Dispatch Configuration: Bidding - 365 Management

What is This Section?

The Bidding tab contains settings that allow drivers to compete for and secure bookings using Driver Companion. Drivers can put themselves forward to receive and complete a booking using our bidding mechanisms, with our system determining which driver is most eligible based on your configured criteria.

How Does It Work?

You configure your bidding settings with Dispatch Configuration > Bidding and then your drivers can interact and use this feature within their Driver Companion device.

With Bidding, drivers can place bids on available booking types: active (ASAP bookings) and advanced (prebookings). Our system uses different settings, including bidding modes, to determine which driver receives the successful bidding booking. Our bidding modes promote fairer dispatch, ensuring the most suitable driver gets the booking.

 The sections within Bidding you can configure include the following:

• ASAP Bidding
• Active Booking Bidding
• Prebook Bidding

In addition, you should also consider the following important settings within this section:

• Bidding Mode
• Bidding While Busy
• Booking Offering Order

ASAP Bidding

The following parameters within this section control how your system handles ASAP bookings. The most important setting is 'Bidding Mode', which determines the criteria for which driver is most eligible for a booking.

Bidding Mode

• Bidding Mode: This setting controls how bidding behaves within your system, determining which driver is most eligible for a booking by your specified bidding type. There are a few different modes to control this:
  • None: Disables bidding within your system. No jobs are available to bid on. 
  • Fastest Finger First: The driver who was first to bid for a booking by physically selecting the Bid option on their Driver Companion is allocated that booking.
  • Nearest Vehicle: The booking is allocated to the nearest vehicle to the pickup point that the driver has bid on.
  • Bid Zones: The Bid Zones configuration in Dispatch > Zones > Bid Zones determines which drivers can bid and who is most suitable.
  • Longest Waiting: The driver who has been waiting the longest for a job is assigned the booking.
  • Nearest Zone: The driver who bids on the booking and is closest to the pickup zone is allocated the booking.

• Enable Bidding List: Enable to send the drivers a list of bookings that are available for bidding when they bid on a zone on their device.
• Show Bidding List Duplicates: Disable this option so that bookings with the same details are hidden in the bidding list. Enable to display these bookings to drivers.

• Booking Bid Expiry Time: After the first bid request on a booking, the system counts down this time (in seconds) before allocating the job to the most applicable driver depending on your bidding configuration.
• Vehicle Bid Expiry Time: Set this to a value higher than Booking Bid Expiry Time as this defines the number of seconds that elapse before a bid is disregarded.

Bidding While Busy

Bidding While Busy allows a driver to bid for work while they are already busy on another job. This is a very useful feature for drivers as it helps them to plan and ensure that less time is spent waiting for a booking to be dispatched to them.

• Allow Bidding While Busy: If enabled, drivers can bid on bookings while they are busy on another job. We recommend using Bid Offer Mode for driver safety to ensure they receive bids in a safer, more user-friendly manner.
  • Off: Disables Bidding While Busy, meaning no drivers can bid on jobs while they are busy on a job.
  • Manual Mode: This mode means that drivers have access to the 'To Bid' tab on Driver Companion and can bid for bookings in zones while busy on a job. This is NOT recommended as drivers should avoid interacting with their companion device while driving.
  • Bid Offer Mode: This is the safer mode which is recommended to use if you want your drivers to bid for work while busy on other jobs. When set to bid-offer mode, drivers who are eligible to bid for a job are sent the bid offer request as a full-screen presentation with actions to bid or skip. This means that the driver is not scrolling through lists of jobs to bid for while driving, making it a much safer option.
• Bid Busy Hold Time: If a busy driver successfully bids for a job, the system holds the booking for the time specified here. If a driver does not clear within this time, they do not receive the booking.

• Bidding List Fields: When a driver bids for a zone, they see the fields selected here in a list on their device.
• Bidding List Max Bookings: The number entered here represents the maximum amount of jobs that a driver can see in their bidding list at any one time.
• Maximum Bidding Distance: This setting will draw a radius around the pickup of a job, so only drivers within that radius will be able to bid for the job. There is also a 'maximum bidding distance for zone' setting within Zone Configuration which will override this.

Active Booking Bidding

Active Booking Bidding is the newer version of our bidding feature, allowing drivers to see more clearly the details of the jobs they can bid on in a list within Driver Companion. When enabled with the 'Enable Bidding for Active Booking' toggle, the driver will see a new tab within Driver Companion called 'To Bid' which is the interface that shows all available active bookings that can be bid on.

An active booking is a booking that is displayed on the active screen of Booking & Dispatch, if a booking is not on the active screen of B&D, then it will not show to the driver through Driver Companion.

• Enable Bidding for Active Bookings: This toggle controls whether the drivers have access to the active booking bidding feature.
• Limit Number of Bookings Shown: The value entered here will be the maximum number of bookings shown on the list of prebookings that the driver can bid for within the Prebooking section of Driver Companion.
• Enable New Active Booking Notification: When a new booking becomes available in the To Bid screen of a drivers companion device, they receive a notification based on what this setting is configured to.
• Default Job Selection Recipe: Use recipes to control which bookings appear on the To Bid screen of Driver Companion. If a booking matches the recipe criteria of the recipe added here, the booking will show on the To Bid screen.

Prebook Bidding

The Prebook Bidding section allows you to configure how your system handles advanced bookings. This feature enables drivers to better plan their on-shift time for the day or week. Prebookings are any bookings that are made in advance by a passenger. These bookings will appear on the 'B' (Advanced) screen of the Booking & Dispatch interface.                                                  

• Enable Bidding for Prebooking: This toggle controls whether the drivers have access to the prebook bidding feature.
• Limit Number of Bookings Shown: The value entered here will be the maximum number of bookings that show in the To Bid screen of Driver Companion.

• Add Callsign to Booking: Use this setting to control which 'Required Driver/Vehicle' field is populated with the callsign on the booking form.
  • Driver: Only populates the callsign field with the Driver's callsign.
  • Vehicle: Only populates the callsign field with the Vehicle's callsign.
  • Both: Populates the callsign field with both the driver and vehicle callsigns.
• Enable New Prebooking Notification: When a booking becomes available in the Prebookings screen in Driver Companion, they will receive a notification based on what this setting is configured to:
  • Off: The drivers will not receive any notifications about new prebookings.
  • When Clear: Only clear drivers will receive notificaitons about new prebookings.
  • Always: Every driver that is on shift, whether they are busy, clear or somewhere between will receive a notification that there are new prebookings available.

Booking Offering Order

These settings allow you to set up Trip Bands which your drivers fall into while on shift. To do this:

1. Click on the Booking Offering Order button, followed by the Add button. This opens a popup where a new booking offering order rule can be created.
2. When Trips Value is selected, clicking on Trips Value Bands allows you to enter trip value bands. These bands represent the amount the driver has made or has assigned on their current shift.
   
   For example, if the first trip value band is set to 10 and the offering minutes are set to 2, then prebooked jobs up for bid will show to drivers with earnings of £10 to under for 2 minutes, before showing to the next set of drivers in the next band.

• Booking Offering Order: The settings within this popup can be set up so prebook bidding is fairer among drivers. You can allow certain drivers to see bookings before other drivers based on the value of trips they have already completed on their shift.
  • Name: Enter a suitable name for your Booking Offering Order.
  • Description: Optionally, add a description of what this order does.
  • Offering Order Factor: Set to None so that there is no order in regards to total trip value that your drivers will be in while on shift. Set to Trips Value to add bands to represent the amounts in which bookings will be offered to your drivers.
  • Trips Value Bands: Select the Trips Value Bands button and configure the order by using the + Add button to add bands.
• Booking Recipes: The configuration within this setting allows you to highlight which bookings appear on the Prebookings screen of Driver Companion. You can also choose which type of bookings are restricted for drivers to bid for, helping to keep bidding on higher priced jobs fairer among drivers.
• Default Booking Offering Order: This is where you can select which 'Booking Offering Order' rule to use with the bid for prebooking feature.