Zone List - 365 Management

What is This Section?

The Zone List screen serves as a centralised list of your predefined zones in your service area, each of which can be configured with different settings and properties. This is a useful way of breaking up areas into different sections, which makes the dispatching of work smoother and allows your operators to clearly see where your bookings and vehicles are.

How Does It Work?

You configure your zones using the settings available. We strongly recommend creating your zones in Zone Maker as they are automatically added to your Zone List, then you can use Zone List to further configure the zones. To ensure efficient dispatch and resource allocation, we recommend properly configuring your zones to ensure they fit into your daily operations.

Live Mode & Draft Mode

There are two different modes you can switch to and from.

In Live mode, you can view the live configuration of your zones. Any changes you make while in this mode will automatically be published to your live system.

In Draft mode, you can view and edit your zone configuration as a draft, and then apply this draft to live.

Once in Draft mode, you can create a new draft of your current configuration.

Note: When you create a new draft, the current draft will be overridden and any changes made will apply to all zone areas. (e.g. Zone Maker, Zone List, Backup Zones,...)

Once you are happy with your current draft, you can select the Apply Draft to Live button, publishing your new draft to your live system.

Creating a Zone

Though it is possible to create zones on this screen, we strongly recommend using Zone Maker so you can properly define the area of the zone using the map.

To create a zone within Zone List:

1. On the Zone List screen, select the Add button.
2. In the Add Zone modal, fill out the required details marked with an asterisk (*) and any other optional details.
3. Press Save to create your zone.

This new zone does not have any zone bounds, to create these you have to use Zone Maker to draw this area on the map. See Zone Maker for more information.

Editing a Zone

Before editing a zone, we recommend you enter Draft Mode to avoid publishing any mistakes to your live system.

To edit a zone:

1. In Zone List, in the table double-click on the zone to edit.
2. Make adjustments to your zone.

   Note: Any required details are marked with an asterisk (*). These fields must be filled.

3. To undo any changes you've made, use the Undo Changes button to revert the modifications.
4. Press Save to apply your changes.

Zone Details

This section contains your basic details about the zone, and how it presents to both your drivers in Driver Companion and operators in Booking & Dispatch.

• Active: Toggle on to make your zone active in your system. Toggle off to disable this zone.
• Colour: Bookings with a pickup in this zone are coloured in Booking & Dispatch if this parameter is set. Account bookings and Capability bookings will override this setting.
• Name: This should be the full name of the zone.
• Descriptor: The text entered here displays on the dispatch screen so set the value to a shortcode that relates to the name e.g. London could be 'LON'.
• Booking Company: Select from the dropdown menu which company the zone is used with if you are using a multi-company system.

• MDT Zone ID: This ID is what the driver's terminal uses to determine which zone is which. Please ensure that your MDT Zone IDs are in order. The ID value must be between 1 and 440 inclusive.
• Average ETA For Mobile Apps (mins): ** Currently this feature does not work. **
• Included In The Broadcast: If enabled, then drivers are sent information relating to how many jobs are impending in this zone, as well as, information on how many drivers are currently in the zone.

Configuration

Here you can set your configuration settings for your zone, including the bidding type the drivers will automatically use within the zone, zone type, soon to clear settings and replotting.

• Bidding Mode: Here you can control whether drivers can bid for jobs from or for this zone.
  • Bidding permitted: Enabling this setting allows drivers to bid for jobs from or for this zone.
  • No bidding from zone: Disables bidding from inside the zone, but drivers can bid for jobs for this zone.
  • No bidding for zone: Disables bidding for jobs in the zone, but drivers currently in the zone can bid for jobs from this zone.
  • No bidding from or for zone: Disables bidding for jobs from or for this zone.
• Bid Mode For Zone: This setting controls how the system deals with bids from drivers and how bidding behaves. It is useful to configure different zones with different bidding modes depending on the type of zone. For example, a taxi rank would benefit from Longest Waiting.
  • Use Default: Uses your value set for the Bidding Mode setting within Dispatch Configuration > Bidding.
  • None: Disables bidding for this zone. No jobs are available to bid on. 
  • Fastest Finger First: The driver in this zone 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, within this zone, that the driver has bid on.
  • Bid Zone: 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 within this zone is assigned the booking.
  • Nearest Zone: The driver who bids on the booking and is closest to the pickup within this zone is allocated the booking.

• Zone Type: It is important to set which type each zone is as some behave differently depending on what zone they are. Any zones that have been drawn around areas using Zone Maker are automatically classed as 'Normal'. All 'special zones', as highlighted in the list below, are created automatically in your Management system.
  • Normal: A Normal zone is your standard zone where drivers queue for work, and work is dispatched to the queue depending on your bidding mode and types. Any zone you create in Zone Maker is automatically defined as 'Normal'. You can edit your zone within the Zone List to change this.
  • Start: A 'Start' zone is used when a driver logs in and the system does not initially know their location. The system places them in the 'Start Plot' temporarily while determining their actual location.
  • Rejected: A 'Rejected' Zone is used to penalise drivers who reject job assignments. The system enforces a penalty by moving drivers to this zone, where they cannot accept new work for a specific duration.
  • Long Break: A Long Break zone is used to put drivers into a zone where they do not receive new job assignments while on an extended break. This differs from when a driver enters Short Break mode, as they maintain their position in the queue. 
  • As Directed: As Directed is a type of zone that drivers 'enter' when their passenger does not set a specific destination and highlights where the driver is going to be, not where they currently are.
  • Nak: NAK (No Acknowledgement) is a zone where there is zero communication with the driver and their device. As a result, their location and current doings are unknown. Often a driver will enter this zone when they turn off their device, but forget to go off shift.
  • No GPS: If a driver is in a poor signal area, where the system cannot figure out where exactly they are, but there still is communication with the driver, this would be classed as a No GPS zone.

• Maximum Bidding Distance For Zone: Enter a value (in miles) where drivers that are further away from this distance are unable to bid for work in this zone. The distance is a radius from the centre point of the zone. Use Zone Maker to edit your centre point position.
• Delay Bid Allocation Time: This is the amount of time a job must be active in this zone, awaiting for drivers in the queue to accept it, before it goes up for bidding.
• Delay Backup Zones Allocation Time: This is the amount of time a job in this zone must have been active, awaiting for drivers in the queue to accept it before the system offers it to drivers in backup zones. We recommend setting this value to a higher value than Delay Bid Allocation Time, giving drivers in the job zone more time to accept and/or bid.

• Soon To Clear Backup Zones: The value here represents the number of backup zones that will be considered for a job with a pickup in this zone. This only considers vehicles that are Soon To Clear in the number of backup zones specified.
• Soon To Clear Time: A driver will be in the 'Soon To Clear' state in this zone for the time specified here. If the time elapses and the driver does not clear, they return to a 'busy' state.
• Extra Queue Positions: Enter a value to represent the number of extra zones a vehicle can have queue positions for while in this current zone.

• Force Replot Before Clearing: If enabled, a driver has to manually plot their destination before they can clear themselves for work.
• Replot Here If No Job: If a driver has no job, then replot them in this zone.
• Use Clear Out Of Range Tolerance: Enable to apply a 'Clear Out of Range Tolerance' radius on this zone. Drivers are then unable to clear outside of this radius for jobs with a destination in this zone.

Geolocation Settings

The Geolocation tab features settings for plotting drivers in and out of zones, manually or automatically, with parameters for tolerance. For example, if using a penalty zone, you do not want drivers to be able to plot themselves out of this zone and avoid serving their penalty.

• Permit Auto Plot In: Enabling allows drivers to be automatically plotted into this zone, giving your operators better visibility of where your drivers are on the map.
• Permit Auto Plot Out: Enabling allows drivers to be automatically plotted out of this zone, giving better visibility to where your drivers are.

• Permit Manual Plot In: Enable to allow drivers to manually plot themselves into this zone, which is useful for drivers plotting themselves into the destination zone before clearing.
• Permit Manual Plot Out: Enable to allow drivers to manually plot themselves out of this zone. This is a requirement for special zones such as the 'Long Break' zone as drivers need to be able to plot themselves back on the map after a break.

• Auto Plot Tolerance (m): Enter the value in metres that a vehicle must be outside of before the system automatically plots them into another zone.
• Manual Plot In Tolerance: A driver will not be able to manually plot into this zone if they are outside of this tolerance.

Deleting a Zone

Before editing a zone, we recommend you enter Draft Mode to avoid any issues when deleting a zone on a live system.

To delete a zone:

1. Double-click on a zone in the list to edit.
2. Select the Delete button in the bottom-right corner.
3. On the pop-up, select I'm Sure.

   Note: This action is irreversible, you cannot retrieve a deleted zone.