Cross-order Routing

A new Digital Waybill feature, cross-order routing, expands on the dispatcher sorting described in the previous post and allows you to use our routing capabilities to plan your drivers' daily schedules. Cross-order routing can be helpful in many situations, but we hope our overnight couriers will find this feature especially useful. To get started, enable dispatcher sorting.

Once you've turned this on, select a driver from the left pane of the main dispatch window. This will show all of that driver's active orders in the center part of the window. Now, right-click anywhere in that window and you'll see two options at the bottom: Optimize Pickup Addresses and Optimize Delivery Addresses. Pick the appropriate option, enter in a starting address and an ending address, and click Optimize. Digital Waybill will show you a map of the suggested Google Maps route, and you can accept or decline their suggestion. If you accept, the driver's orders will be rearranged and display in the new order in his 2-Way.

Note: the cross-order routing works either with pickup addresses or delivery addresses, and will only consider those addresses when it creates the route.

Dispatcher Sorting

Dispatcher sorting is a new feature that allows you to manually arrange orders for your drivers. It's a precursor to the automatic cross-order routing feature, which we'll discuss in the next post. Say you have 10 orders assigned to one driver, and you know that if they handle them in a certain order, it will make their driving route faster and more efficient; with dispatcher sorting, you can manually rearrange the jobs so the driver will see them in this order.

First, a couple important notes about dispatcher sorting. It will only work if your drivers are using the 2-Way. With the regular text/e-mail dispatches, they simply arrive in the order you send them. Also, turning on dispatcher sorting will disable regular sorting by category. Normally, when you click the header for a column on the dispatch screen (order number, status, ready time etc.), it sorts the order by that category. Dispatcher sorting means that you can only sort the orders manually, and not by category. Of course, keep in mind that you can always switch back and forth between these modes.

Turn on dispatcher sorting by going to Settings -> Delivery Services and checking the Dispatcher Sorting box in the lower right corner. Next, click on a driver on the left side of the main dispatch screen to show that driver's orders in the window. You can now drag and drop the orders to rearrange them, and the new order will be reflected in the driver's 2-Way app.

Customizing Export Spreadsheets

You may have noticed in the past few months that we've made a number of improvements to Digital Waybill. We've added bugfixes, stability improvements and interface enhancements, as well as completely new features. We'll be catching you up on how to use these features in this blog over the next few weeks, but today we'd like to start with something basic: customizing your exported spreadsheets.

If you're unfamiliar with exporting orders from your Completed Orders screen, it's a feature that lets you dump all your order information into a spreadsheet. They may not be as nicely formatted as our invoices and sales reports, but they do let you filter your order list by any different criteria, and they also include every last detail of an order, including information not found anywhere else.

This huge collection of order information is useful for record keeping and analysis, but it's not so useful for printing, at least at the default settings. If you'd like to pare down the spreadsheet so only the most important fields show up on the document, follow these steps:

Go to Settings > Delivery Services and click the Customize Export button. From here, you can select which fields will be exported. This way, you can eliminate columns and create a more readable, printable document.

*Note: The first 'Distance' field is the distance in meters, and the second one (which is the last column on the sheet) is distance in miles.

Technical Support & Remote Assistance

The best way to contact us about a technical problem is to send an e-mail to support@digitalwaybill.com with a detailed description of your and your contact information (phone number and availability, if you prefer to be contacted by phone. You can also call us at any time at (800).575.3510. If no one is available to take your call immediately, leave a message and we'll return your call as soon as possible.

Our support agents will frequently use Remote Assistance to troubleshoot the problem, which allows them to take control of your system and perform the necessary troubleshooting steps. This can be accessed through 'Remote Assistance' from the 'Discover' menu within the program, or you can navigate to www.dwlogin.com from your web browser. Remote Assistance is our default remote desktop tool, but we can also create a Screen Connect session for you if the the first method doesn't work. Of course, our support agents will walk you through this process if necessary.

Setting Up Digital Waybill on Multiple Machines

Your main Order Panel is designed to be installed on one computer and left there; you really don't want to have the main panel installed on more than one machine at a time. However, Digital Waybill offers a few options for using the system on more than one computer. Some of them are designed for portability for a single user, and others are designed to allow multiple dispatchers at once. We'll outline the various options below.

If you've installed Digital Waybill on one computer and want to be able to access it remotely, we recommend third party remote desktop software called LogMeIn Free. There are a number of free remote desktop solutions out there, and you can pick the one you're most comfortable with, but LogMeIn is simple and easy to set up and works through any full-featured browser. A common use for LogMeIn is to access your office computer from home, or from another location when you're out of the office. To set it up, go to www.logmein.com and select LogMeIn Free from the products menu. You'll need to register for an account and install a small program on your main computer. Once this is done, you'll be able to securely access and take control of your main computer from any other computer with internet access. This type of remote desktop software will give you full access to the slave computer, not just Digital Waybill. However, only one person will be able to control the computer at any given time.

LogMeIn is really designed for remote access for a single user. For multiple simultaneous users, we've integrated some helpful features into Digital Waybill to allow for this. You can set up as many Order Entry Screens as you'd like. This is designed for offices who have call takers (employees who are taking calls and entering orders), but don't need any dispatching or other functionality. Basically what they'll see on these Order Entry Screens is the same window that pops up when you click 'Enter New' in your order panel. However, they won't be able to do anything else from the secondary computers.

If you need full-fledged simultaneous dispatching, give us a call to set you up with a Remote Panel. This requires an additional license, but allows for complete dispatch panels to be set up simultaneously on other computers. These Remote Panels have two limitations: they can't access the accounting functions via the 'Invoices' button, and they won't be able to edit prices or other settings in the 'Settings' window. These two functions can only be accessed through the main panel. Remote dispatchers will be able to access customers and driver lists, if you choose to allow that.

Zone Sets & Zone Pricing

Zone pricing allows you to create a flexible pricing table using customized zones. Your first step is to create a zone set; this zone set will contain all of your zones, and usually includes your entire service area. Each zone in the zone set will be assigned their own rates in the pricing table. A typical pricing table will include all the possible combinations (e.g. Zone A to Zone B, Zone A to Zone C, and Zone B to Zone C), but you can confine a price list to only show rates going to and from a single zone. Click on the zone set on the left, and select 'Add Zone' to name your zone.

Next, you'll need to define each zone by adding cities, postal codes, or even specific companies. Digital Waybill matches zones as specifically as possible, by checking company first, then postal code, then city. So if an address matches its company name in one zone but its city in another, it will be assigned to the zone with the matching company name. Once the pickup and delivery addresses have been assigned to zones, the base price will be determined by pulling the corresponding value from the table.

You can create a price table with all of your zones by adding a 'Zone Based' price list, and choosing the relevant zone set. If you'd like to confine your price list to only one zone (that is, all the orders will have an address in that zone as either the pickup or delivery address), you can select the 'Single Zone' option and select your base zone from the drop-down menu. From there, it's simply a matter of filling in all the rates per zone and service type.

The Mobile App for Customer Ordering

You might have noticed that the 'Mobile App' has been enabled as a feature on your order panel. This allows your customers to place orders with you directly from your Android or Apple device. The first step in setting customers up with mobile ordering is to install the Quick Entry ordering client on their machines.

From here, have the customer click the Android icon in the bottom left, which will prompt them for an e-mail address to send login credentials. The app can then be downloaded from the Android Marketplace or the Apple App Store (pending Apple's approval, which will hopefully occur in the upcoming few weeks), and after logging in using the e-mailed information, your customers will be able to place apps from their phone.

Placing Routed (Multiple Stop) Orders

Besides placing 'Point A' to 'Point B' orders, Digital Waybill also supports orders with multiple stops. There are a few features you can take advantage with these multiple stop orders, but to get started, you'll want to click 'Enter New' from the main dispatch pane. This is where you normally enter phone orders. If you click where it says 'Charge To:' right below the 'Pickup At:' heading, you'll change the order type to a routed order.

From here, once you've picked the customer and cost center to charge to, you can add as many delivery addresses as you need. Note that the first stop is usually considered the pickup address, and each subsequent stop can be either a pickup or delivery. To add a new stop, enter the address information. Click <Add New Stop> to set the current address as a stop and create a new one.

Once you've placed the order, you may notice a new 'Optimize' button has appeared next to the 'Directions' button. You can use this to optimize your route: just pick either 'A To Z' or 'Rountrip', and Google Maps will determine the most efficient driving route for your driver to take.

One last thing you can set up for routed orders is routed pricing. By default, the system calculates each leg of the route separately, as if it were its own order. However, you can access the 'Route Pricing' settings the same way as the 'Advanced Driver Pay'. Then, just set the price list of your choosing for each leg of the order. This might require you to create an additional price list or two. For instance, if the first leg of the order was charged normally, but each additional leg was and extra $5 with a slightly discounted mileage, you would create a distance price list with a $5 base charge and the applicable mileage charge, and apply from Stop 2 to Stop X (Stop 1 to Stop 2 is the first leg, which you would set from the standard list).

Surcharge Sets

The base price for an order will be determined by your price lists in one of three ways (flat rate, zone table, or mileage). Once the base price has been calculated, surcharge sets give you a lot of extra flexibility to add additional charges and otherwise modify the price. They work very similar to price lists: you can create as many surcharge sets as you want, and each customer will be assigned a default surcharge set to be charged from. Just make sure you assign the surcharge set to the customer, otherwise they won't be calculated. You can assign price and surcharge lists in the customer details window.

To create a surcharge set, navigate to 'Settings', 'Pricing', and 'Surcharge Sets'. Select 'Add Surcharge Set' and pick a name to create your set. From here, we'll break down surcharges by type and show you how to customize the surcharges to your liking.

Weight Charges
Select 'Add Charge' to create a weight price list. If you're going to have different rates for different service types or package types, you'll need to add multiple charges. Otherwise, you can create all of your ranges within one charge. There are two different ways to create weight charges, and one important option that you may find useful.

-If you're going to be charging per pound, say 10¢ for example, you would create a weight range from 0-10000 lbs at .10 per 1 lb. You can create multiple ranges at different rates, but it's important to note that these ranges are cumulative by default. That is, it will calculate each range separately according to the rates that you've set, and add them together at the end. More on this below.

-If you have ranges, for example 0-100 lbs is $10 flat, 100-200 lbs is $15, and 200-300 is $18, you would create the ranges as follows
a) from '1 to 1 lbs', '10 per 1 lb'
b) from '101 to 101 lbs', '5 per 1 lb'
c) from '201 to 201 lbs', '3 per 1 lb'
This may seem a little confusing. What we're actually doing here is setting it up so that as soon as a package exceeds one lb, it will be calculated at $10 once. When the package weight hits 101 lbs, the system will add on $5, one time, so that the total surcharge will give the correct value of $15. Similarly, once the package weight exceeds 200, the system will add on an additional $3 to give you the correct rate of $18.

-You can combine these rates into a single pricing scheme. For example, if you created two ranges:
a) from '1 to 1 lbs', '20 per 1 lb'
b) from '100 to 10000 lbs',  '.10 per 1 lb'
The surcharge set would charge a flat rate of $20 for the first 100 lbs, and then add on 10¢ per pound after that.

-It's important to understand the 'Apply Charge For Entire Order' option, as it can completely change your pricing. Normally, weight ranges are cumulative; that is, they're calculated separately and added together at the end. So if your ranges were 0-100 lbs at 20¢ per lb, 100-200 lbs at 15¢ per lb, and 200-300 lbs at 10¢ per lb, a 300 lb order would have a $45 dollar charge. The system gets $20 for the first 100 lbs, $15 for the next 100 and $10 for the final 100 and adds them together. However, if you check 'Apply Charge For Entire Order', the current weight range will override all the others. So in this case, a 300 lb order would be charged at 10¢ per lb for the entire order, giving you a total of $30 (instead of $45).

Piece Charges
Piece charges work the same as weight charges: you create ranges using the two methods outlined above, and you can use a price override by checking the 'Apply Charge For Entire Order' option.

Fuel Surcharges
Fuel surcharges can be calculated as a charge per mile, a percentage of base price, or a percentage of total price. Once again, you can create different fuel surcharges for different service/package types. The 'Driver Commission Override' allows you to exclude a driver from receiving fuel surcharges as part of his commission (0%), give the driver the full surcharge (100%), or anything in between. Otherwise he will use his standard commission percentage. One thing to note about fuel surcharges (and all other surcharges, for that matter): changing the rate won't retroactively adjust previous orders unless you recalculate. So if you change the fuel surcharge percentage every week to account for gas prices, your old orders from last week will still keep the proper charge from that week, as long as you don't 'Recalculate' the price in the price window.

Package Type Charges
Package type charges allow you add an additional flat rate for any combination of package and service types. Usually we try to integrate these differences into the base price list, but package type charges give you an easy and flexible way to add and change flat charges at any time.

Miscellaneous Charges
Miscellaneous charges are anything else that might be added on to an order. This might include wait time, extra manpower, oversized package, frozen goods, or whatever other additional charges your courier company use. These charges are added manually after the order has been placed, and are different from all the other surcharge types listed above, which are added automatically at the time the order is placed. To create a charge, just pick a name and enter in the value. To add this charge to the order, highlight the order and click on the order price in the bottom right of the dispatch window. Select the plus ('+') button in that window to pull up a list of miscellaneous charges. You can add any of these charges, at any time, in any quantity. For example, if your wait time charges were 50¢ a minute, you could add a 'Wait Time (per minute)' charge and change the quantity to 20 for 20 minutes of waiting. Just click 'Save and Close' when you've added all of your charges. You can also change the name, quantity, and price for any of the price components manually at any time by clicking on that field.

Flat Pricing

Flat pricing is the simplest pricing scheme, dependent only on service type. When you create a new flat price list, you'll see each service type and its corresponding rate in the table.

You can also tie the this flat rate sheet to a specific zone set by selecting the 'Apply only to specified zone set' option. With this selected, the flat rates will be applied only within the selected zone set; otherwise, the price will rollover to the 'Rollover Pricelist', which you can choose at the bottom of the price window.

Distance Pricing

Distance pricing takes advantage of our Google Maps integration to calculate the driving distance between pickup and delivery. You can use flexible options for base rates, minimums, and mileage charges over different ranges to achieve a price scheme to your liking.

Ranges allow you to set different rates for different legs of the journey. Say, for example, I wanted to charge a a base rate for the first 30 miles, a mileage charge from 30 to 100, and a higher mileage charge thereafter. The three sample ranges shown above of '0-30', '30-100', and '100-unlimited' would allow me to do this. Click on a range to set costs for that range.

Package/Service types allow you to customize the price very specifically. This allows you set different rates for each combination of package type and service type. Keep in mind, each of these combinations is at '0' by default, so you'll have to methodically go through every combination that you use and make sure it's filled in. If you want to change multiple service or package types at once (e.g. if all of your package types have the same minimum), hold down control and select all the package/service types that you would like.

Within each package/service combination, the price is broken down into 3 components.
1. Minimum: After the price for a certain range is calculated, Digital Waybill will check this leg of the price against the minimum. If it doesn't meet the minimum, the price for that range will be automatically bumped up to meet it.
4. Base Price: As soon as an order enters a given range, the base price is added to the order.
5. Price/Mi: The price per mile is added on to the base price within that range.

You can use all three of these components when designing your price list. Be aware that the minimum and base price are two different things. The full base price is always added as long as the order qualifies for that range. The mileage will be added second, and finally the system checks to see if it's reached the minimum. For example, in the range '0-20 mi' with 'Minimum = $15', 'Base Price = $10', and 'Price/Mi = $1', a 2 mile order would be calculated like so:

-The order is more than 0 miles, so the base price of $10 gets added right from the start.
-For the 2 miles, the system will add on an addition $2.
-Finally, the system checks the minimum. $12 doesn't qualify, so the price will be bumped up to a final price of $15.

One last, very important thing to note is that mileage ranges are cumulative, not overriding. We talked a little bit about this while explaining the new surcharge options, but weights and surcharges have an override option; distance does not. What this means is that for any given order, each leg (range) of the trip is calculated separately, and they're added together at the end. The current range will not override previous ranges. For example, if you had ranges from '0-10', '10-20', '20-30', and '30-40', a trip of 40 miles would calculate the first ten miles of the trip using the '0-10' specifications. It would then set this subtotal aside, calculate the next ten miles of the trip using the '10-20' rates, and set that total aside. After calculating each leg separately, it would add each subtotal together to get a final base price at the end. What it won't do for a 40 mile trip is take the '30-40' rates and apply them to the whole trip. This consideration is very important and may require you to make a few calculations when setting your pricing. Of course, you can always give us a call and we'll be happy to walk you through the process.

Installing the Quick Entry Client (As a Customer)

Besides using the online ordering shown below, your customers can also download a standalone program, called the Quick Entry client, that will allow them to place orders from a shortcut right on their desktop (without having to navigate to the website and log in). There's a few ways to install this program on your computer: you can have you customers go to the login page and download it directly with the 'Download' button, and they can also download it after they've logged in by clicking the link at the bottom of the screen. The easiest way to get your customers ordering with the Quick Entry, though, is to invite directly from Digital Waybill. You can find detailed instructions here.

Once your customer has downloaded the installation file, they can run it to install the program. If they downloaded it from the login page, they'll have to enter their customer ID and password; otherwise, it will already have their information stored in the program files and they won't even need to log in.

The Quick Entry client has all the functionality of web-based ordering (pickups, deliveries, 3rd party addresses, order history and tracking) along with the added features of optional GPS tracking, and the ability to place routed orders with multiple stops. All of these options can be accessed from the navigation bar at the top.

An important note: because the Quick Entry client operates independently of any web browser, your customers might need to open their firewalls for the client to work properly. You can usually do this by either adding an exception for the program (DigitalWaybill.exe) or opening port 8818 on their computer.

Online Ordering (As a Customer)

Customer online ordering is an essential part of the Digital Waybill system, and we've created a couple different ways for your customers to place orders from their own home or office. Customers can log in through their web browsers and place orders online, or they can download a standalone program that will run from a shortcut on their desktop. Web-based ordering is extremely easy to set up and start using. (Tomorrow we'll talk about the standalone Quick Entry client).

To place online orders, have the customer navigate to the courier company's online ordering site. It looks something like this: http://www.dwaybill.com/[couriername]. The login ID and password are created and provided by the courier company. Once they've logged in, customers can use the navigation links along the left side to place orders for pickup, delivery, or third party addresses. To place an order, just fill out the form will the relevant details (don't forget service type and package type), and submit! If you, the courier company, decide to allow price checking, the 'Check Price' button will be available as well.

Complete order history and order tracking with all details for every order made by that customer are also available from the navigation menu.

Searching & Exporting Your Order History

Once an order has been delivered or otherwise completed, clicking the 'Complete Order' button will send it over to the 'Completed Orders' tab for the day. Completing an order will allow you to invoice it, but you'll still be able to manually change any of the fields or pricing. Your completed orders has another important function, though: it stores your entire order history in a searchable database. You can view weekly orders by the day by selecting from the dropdown menu. Or, if you need more powerful search tools, you can select 'Search' instead of 'Week View'. You'll then be able to search by a wide variety of parameters including customer, driver, and order number, throughout any date range that you specify.

One great use for these order history searches is order exporting. It's simple to create sales reports from the 'Invoices' window, but often we have clients who want their order history, or a subset of their order history, exported into a spreadsheet. If you right-click in the completed orders window, you can export all the orders listed in that pane into a spreadsheet that includes all the information fields for each order. This also works for the 'New Orders' and 'Active Orders' panes. For example, if you wanted a list of all orders made by a certain customer from 1/1/2011 to 1/15/2011, you would search for that customer number within that date range. Once the list is pulled up in the program, right-click and export the orders. This would create a spreadsheet of all that customer's orders in that time frame. This can be useful if you want to do order analysis or create a more customized sales report for a certain subset of your orders. (To get a full order history exported into the spreadsheet, just select 'Order Date' as the parameter and specify your range.)

New 2-Way and Surcharge Options

You may have noticed a few new options that were pushed out in updates recently. If you haven't received them yet, simply close and restart the Order Panel. We'll break down a few of them here today.

If you go to 'Settings' > 'Software Settings', you'll notice a couple new check boxes under the 'Dispatch' heading. The 'Automatically Complete 2Way Delivered Orders' will send orders over to the 'Completed Orders' tab as soon as the driver marks the order Delivered. This is helpful if you have a lot of orders in one day, and don't want to manually complete each one from the dispatch side. The 'Display Company Name on 2Way Menu' will display the pickup company's name, as opposed to their address, when the order is sent to a driver's 2-Way app.

Surcharges have also been modified with a couple new features. When you add a weight or piece surcharge, you'll notice a box that says 'Apply Charge For Entire Order'. This essentially creates an override so that the current range's rules will override any previous ones. Those of you familiar with our distance and surcharge pricing system probably know that it's usually cumulative; e.g., if you have a range of 0-100 lbs. at 10¢ per lb., and 100-200 lbs. at 20¢ per lb., an order that was 150 lbs. would calculate 100 lbs. at 10¢ and add on 50 lbs. at 20¢, giving you a total surcharge of $20. With the 'Apply Charge For Entire Order' checked, the current range (100-200) will override any other rules, and the entire order will be charged at 20¢ per lb., give you a total weight surcharge of $30 in our example. This feature can be used for both weight and piece surcharges.

Finally, a 'Driver Commission Override' has been added to fuel surcharges. This allows you to set a specific percentage for driver commissions to be taken from the fuel surcharge, or you can exclude fuel surcharges from commission altogether (by selecting 0%).

Double-Click Options in the Dispatch Panel

Customer feedback led us to make a couple recent changes in the user interface. You'll now be able to customize the action that double-clicking an order takes within the dispatch window.

The first two options determine which fields appear as columns in the order panes, and the 'Double-Click Action' allows you to select a few different functions (status, edit order, edit price, optimize, etc.) when you double click an order.

Updating Courier Information

Changing your courier company information can be done in a couple easy steps.

Go to 'Settings' > 'Courier Information' (should be selected by default):

From this screen you can update your company name, address and contact information, ordering site address and company web site address. You'll also be able to post a website announcement that's viewable by all your customers. You can change most fields directly, but for the ordering site address and your own website address you'll need to verify the changes by clicking the 'Change' button. (This lets us check if another courier company has already claimed them.)

Advanced Driver Pay

Driver commission reports are handled strictly within the software. You may have noticed the 'Driver Reports' tab when you click on the 'Invoices' button; this works just like sales reports and regular invoices. All you have to do is specify a date range, pick a driver, and generate their commission report. The basic pay system uses percentage commissions from every order the driver handled, minus deductions for the specified period. If you need a more complicated system, however, you can implement Advanced Driver Pay.

Instead of percentage commissions, Advanced Driver Pay allows you to implement the pay system of your choosing. For example, you could pay your drivers a flat rate per order, plus 50 cents per mile. Normally, driver commissions are calculated by taking the customer's price list for that order, and multiplying it by the commission percentage. Advanced Driver Pay works by creating a separate price list and applying it to that driver instead. For example, if the customer was being charged by mileage, but you wanted to pay the driver a flat rat per order, you would follow these steps:

1. Go the 'Pricing' tab under 'Settings'. Click on 'Price Lists'.

2. Create a new price list, and instead of putting in the cost of the order, enter the driver pay parameters. For instance, to charge your drivers a flat rate, create a new 'Flat Rate' price list (called 'Driver Pay Flat', for example) and enter in the amount you want to pay your drivers per order. To pay them by the mile, create a new distance price list (e.g. 'Driver Pay Distance') that has their pay rate per mile.

3. Highlight any customer price list, and click 'Advanced Driver Pay' in the bottom right of the window. Here you'll see the default pay system: it takes the price list from the customer, and applies the percentage from the driver to determine their pay. This is what we want to change. Under price list, select the driver pay price list that you've just created, and apply it at 100%. We're applying it at 100% because the list was created specifically for drivers. Of course, nothing is stopping you from applying other customer price lists at different percentages.

From now on, any order that uses this customer price lists will pay the driver for that order according to the 'Advanced Driver Pay' rules. This may sound a little confusing, but really all it's doing is calculating pay by applying a different price list and different percentage instead of the default.

All these same rules apply for surcharges, as well.

Inviting Customers to Order Online

Digital Waybill allows customers to place order in two ways: through the web interface at 'http://dwaybill.com/(yourbusinessname)' and through our Quick Entry software. The Quick Entry is installed onto your customer's computer and will create an icon on the desktop named after your business.


Customers can log in to your ordering page by entering the customer number and password assigned to them. You can edit these at any time from the Customer Management window. Once logged in, they'll be able to place new orders (using their own address book for quick entry if necessary) and review their order history and details.

It's even easier to deploy the Quick Entry client: just go to the Customers window in the order panel, highlight the customer and press the 'Get Customer Online' button. This brings up a simple e-mail generator that will send out a brief invitation message and a download link for the client. The customer's ID and password are already stored in the download link, so they won't have to log in after installation, and can start placing orders immediately. Customers can also download the Quick Entry client from the online ordering form.

Just a note: the Quick Entry client has a couple features that aren't in web-based ordering. These include: routed orders, order history calendar, and GPS tracking (which is off by default, but can be enabled from the 'Service Type Details' window within the main order panel). We use TCP Port 8818 for all communications between the client and the order panel, so you may need to have your customers open their firewall.

Customizing Messages for E-Dispatch, 2-Way, & POD

Digital Waybill communicates in a couple different ways with both drivers and customers. Drivers receive their dispatched orders through either E-Dispatch (text/email) or the 2-Way mobile application. Customers, on the other hand, can be sent a POD, or confirmation e-mail, detailing the current status and timestamp. You can customize the default fields that go into these messages as follows:

1. Go to 'Settings' > 'Software Settings' and click the 'Edit Messages' button.

E-Dispatch: Check the appropriate boxes to include that information in the text message. Remember, you can always edit the message contents on a per-order basis by clicking on the text box before you dispatch the order.

 

2-Way Dispatch- You can also choose to include fields that the driver can update from their mobile phone. To add or remove an editable field, check the appropriate box under 'Driver Editable' (signature is not optional and will always be gathered). 

E-mail POD: Once again, pick the appropriate options.

Recurring Orders

If you handle repeat or scheduled orders that you'd like to memorize, you can set up recurring orders from any existing order by following a few simple steps.

The order in question needs to be created at least once. If you follow this process while the order is in the New Orders pane, the order will be memorized without an assigned driver. If you've already dispatched the order when you memorize it, Digital Waybill will remember your driver preference and automatically assign that driver whenever the recurring order is placed.

Select an order in the main dispatch window and click on the price in the bottom right corner. In the pop up window, under the area with the price breakdown, click the 'Memorize' button. From here you'll be able to set up a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule. If you'd like to memorize the order for future use, but not place it on a schedule, you can select 'Weekly' and leave all the boxes blank. Finally, create a name for your order.

When an order is set to recur on a schedule, it will appear at midnight when the date changes (beware, if you're changing the date in Windows for any other reason, any scheduled orders for the new date will be placed every time the calendar changes to that date). The order will appear with the same ready time and all the same order details as when you memorized it.

You can see all of your memorized orders at once by slicking on the 'Settings' button on the main dispatch screen, and then clicking the 'Recurring Orders' tab. From here you can remove an order or edit its schedule, and you can place it at any time by double-clicking or selecting 'Place Now'.

Status Time Updates

It's very common to want to change the delivery time for an order after it's been completed (for example, if the order was delivered but you weren't able to change the status until later). To do this, simply highlight the order and click the status button on the right side of the dispatch screen. The 'Edit Tracking Info' window will allow you to update your 'Ready' and 'Deliver By' times as well as the current status time. And if your driver captured a signature, you'll be able to see that as well.

You can also access this window at any time for any new or active orders to see the status and timestamps.

Service Type Options

Your service types within Digital Waybill do more than determine pricing. You can customize service types by availability time, delivery time and customer (among other options) to fit the needs of your courier business.

To customize your service types, open the 'Settings' window and click on 'Delivery Services'. From here, you can double click on a service type, or highlight a service type and click 'Edit'. In the window that pops up, you'll be able to rename your service type and change the details.

If you select 'Specified' under the Service Details, you'll see all of the options for customizing your services. The 'Within' and 'By' options allow to set delivery guidelines. For applicable orders, the appropriate 'Deliver By' time will be calculated and shown in the main dispatching screen. You can also allow customers to see this estimated latest delivery time by checking the box below.

If you'd like your customers to be able to track your drivers by GPS, select the next option. This means that for relevant orders, your customer will be able to pull up a driver map and see the approximate location of their order. This only applies during the time in between pickup and delivery for that particular order.

The cutoff time and weekend options both function the same way. If a customer tries to place an order past the cutoff time, or on a weekend when the option is set at 'No', an notification will pop up alerting the customer. If the customer chooses to continue anyway, the order will be placed for the next available date (e.g. next weekday/Monday). Please note, enforcing the cutoff time doesn't stop customers from placing the order. It will just roll over to the next day instead.

The two fields to the right give you the option to change service color, and make the service type available only to certain customers. If you change service availability, only customers with the box checked will be able to select that service type from the drop-down menu. This applies to the ordering client, online, and in the dispatch panel. Service color, on the other hand, is useful to see at a glance how many orders of one type you have active at any given time. It works by changing the color of the order number in the dispatch window. So, for example, if you made Regular orders black and Rush orders red, you'd be quickly be able to tell how many of each order were active on your screen.

Adding Customers to Digital Waybill

Whether you're importing customers from Quickbooks or manually entering customers within the program, there are a few things to keep in mind. Besides entering their basic information (company name, address, contact information), you'll also need to create a customer number and password for each customer. Your customers can use these to log in to the online ordering site and Quick Entry client. Even though it's called  a 'customer number', you can actually use any combination of letters and numbers, and the same goes for the password.

Make sure that your customer is assigned a price list. Our pricing system works by associating a default price list and surcharge set to each customer. You can create as many of these lists as you want, but in the customer details window you'll need to select one from the dropdown menu in order to calculate a price for that customer. If you don't have surcharges, you can leave that at <None>. The 'Allow Price Check' option will determine whether the customer can get a price quote before placing an order. If you select 'No', the 'Check Price' button won't be available to them. You can also apply a blanket discount to a specific customer from the '% Discount' field.

By clicking the 'Show Cost Centers' box, you'll be able to subdivide your customer into cost centers (or billing departments). Each cost center can have a unique address and contact. When placing an order, you or your customer will be able to assign the order to a certain cost center, and during invoicing separate invoices will be created for each cost center (though if you have Quickbooks, there will be an option to combine a cost centers into a single customer invoice).

Finally, if you have an e-mail address for your customer, you can check the 'E-mail POD' box to send out confimation e-mails automatically. When an order is completed from the main dispatch screen, Digital Waybill will send out an e-mail to that address informing them that their order was delivered. The status and timestamp are included by default, but to customize these messages, go to 'Settings', 'Software Settings', 'Edit Messages', and click the 'E-mail POD' tab at the top. From here you can select which information is included in the proof of delivery e-mails.

Remote Panel Installation & Setup

Remote panels are additional dispatch panels that allow for simultaneous dispatching with your Main Order Panel. They function almost exactly the same as the main panel, minus the ability to adjust settings and create invoices. They're also completely portable and can be installed on as many machines as you want, although a single username can only be active on one machine at a time. If you're interested in licensing a Remote Panel, give us a call!

Once you've added a remote license, you can create an additional user by navigating to 'Settings' > 'Additional Users'.


Use the 'Add' button to create a username and password for your Remote Panel. From here you can also set user permissions (for example, allowing the Remote Panel user to edit driver and customer information). Once this is done, you'll be able to run the Remote Panel from any other computer with internet access. To do this, open that computer's browser and input the web address shown in the 'Additional Users' window. The address looks like this:

http://www.dwaybill.com/<yourbusinessname>/getremote.htm

Click the download link, install the program, and enter your newly created ID and password. The installation will also create a Remote Panel shortcut on your desktop. From here, you're all set to start dispatching.

Installing the 2-Way Mobile Application

The Digital Waybill 2-Way application provides 2-way dispatching, GPS tracking, barcode scanning and signature capture. To run the app, you'll need a Java-enabled phone or an Android based phone. You'll also need GPS for driver tracking, a touchscreen for true signature capture, and a camera to scan barcodes (these aren't necessary for the 2-way to work, though).

The easiest way to get the 2-Way application installed on your drivers' phones is to use the 'Get Online' feature within the main Order Panel. If you're using an Android phone, download and run the app directly from the Android Marketplace, and skip to the last step. Otherwise, follow these steps:

-You'll need a data plan for this to work. Also, make sure GPS is enabled on the phone to allow for driver tracking.

-Go to your Drivers window and double-click on a driver to edit.

-In the window with the driver's details, you'll see a 'Get Online' button to the right; click it. As long as the driver's phone number and provider are correct, the program will send a download link to the phone.

-Click on the download link to open the phone's mobile browser.

-Select the most appropriate option. If none seems relevant, select 'Phone'.

-Open/run the file after download. Depending on the phone, you may have to search a little. Usually the file is saved in a 'Downloads' folder or something similar.

-The app will prompt you to enter a CID and Driver ID. These can be found in the same driver details window, right above the 'Get Online' button. Note, the Driver ID is their 10 digit phone number, not the Driver Number used for dispatching.

Here's a breakdown of the correct options by provider and phone, along with any additional instructions:

AT&T
-Android – Download 'Digital Waybill' from the Android Market.

-Most Other Phones – Use the AT&T link.

-Blackberry – Use the Blackberry link.

-Windows Mobile  – Call us to set up Phonelink and the Java environment.

-iPhone – Not compatible at this time.

Boost Mobile
-Android – Download 'Digital Waybill' from the Android Market.

-Motorola i-series phones (i335, i465 etc.) – Call us to deploy through the Iden Uploader.

*You also may have to add the mobile number to the first line of 'My Info' in the phone settings to download the app.

Fido
-Android – Download 'Digital Waybill' from the Android Market.

-Most Other Phones – Use the Phone link.

-Blackberry – Use the Blackberry link.

*For a Blackberry on Fido, you will have to change the APN Settings.
Go to 'Settings > Advanced Settings > TCP/IP and entering the following:

APN: internet.fido.ca

Username: fido

Password: fido

Authentication: disabled.

MetroPCS
-Android – Download 'Digital Waybill' from the Android Market.

-Most other phones not compatible at this time.

Rogers (Canada) 
-Android – Download 'Digital Waybill' from the Android Market.

-Blackberry – Use the Blackberry link.
*For a Blackberry on Rogers, you will have to change the APN Settings. 

Go to 'Settings > Advanced Settings > TCP/IP and entering the following:

APN: internet.com

Username:(blank)

Password:(blank)

Authentication: disabled.

Sprint (& Nextel)
-Android – Download 'Digital Waybill' from the Android Market.
-Motorola i-series phones (i335, i465 etc.) excluding the i1 – Call us to deploy through the Iden Uploader.
*You also may have to add the mobile number to the first line of 'My Info' in the phone settings to download the app.

T-Mobile
-Android – Download 'Digital Waybill' from the Android Market. 
-Blackberry – Use the Blackberry link.
*For e-dispatch (text messaging) to work properly with T-Mobile, make sure that the 10 digit number is preceded by a '1'.

Telus (Canada)
Android – Download 'Digital Waybill' from the Android Market.
Blackberry- Use the Blackberry link.

Verizon
Android – Download 'Digital Waybill' from the Android Market. 

Blackberry – Use the Verizon Blackberry link.

Windows Mobile  – Use the Phone link.

Wind Mobile
Blackberry- Use Blackberry link
You will have to change the APN Settings.

Go to 'Settings > Advanced Settings > TCP/IP and entering the following:

APN: internet.windmobile.ca
Authentication: disabled

Username:(blank)

Password:(blank)

*To install on Windows Phone 7, give us a call and we'll help you set up the Java environment required to run the app.

Supported Mobile Devices for 2-Way Dispatching

AT&T 

Any Android phone (ensure it has GPS if you want to track your drivers)

Motorola Backflip

HTC Aria

Samsung Captivate

Nexus One

LG CF360

LG Shine

Motorola V365

HTC Pure

Tilt/ HTC Kaiser or Tytn II

Tilt II

Samsung Eternity (SGH-A867)

Samsung Mythic

Samsung A657

Boost Mobile 

Any Android phone (ensure it has GPS if you want to track your drivers)

i290

i335

i355 r4a.01.04

i365

i425

i465 Clutch - Full keyboard

i760

i560

i565

i570

i576

i580

i605

i670

i680

i776

i856

i870

i920

     

FIDO

Any Android phone (ensure it has GPS if you want to track your drivers)

Blackberry (Call for details)

MetroPCS

Any Android phone (ensure it has GPS if you want to track your drivers)

Rogers (Canada)

Any Android phone (ensure it has GPS if you want to track your drivers)

Blackberry (Call for details)

Nextel

Any Android phone (ensure it has GPS if you want to track your drivers)

Blackberry Curve 8350i
i9
i1
i290
i335
i355 r4a.01.04
i365
i425
i465 Clutch - Full keyboard
i760
i560
i565
i570
i576
i580
i605
i670
i680
i776
i856
i870
i920
m710

T-Mobile

 Any Android phone (ensure it has GPS if you want to track your drivers)

Blackberry Pearl 9300
Samsung T659
T-mobile myTouch
Samsung Behold II
Garminfone
Motorola Cliq XT
Motorola Cliq Titanium
T-mobile G-1
T-mobile myTouch

Telus (Canada)

Any Android phone (ensure it has GPS if you want to track your drivers) 

Blackberry (Call for details)
*Bold and Torch don't display GPS location

Tigo (Honduras)

Any Android phone (ensure it has GPS if you want to track your drivers) 

Verizon

Any Android phone (ensure it has GPS if you want to track your drivers)