Complaints, shortages, and messages that are entered in Customer and Route Service display in the Dispatching module. In this module, dispatchers review and dispatch these items, as well as coordinate other activities related to dispatching.
Topics covered in this section are as listed below:
Newspaper dispatchers respond to missed or damaged papers, carriers with shortages, or general messages by communicating with drivers on the road. Circulation’s Dispatching module helps dispatchers locate and track items to be dispatched. Complaints, shortages, and messages entered in Customer and Route Service will appear in Dispatching, and dispatchers can enter follow-up information about the items once they have been dispatched.
Messages can be entered in both Customer and Route Service. Examples of messages might be: “Rack at the City Plaza is tipped over” or “Put up a tube for newspaper delivery at this address”. Complaints (such as “wet paper” or “no paper delivered”) are entered in Customer Service. Shortages are entered in Route Service. A carrier might call, for example, to report that she was shorted ten newspapers on her route today. In order to appear in Dispatching, shortages, complaints, and messages must all be flagged for dispatching when they are entered (by selecting the Dispatch checkbox).
Once you have reviewed the items that need dispatching, you can begin dispatching the items to the field.
In the Dispatch tab , check the box in the Select column for a complaint, shortage or message to be dispatched and click the Detail button to display the Dispatch Detail window. Delivery directions, instructions, and other information helpful to the driver is shown.
Enter remarks and other information about the dispatch in the following fields. This step is optional (all of the pertinent information may be entered already).
Click the Dispatch button to accept the information. This item will now be recorded as dispatched in Circulation, and the Dispatch checkbox in the Dispatch tab will be selected.
In the case of shortages, you can click the Resupply button rather than Dispatch, if the shortage should be handled by rather than the dispatching process. These shortages will be added to a suspended draw adjustment batch. The batch must be accepted (in ) before resupply documents can be processed.
Note:
When using the Resupply button, if the shortage has Request Resupply checked, it will use the resupply draw adjustment code specified in Deliverable setup, which typically charges the carrier and updates AAM.
If the shortage does not have Request Resupply checked (i.e. is an actual shortage of papers being managed through the resupply documents), it will use the draw adjustment code specified in the Business Rule— “What draw adjust code should be used when a shortage is fulfilled via the resupply process?” This draw adjustment code will not charge the carrier or update AAM.
If Mapping is set up in your Circulation implementation (an add-on feature), a map can be generated to show the address for subscription-related or delivery address-related dispatching activity. This can be useful to show the exact location where an item needs to be dispatched.
To generate a map, highlight the dispatch item in the list and click Map. A map of the address will appear in a browser window.
DISPATCHED TO
predefined setup
Select the entity type (Route, Zone, District, Service Area, Truck, or Other) and the entity for whom this record is dispatched. The entity type will default from the Filter panel. Note: If you select Other, the entity field will allow you to enter free-form text.
REMARKS
unlimited
Enter any remarks regarding this dispatch. For example, you might indicate that delivery should be made by a specific time.
TIME/DATE
date military
Leave the default date and time that this record is dispatched or override this field if necessary.
LOCAL DATE AND TIME
date
The local date and time an item was dispatched displays here. If the item is not yet dispatched, a ‘?’ displays.
COPIES
integer (6)
If this is a shortage, the number of copies that should be dispatched to the carrier are displayed (you may override this number).
CHARGE CARRIER
yes/no
This flag indicates whether the carrier should be charged for the complaint. You may change the flag, or retain the value specified by the associate who entered it.
REQUEST RESUPPLY
yes/no
For a shortage, you can check Request Resupply if this is a resupply request, rather than an actual shortage.
COMPLAINT / SHORTAGE
display
Circulation displays any remarks entered by the associate regarding the complaint or shortage. If this is a message, the message text will appear here.
PRODUCT, ROUTE, ACCOUNT DEL SCHEDULE, EDITION, USER, SOURCE, REASON
display
Dispatching displays the product, route, delivery schedule, edition, source code, and reason code for this dispatch item, as well as the user who entered the item.
Dispatching activities are performed in one window.
In the Filter panel, the dispatcher selects the publication and date range for which to display dispatch items. The review area lists the number of complaints, shortages and messages to be dispatched in each zone, district, service area, truck or route (as determined by the Review By field in the Filter panel). After selecting a review area, individual dispatch items are displayed in the Dispatch tab. When the driver calls in an item as being dispatched, the compliance time can be entered in the Compliance tab.
The first step in dispatching, then, is to display the items to be dispatched for a product and date.
Enter the product, date, and other information about the dispatches you would like to review.
PRODUCT
setup
Select the product or products you will be dispatching. Select “*”to dispatch more than one product (Ctrl-right click to multi-select products).
Note: Products must be set up to allow dispatching.
START DATE, END DATE
date
Enter the date range for which you are dispatching. The shortages, complaints, and messages that are flagged for dispatching in this date range will appear.
REVIEW BY
predefined
You can list the dispatch items by Zone (distribution zone), District, Service Area, Truck, or Route. The same dispatches will appear regardless of what you select, but they will be broken down differently. A service area is a user-defined method for dispatching to certain boundaries or areas. For example, you may have all routes defined in one of two service areas for dispatching purposes. Service areas that you use for dispatching must have been previously defined during Setup.
Click OK. The number of dispatch items in each area will appear in the Summary tab.
Double-click on an area to display the individual complaints, shortages, and messages in the Dispatch tab. The next section explains how to dispatch an item.
The Compliance tab allows you to track how long it takes your newspaper to carry out dispatches. You may choose to make compliance part of your normal dispatching process:
Complaints, shortages, and messages are entered in Customer Service or Route Service.
The dispatches are reviewed and dispatched in Dispatching.
When the dispatch is completed, the time is recorded on the Compliance tab.
The dispatches can be reviewed for performance with the Dispatch Report.
Note: An item must be dispatched before it will be available for compliance.
Open the Compliance tab.
Highlight the item for which you are entering compliance information.
Click Modify.
Enter the date and time the driver delivered the dispatched item or completed the requested service.
Click OK.
Note: You can view complied or uncomplied items in this tab by clicking the appropriate radio button.
Non-compliant dispatch transactions can cause draw adjustments to be created so that carriers are not charged for shortages. A Business Rule— When a shortage has not been complied with, should a draw adjustment be created? (Account Finance section), controls this feature. When a shortage has been dispatched, but the redelivery is non-compliant (i.e., is too late or doesn’t happen at all), a draw adjustment will be created during final transaction processing for the non-compliant deliveries.
For example, assume a carrier’s draw was supposed to be 50 papers, but he received only 45 papers one day. So, the missing 5 papers were dispatched, but only 4 of them were actually delivered. If this Business Rule is set to “yes”, a draw adjustment will be created for the one paper that was not delivered and, therefore, the carrier will not be charged for it.
When this Business Rule is set to “yes”, the previous Business Rule in the Account Finance section— When redelivery is not available for a shortage, should a draw adjustment be created?, must also be set to “yes”.
