Purpose
Dispatch Pro is an optional delivery planner. It checks products, locations, trucks, trailers, driver skills and shifts, fees, and drive time. FlintPOS also supports manual dates, truck assignment, the Delivery Board, and driver updates without Dispatch Pro.
Review each plan before saving. Staff can change it or assign a truck by hand.
Where to find it
- Open Settings.
- Choose Dispatch Pro from the settings navigation.
- Use Trucks, Driver Schedule, and Delivery Product Capability to complete the inputs Dispatch Pro checks.
Product locationSettings > Dispatch Pro
Prerequisites and availability
- Dispatch Pro must be enabled for the account. An admin or manager whose settings role includes the tab can change these controls.
- Set up a delivery location with a full address and map point. Mark it as a delivery origin and add stock.
- For each product, set its fulfillment type, weight, and volume for one base unit. Add required services in Delivery Handling.
- Add trucks, trailers, qualified drivers, and shifts. Only active vehicles and qualified drivers can be used.
Setup and operating steps
- Set the POS minimum lead time to the number of days staff should wait before scheduling. Use 0 when same-day scheduling is allowed by capacity.
- Choose whether to use calculated time slots. If they are off, POS uses time windows and Storefront shows dates only.
- If calculated slots are on, decide whether Storefront runs should stay compact around a shift start or another planned delivery. POS staff can still choose any available time.
- Set the per-load scheduling buffer. Keep the default margin unless your operation has a measured reason to change it.
- Choose route settings. Avoid highways asks for local roads when possible. Include Flex travel time adds one-way travel when a floating driver and truck move between locations.
- Set how fast the planner should use new results. Drivers should mark Loaded, Dispatched, and Delivered when each step happens.
- Set yard and ton split size, pairing angle, and minimum load use. Use 0 for any split size or 0% to show every valid pair.
- Choose Save Dispatch Pro settings. Then plan a delivery and review it before you accept it.
Plan and schedule delivery loads
- Open the order's delivery schedule. Review the recommended origin, which must have enough stock for the delivery quantity and a confirmed route. An authorized manager can keep the current origin, but the stock and route checks still apply.
- Choose the delivery date. When calculated time slots are on, choose an available time. Otherwise enter the customer's start and end time window.
- Choose the truck and compatible trailer for the load. Dispatch Pro refreshes the plan to fit that truck's capacity. Check the product quantities, trip count, and availability again.
- For a multi-load order, schedule the first load and choose Schedule Load 1 & Continue. Review the driver-day preview before choosing a time and equipment for the next load.
- Finish each load and save the schedule. Reopen the order to confirm the truck, load quantities, dates, times, and delivery charges.
The preview for the next load counts earlier loads from this order on the same date and at the same origin. Two loads can share a time only if they have different drivers and equipment. FlintPOS checks again when you save.
A new truck can change the trip count and clear times from the old plan. Review the new plan and set times again. Dispatch Pro will not pick a bigger truck to bypass a capacity limit.
If the customer will accept more than one date, use flexible delivery dates. Only the saved date holds capacity.
Review driver time for a day
- On the Dispatch board, choose the date and Working Location.
- Check each driver's scheduled time as used and left, or over when planned work is more than the shift allows.
- When scheduling an internal delivery, add its address and time to see the Driver day load estimate.
- Review any warning before saving. Check the driver's shift, break time, and qualifications if no time is shown.
If there are no shifts for the selected date and location, the board shows No driver shifts. This does not mean drivers have unlimited time. Shifts help plan Dispatch Pro work without a Time Clock punch. The estimate does not clock in the driver or replace checks for delivery time, truck, qualification, or load capacity. A daily total also does not promise that a driver is free at a certain time.
The preview follows the selected Working Location. Choose the right location before reviewing capacity. An authorized All Locations view may show company-wide totals. A selected location must be one you can access. The preview is read-only and does not change shifts or assignments.
Load building and recommendations
Dispatch Pro can split a load across trips and pair a truck with a trailer. It can keep different bulk products on separate dumps, add dump or pallet fees, suggest a delivery location, and hold the truck, trailer, driver time, and stock after you accept the plan.
Capacity is checked per load. A split increment controls how the remainder is packed; it does not allow a truck to exceed its configured limits. A driver must be qualified for the powered vehicle and any attached trailer.
Set the truck fee per trip in Trucks > Base Delivery Fee. Set delivery tiers and other fees in Delivery Fees.
Reorder stops in a paired trip
- On the Dispatch board, open an existing paired trip with at least two stops.
- Choose Time or Miles to pick what the route should improve.
- Review the proposed order, then confirm it. The trip keeps its truck, date, driver, and paired stops.
Drivers can choose Shortest time or Shortest distance for their assigned paired trip, then choose Optimize. Optimization is available before the trip is loaded or started. It changes the stop order inside one trip; it does not pair orders or move stops between trucks. If route setup, delivery windows, capacity, or driver time cannot be checked, the saved order remains unchanged.
Trips with more than 12 stops cannot be optimized. Use the normal move-up and move-down controls when manual changes are needed.
Field reference
| Field | Meaning, default, and validation |
|---|---|
| POS minimum lead time | Earliest date staff may choose for a POS delivery. The form starts from the saved value, defaults to 1 day when no value exists, and clamps saved input to 0–30 days. |
| Offer calculated delivery time slots | When enabled, exposes calculated bookable times in POS and Storefront. When disabled, POS uses manual windows and Storefront is date-only. The current form starts enabled unless the saved setting is explicitly false. |
| Keep Storefront delivery runs compact | Limits online choices to times within 30 minutes of a driver shift start or another planned delivery. It is available only while calculated time slots are enabled, and starts off unless saved true. |
| Buffer per delivery load | Minutes reserved after each planned load so load, drive, unload, and buffer time fit. The current default is 5 minutes; saved input is limited to 0–120 whole minutes. |
| Avoid highways | Prefers local roads when reasonable. Live budgets still use traffic-aware route time. The checkbox reflects the saved setting and is off unless enabled. |
| Include Flex travel time | Counts one-way yard-to-yard travel for a floating driver and truck moving to another origin. The form starts enabled unless the saved value is explicitly false. |
| Learning responsiveness | Controls how quickly recent valid turnarounds affect future budgets. The slider accepts 0–100 in steps of 5; lower values are more conservative and higher values respond faster. |
| Yard split increment | Controls the volume increment used for load splits. The form accepts 0–1000 in 0.05 steps; 0 allows any split. |
| Ton split increment | Controls the weight increment used for load splits. The form accepts 0–1000 in 0.05 steps; 0 allows any ton split. |
| Maximum pairing angle | Filters pairing suggestions by direction: 45°, 60°, 90° (the current recommended default), 120°, 180°, or 360° for no direction filter. |
| Minimum paired-load utilization | Hides valid pairings below the chosen utilization percentage. The form accepts 0–100 in 5-point steps; 0 shows every valid pairing. |
| Save Dispatch Pro settings | Saves the planning values and refreshes the stored settings. While saving, the action is disabled. Invalid negative split increments are rejected; lead time, buffer, learning, pairing angle, and utilization are normalized to their supported ranges. |
Expected results
A new plan checks product size, truck and trailer fit, vehicle status, driver skills and shifts, capacity, location, route time, and fees. Review it before saving. Changes to products, amounts, date, location, or truck can rebuild the plan.
Troubleshooting
- No date or time is available: check lead time, driver shifts, in-service assets, delivery origin, and remaining capacity. A same-day setting of 0 does not override capacity.
- The schedule resets after choosing a truck: Dispatch Pro rebuilt the load plan. Review the new trips and choose dates and times for each one again.
- Route optimization is unavailable: check that this is an existing paired trip with two or more stops that has not been loaded or started. Ask an administrator to check route setup if it still does not appear.
- No pairing is suggested: widen the maximum pairing angle or lower minimum utilization, then verify the stops share a date and have compatible capacity.
- A load cannot be planned: complete product weight and volume, confirm truck capabilities and compartments, and verify that the driver is qualified for the truck and trailer.
- Time budgets drift: ask drivers to record Loaded, Dispatched, and Delivered at the event time. Outliers are filtered, so a small history may change slowly.
- The online customer sees the wrong workflow: confirm whether Dispatch Pro is enabled. Request mode produces an unpaid request; paid checkout requires Dispatch Pro and online payment.