Automatic dispatch and offers

Pop Dispatch offers each waiting trip to one driver at a time and moves on when the driver passes or the timer runs out. You will be able to set how the offers work, read who was offered what, and give a trip to a driver yourself.

Before you start #

• Taxi is part of the Pro and Business editions.
• Drivers need a shift (see taxi-shifts-and-vehicles) and the phone must be sharing its location.
• A trip needs a pick-up latitude and longitude to be offered automatically. A trip with an address only waits on the board for the desk.
• Owners and managers change the settings. Dispatchers and advisors read them and use the trip page.

Set how offers work #

Open Taxi, then Rates and settings, then Dispatch settings, under Offers to drivers.

1. Seconds a driver has to answer: from 5 to 300. The starting value is 20.
2. Offers before the desk is asked: from 1 to 50. The starting value is 5. After this many drivers pass, the trip shows "Needs the desk".
3. Minutes before pick-up to start offering a booked trip: from 0 to 240. The starting value is 15. See pre-booked-trips.
4. Who is offered first: "The driver who can arrive soonest" or "The driver first in line in the zone".
5. Offer waiting trips automatically: tick it to switch automatic offers on. It starts ticked. When it is off, every trip waits for the desk.
6. Save. The note "Saved." confirms it.

Who is offered a trip #

1. Only drivers who are on shift, off a break, free of a trip and free of another offer are considered. A driver whose documents, or whose taxi's documents, have expired is left out (see documents-and-expiry).
2. The taxi has to suit the trip: a wheelchair trip needs a wheelchair accessible taxi, the passengers have to fit the seats when seats are recorded, and the class has to match.
3. A trip to the airport pick-up zone goes to the first driver in the airport line (see airport-queue).
4. In zone queue mode, the driver who has waited longest inside the pick-up zone is offered next.
5. Otherwise the nearest free taxi by arrival time is offered the trip.
6. A driver waiting in the airport line is offered other trips last.
7. A driver who declined or let an offer lapse is never offered the same trip again. The next driver is offered it at once.
8. After the maximum number of offers, the trip waits on the board with the badge "Needs the desk".

Read the board #

Open Taxi. The board lists Waiting, Offered, On the way, Arrived, On trip and Later. An offered trip shows the driver's name and the seconds left. The line above the columns counts the trips and says how many need the desk. The board refreshes every 5 seconds.

Give a trip to a driver yourself #

1. Select the trip number on the board. The page opens with "Drivers who can take it, best first": place, driver, time away, distance and how the place was worked out.
2. Under "Give the trip to a driver", choose the driver. Drivers on shift who are outside the ranking appear as "(on shift, outside the ranking)".
3. Under How, choose "Offer it and wait for the answer" or "Assign it now".
4. Type a Reason. A reason is needed when the driver ranks below the first choice, and the page says "This driver is below the first choice, so say why."
5. Choose Offer the trip or Assign the trip. The trip page shows the new state.
6. Read "Offer history" at the foot of the page: each offer with the time, the answer (Accepted, Declined, Ran out of time, Withdrawn or Waiting for an answer), who made it (Automatic or By the desk) and the reason.

If something goes wrong #

• A trip sits in Waiting with "Needs the desk": give it to a driver as above, or add a pick-up latitude and longitude.
• "Name why this driver is chosen ahead of the best choice.": type a reason.
• That driver is not on a shift.: pick a driver from the list on the page.
• "That driver is on a trip.": pick another driver.
• "This trip can no longer be given to a driver.": it has started or ended.