Getting Started - Administrator Configuration
- Joanna Miller
Before you send out driver invitations and start working through trips you will need to spend some time configuring the system to meet your business needs. This section will go over some setup that should be completed before having your driver’s connect to VIA Mobile.
Where to Access these Settings? The configure the mobile system you will need access to VIA’s administration menu. To open this screen click on your name on the top right side of the VIA screen to open the context menu and choose Admin.
NOTE: If you do not see the Admin option in your menu then you are not setup as an administrator on your system. Contact your system administrator for further assistance.
There are a numbers of areas in the administration screen that can be set for the drivers using VIA Mobile. Let’s look at each of them now:
Role Settings
It is advisable to have a separate role established for your driver’s access to the system. You can click here for more information on setting up a new role to be assigned to your drivers. Within the role screen, there is a setting for Mobile and within this group you can control specific fields that the driver can see or edit
These roles can then be assigned to your drivers at a few levels. Within the Mobile Settings Section there is a field for Permission Role, this would be the default permissions role for the drivers. In the Driver’s section of the admin screen each driver has a column for driver role. Any role that you enter here will override what you have in the mobile settings section. You can also set a permissions role within the board menu for permissions specific to loads that reside on a specific board.
Board Settings
Order and Segment boards store the Geofencing and position report settings for VIA Mobile. NOTE that these settings are only visible on order and segment type boards and must be set individually on each type of board. There are two areas that you can configure for Mobile within the boards menu: Auto Arrive/Depart and Mobile Settings.
Auto Arrive/Depart
In this section, you can configure the geofencing options within the driver’s workflow
There are 4 options for geofencing:
Off - When set to off, the system will not automate the workflow at all. The off option means that arriving and departing stops will have to be done manually by the driver within the app.
On - This setting means that the system will trigger the geofence that is set in either the default Radius field or customized in for a specific customer (click here for more information on customizing). With the setting at on the driver will also have the ability to manually arrive or depart the stop without waiting for the automation.
Prompt - When the option is set to Prompt then the system will offer a combination of automated and manual updates using the Reprompt Time and Prompt Timeout fields within this section. When the driver crosses the geofence that is set in either the default Radius field or customized in for a specific customer (click here for more information on customizing), they will get a prompt popup to ask them if they have arrived/departed their stop. If they do not manually choose to arrive or depart then, after the prompt timeout minutes pass the message will disappear. The message will pop back up again based on the repromt time setting.
Locked - When the option is set to locked it means that the system will be only automated. Stops will be arrived and departed by crossing geofences and the driver will not be able to override the workflow. This setting is similar to On except that when locked, the driver cannot arrive or depart at all.
Allow out of order Stops
This setting will allow the driver to complete the stops out of order from which they were offered. This could be used if a receiver is not ready for a stop, the driver can then move onto the next one and return to the current stop at a later time.
Default Radius
This setting will determine the default size of the geofence around a location. If this field is not changed, the default out of box setting is 0.25 of a mile. You can see the geofence around a location by switching to map view within a load or a customer board and choosing the geofence toggle in the map menu
If you have locations that you do not want to use the default radius for a specific location, you can customize a geofence but defining an area around a location. Click here for more information on customizing geofences.
Auto Arrive First Stop at Same Location
This option can be used to automate the arrival of the first stop if the driver tends to start their trip already at the first stop location. For example, if the driver picks up a load at the terminal and starts their day at the terminal as well, then this setting would auto arrive at the terminal when the trip was started. Then the driver could just depart when they left.
Mobile Setting
Within the Administration Menu of VIA you will also be able to apply global settings to the driver’s mobile experience. This is done in the Mobile Settings menu option. These settings will require you to have access to the administration menu in VIA, similar to the Role settings. Below are the list of settings that you can configure within the mobile setting section:
Commodity Display - This will determine how the commodity appears to the driver. There fields are visible on the Freight details tab for Segments and Orders and can be configured in the drop down option within the administration screen.
Name - The description given to a commodity code
Class - The numerical class value given to a specific commodity code
Code - The code defined for the commodity record
Display ID - This options will be configured depending on if you use segment or order type boards. In some instances, you may use orders to track the customer orders; however, you build those onto trips/legs in the segment boards and those segments are what get assigned to the drivers. Whatever type of card you send out to the driver will determine what you choose in this drop down list:
Order Number - If you assign your driver to cards within an order board
Trip Number - If you assign your driver to cards within a segment type board
Location Display - How do you want the driver to see the stop information on the mobile device:
ID - This would display the company ID for the stop. If you manually entered the stop information and did not use an ID then this would show up as blank on the mobile device
Name - This would display the company name provided for the stop.
Data Displayed - There are two dates entered for each stop within the via system and you can choose to display either to the drivers.
Requested Date - This is the date that appears first for a stop. It is usually the date that the customer requests that the work be done. This date is not the date that appears on the stop summery or on the mini cards within the system.
Scheduled Date - This is the date that you have scheduled the work to be done. It is the date that will be displayed for the stop in both the stop summary as well as on the mini card for the card.
Why would you have different dates for requested and scheduled? Let’s assume that the customer has requested that you pick up freight between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM on a given date. The requested date/time would be 9-6; however, if you have other pickups that you want the driver to complete, you might change the scheduled pickup to 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM. If you use the route builder tool within VIA it will also change the scheduled dates but will not update the requested dates.
Map URL - This will determine what mapping application will be launched when the driver presses the globe button for a specific stop within the mobile app. You can create additional URL options using the Dropdown options screen within mobile and then clicking on Mobile App URL. NOTE: Not all mapping applications will support transport vehicles.
Permissions Role - You can select a role from the list that will become the default role for the drivers authorized to use VIA mobile. You can override this within the driver section of the mobile screen.
Macro Category - When you define a macro you can set a category that the macro will fit into.
You may have category’s such as Driver Based, Dispatch Macros, Safety Macros etc. It is possible to categorize macros in any groups and you can define the category of macros that the driver will have access too.
Delay Fields
These timers will force a delay (none/30 seconds/1 minute/2 minutes/5 minutes) between the following actions for the driver.
Delay Between Arriving/Departing Stops
Delay Between