Dispatch, loads and customer tracking links

Plan loads, assign drivers and trucks, follow every stop and share a read-only tracking link with your customer.

For admins

The dispatch pages let the office build loads with their stops, assign a driver (and co-driver), truck and trailer, send the load to the driver's app and follow its progress. Stop arrivals and departures are detected from geofences, ETAs take the driver's remaining hours of service into account, and you can share a customer tracking link that needs no sign-in.

Before you start

• Dispatch is an optional feature. If you do not see the Dispatch group in the menu, it is not turned on for your company; contact EZ Logs support. Dispatch needs the Geofences feature (which in turn needs Live map).
• Owners and carrier admins create and change loads, customers and settings. Support users can see everything but cannot change anything. While your subscription is read-only, the pages are view-only too.
• There is no separate dispatcher role: dispatching is done by owners and carrier admins.

Where to find it

In the portal, open Operations in the left rail, then the Dispatch group:

The dispatch board

The board shows loads in four columns: Unassigned (drafts), Assigned (assigned and dispatched loads; the dispatched ones carry a Dispatched badge), In transit and Delivered (delivered loads and loads completed in the last 7 days). Cancelled loads are not shown on the board.

Each card shows the load number, customer, origin and destination with appointment times, the driver and unit, the next stop, the ETA (on time, late or at risk because of hours of service), and Late or POD missing badges. The board refreshes every minute.

• Use Board and Table at the top to switch views. The table adds a Status filter and shows stops done, ETA and the last update.
• Search by load, PO, BOL, PRO or customer, and filter by Driver, Vehicle and Customer.
• Select a load number to open the load.

Create a load

1. On the Dispatch board, select New load.
2. In Load, fill in what you need: Load number (leave empty to generate one), Customer (or the + button to add a new customer), Equipment, PO number, BOL number, PRO number, Commodity, Weight (lb), Pieces / pallets, Proof of delivery and Notes for the driver and dispatch.
3. In Assignment, pick the Driver, an optional Co-driver (team), the Vehicle and the Trailer. The pickers show each driver's HOS time left and current location.
4. In Stops, select Add stop for each pickup, delivery or other stop, in driving order (up to 25). For each stop enter the Facility name, Street address, City, State, and either choose a geofence in Use geofence or set Latitude / Longitude (or Pick on map). Add the Appointment from / Appointment to window, Contact name, Contact phone, Instructions and, if needed, **Free time (minutes)** for detention. Use the arrows to reorder stops.
5. Optionally fill in Rate: the Line-haul rate, Currency and Accessorials (Add accessorial). The rate is informational only; EZ Logs does not bill it.
6. Select Create load.

A new load is saved as a Draft. It becomes Assigned once it has a driver.

Note: Times on stops use your home terminal time zone. A stop without a geofence uses a temporary 300 m circle around its location to detect arrival and departure.

Move a load through its statuses

Open the load from the board. The buttons at the top show only the steps allowed from the current status:

1. Select Dispatch to send the load to the driver. It then appears under Loads in the driver's app. Changes you make to a dispatched load (Edit, then Save load) are sent to the driver.
2. Follow the stops. Arrivals and departures are recorded automatically when the assigned truck enters and leaves the stop's geofence within the arrival window, or by the driver in the app. Each stop shows a source badge (Auto, Driver or Dispatcher), the planned window against the actual times, detention and a late flag.
3. To correct a stop, select Update on the stop and pick a Dispatcher override: Mark arrived, Mark loading, Mark unloading, Mark departed, Mark completed, Skip stop or Reset to pending.
4. Select Mark delivered when the freight is delivered, then Complete to close the load.

To cancel, open More load actions (the ... button) and choose Cancel load..., add an optional Reason and confirm with Cancel load. Cancelled loads cannot be reopened; a dispatched driver is told in the app. Drafts can instead be removed with Delete draft....

If the driver is assigned and messaging is on, Message driver opens the conversation with that driver.

ETA and hours of service

The ETA panel estimates arrival at the next stop from the truck's position, straight-line distance times the road factor, your average speed and the planned time at each stop (see Dispatch settings). EZ Logs compares the drive time with the driver's remaining drive and shift time; when the driver would need a 10-hour break, the ETA includes it and is flagged at risk: HOS.

Load documents and proof of delivery

The Documents card of a load holds the Bill of lading (BOL), Proof of delivery (POD), Lumper receipt, Scale ticket and Other documents. Drivers can scan them in the app, or the office can upload them.

1. On the load, select Upload in Documents.
2. Choose the Document type, the Stop (or The whole load), add the Pages (PDF, JPEG, PNG, WebP or HEIC, up to 15 MB each, up to 20 pages) and optional Notes.
3. Select Upload.

When a POD is required, Mark delivered is refused until a POD is on the load; the page shows **Proof of delivery required** with an Upload POD button. Whether a POD is required comes from Dispatch settings, and each load can override it with Proof of delivery (Carrier default, POD required before delivered, POD not required).

Customer tracking links

A tracking link is a read-only web page your customer can open without signing in. It shows your company name, the load number and status, the stops (city and state only) with their appointment windows and arrival / departure times, and the ETA. While the load is in transit it also shows an approximate truck position (rounded to about 1 km). It never shows the driver's name or phone, street addresses or the rate.

Create a link

1. Open the load and find Customer tracking links.
2. Select Create link.
3. Enter a Label (who you send it to; it defaults to the customer name) and choose Expires after: 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 14 days or 30 days.
4. Select Create link.
5. Copy the link with Copy link (or check it with Open tracking page), then select Done.

Important: The link is shown only once. EZ Logs stores only a fingerprint of it, so it cannot be displayed again. If it is lost, create a new link.

The list shows each link's label, the last four characters of the link, its expiry, its state (Active, Expired or Revoked), how many times it was viewed and when it was last viewed. You cannot create links for a cancelled load.

Revoke a link

1. In Customer tracking links, select Revoke next to the link.
2. Confirm with Revoke link.

Anyone opening a revoked or expired link immediately sees that the link is invalid or expired. Links also stop working if the dispatch feature is turned off. The public page refreshes every minute and is rate limited to prevent abuse.

Customers

Open Operations, then Customers.

1. Select New customer.
2. Enter the Name, add contacts with Add contact (Contact name, Role, Phone, Email), the billing address, Detention free time (minutes) (leave empty to use the carrier default), Notes, and keep **Active (offered on new loads)** on.
3. Select Add customer.

To change or remove a customer, use the actions menu on its row and choose Edit or Delete. A customer that has loads cannot be deleted; choose Deactivate instead to hide it from new loads while keeping its history.

Dispatch settings

Open Operations, then Dispatch settings, change the values and select Save.

Detention starts at arrival, or at the appointment start if the truck arrived early, and counts dwell time beyond the free time (the stop's value, otherwise the customer's, otherwise the carrier default).

Dispatch alerts

If the Alerts feature is also on, you can create alert rules for a late stop (not arrived by the end of its appointment), detention (dwell beyond free time) and ETA at risk. See Alerts and geofences.

Related

• Alerts and geofences
• Assets and trailers
• Driver pay