by the main map.
• Fixed a problem that caused the 'i' icon in the bottom right corner of the map on Create Job and Edit Job dialog boxes to flash repeatedly.
• Fixed a bug that could stop breaks from being added, or existing breaks from being edited, in routes.
• Fixed a fault that prevented a download link being displayed after clicking the "Create Route Cards" button.
• Corrected a bug that stopped the default name assigned to unnamed routes from saving correctly when edited and saved, instead remaining as "Unnamed Route".

May 2019

New Features and Enhancements

• Added a new "Detailed" style to the map. This new map style closely resembles the default high contrast and high color map appearance used in previous releases of Dispatch. Switch between the new high contrast "Detailed" map style, the existing "Low Contrast" map style, and the "Satellite" map view using the "Map View" button located on the map toolbar.
• Added a new "Route Color" button to the map toolbar. Use this button to change the color of routes and jobs drawn on the map, and to differentiate these from nearby or overlapping routes that use similar colors. Only available when using the "Color By Route" map mode.
• Added support for defining a return to depot strategy of "Return to start depot" or "Use nearest depot" on the "Territories" screen.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

• Fixed a bug that caused animated route traces drawn on the map between stops to move too quickly.
• Corrected a fault that could allow more than one "timeout" error dialog to be shown at the same time.
• Fixed a bug that caused an exception message to be shown when selecting "All Territories" from the territory selector, and then clicking the "Create Route" button.

April 2019

New Features and Enhancements

• Renamed the Verizon Connect® Plan™ and Verizon Connect® Plan & Response™ products to Verizon Connect® Dispatch™.
• Added a new option to the "Job Color Selector" menu above the map: "Color by Route". When this option is selected, jobs drawn on the map that are assigned to a route use the same color currently used to highlight their route on the map.
• Added a new "Show All Routes" button to the column header of the "Daily Routes" grid. Click this button to draw all routes in the grid on the map. If routes are currently drawn on the map, click this button to hide them all.
• Updated the map to improve the visibility of highlighted routes and jobs, and map loading speeds. As part of this change, the map can now be rotated and tilted using your mouse. Click and drag the new "Reset" button in the bottom right corner of the map with your mouse, or right-click and drag the map with your mouse, left or right to rotate the map view or up and down to tilt the map.
• Updated the behavior of the "Advanced Filter" icon located above the "Jobs" list. This button now changes to a narrower, compact version when surrounding space is not available.
• Updated the new Job Overview dialog box to display the position number of the job in a route if the job is assigned to a route, and to add left and right arrows to move between the other jobs on the route.
• Updated the "Create Route" dialog box to automatically populate the start and end depot sections with the selected driver's base marker and (if applicable) secondary location.
• Removed the "Optimize" button on the "Daily Routes" panel as a default feature in all accounts. When accidentally pressed, this button could cause unwanted changes to routes. If you require this feature, contact support. To manually optimize routes without this button, use Rebuild Existing Routes.
• Removed the "Always Show Stops" option from the map tool bar. This button was used to toggle on or off the permanent visibility of stops on highlighted routes.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

• Fixed a fault that caused an error to be shown when saving a driver's details without a base location.
• Fixed an error shown when creating a new route with "All Territories" selected from the territories menu.
• Corrected a timeout message that could be shown when using Dispatch on networks with unusually high lag.

March 2019

New Features and Enhancements

• Added support for adding secondary location for drivers. This additional location can be used as either the start or end depot when building routes for the driver.
• Added the option to manually enable or disable the Capacity Metrics feature. This option is only available in Dispatch, and only for suitably configured 'main' users.
• Added the new "Job Overview" dialog box, on which you can view a summary of a job, and perform actions such as editing, deleting, assigning or unassigning. This overview can be opened instead of the "Edit Jobs" dialog box when clicking a job name in the "Jobs" list, if configured to do so.
• Added the ability to see jobs and routes completed up to one week in the past. Previously, only jobs and routes on the current day, or for future days, could be viewed.

Bug Fixes / Technical Release Notes

• Fixed an exception message shown after selecting a recurring job and then hiding the map.
• Corrected a fault that could prevent route selection when using the Group by Date feature.
• Fixed a caching fault that could stop routes being built, and an error message to be shown, if experiencing unusually high network delays.
• Fixed a bug that caused the advanced filter in the "Recurring Jobs" screen to replace previously-specified operators in a multi-query filter operation with the initial and default 'Property' operator.
• Corrected a fault that stopped the time on site and time window values in recurring jobs inheriting the default values from their job type.
• Fixed a bug that caused the allowed days in a job time window to change when changing the job type.
• Fixed a error message shown after saving a driver without a base location and then attempting to edit the driver details again.