Transport Scheduling

Description

This guide describes how to view the transportation schedule, set the route, and schedule new transport slots.

Viewing the Transport Schedule

You can view the transport schedule by going into the Call Center app and selecting the Donations group. There will be a black navigation bar at the top of the page. If your FSFB account has the "Transport Admin" privilege, you will see a "Transport Schedule" link on the black menu bar. Clicking on that link will display a page similar to this:


 
This shows the date of the transport, an optional title, the towns we will be picking up from, the overall duration of the transport, how many pick-ups have been scheduled, and the amount of time available for pick-ups.

If you click on one of the dates, it will display the details for that pick-up:

You can edit any of the fields on the form.  Press Update to save your changes.

• The "Close Transport" button appears when a transport date has passed.  Clicking on this will remove it from the list of available transport dates and mark the tickets associated with the pick-up as having been completed.
• The "Cancel Transport" button will send an email to all of the tickets associated with the transport, letting them know that their pick-up has been canceled.  The associated tickets will have the transport canceled, and their status will be set to Unknown.
• The "Reopen Transport" button will appear if a transport has been closed.  As you may be able to guess, this will reopen a closed transport.

At the bottom of the page, under the list of pick-ups, you will find the following buttons:

• The "Print" button generates a printout that properly scales to the paper. Using ^P to print will generate something too small.
• The "Map Route" button opens Google Maps with a route based upon the order of the tickets shown above it. See the "Transport Schedule Routing" section to arrange the route.
• The "Email Donors" will cause an email to be sent to each donor letting them know an approximate time that we will be there. That time is based upon the duration of each pick-up and the start time.  The owner of the ticket will be sent a similar message.
• The "Email Team" will cause an email to be sent to each member of the Transport Team with a list of pick-ups.

Interaction with the Donations Team

A day or two before the schedule gets set, someone needs to review the details of what's getting pick up.  If there are open slots, send an email to the donations team (donations@freshstartfurniturebank.org) to let them know that there's an open slot.

If a donor cancels, creating an open slot, send an email letting the donations team know.

Sometimes a pick-up duration gets extended past the the standard of 0:45.  This can leave gaps in the schedule that the won't get filled in.  We plan for (4) 0:45 pick-ups, and if someone extends a pick-up to 1:00, there will be a 0:30 slot available.  In this case, you can check to see if any of the existing pick-up can be shortened to 0:30, or you can send an email out to the donations team, letting them know that there's a 0:30 slot available.  Quite often we get requests for pick-ups that don't meet our minimums, but in this case, can be filled in with a 0:30 slot.

Transport Schedule Routing

To arrange the pick-up schedule:

1. Use the above section to open the transport schedule for a given date. Typically, we do this on the Thursday (Friday at the latest) before the pick-up.
2. Press the Map button at the bottom of the page.
3. Use Google Maps to arrange the pick-ups in an order that makes sense.
4. We like to schedule the furthest away pick-up first and then work our way back towards the store. That way if we have to drop off furniture at the store mid-route, we're closer to the store.
   
5. Note the order of the pick-ups.
6. Return to the browser page you opened in step 1 and drag the tickets, using the cursor, into the same order you did in step 4. Note that you can't do this with a tablet/phone, as you don't have a mouse.
   
7. Press the Map button to make sure that the order is correct.
8. If appropriate, use the Send Email buttons to notify the donors and the team.

Creating a New Transport Slot

At the bottom of the Transport Schedule display, there is a button labeled "Schedule New Transport".  Click on that and you will see:

• Click on the calendar icon in the Date/Time field, and select a date.  Set the time to whenever the pick-up should start (typically 9:00 AM). 
• Set the duration to however long the pick-up should last. The typical duration is 3:00 hours.
• Select a zone for the pick-up.
  • We typically alternate between zones 4 and 5.
  • Zone 99 is reserved for special pick-ups that aren't constrained by ZIP code.
• If a volunteer job has been scheduled for the date in the Date/Time box, one or more jobs will appear in the Job drop-down menu. Typically you will pick the "Transport" job.  If volunteers have signed up for that job, the Transport team field will populate with the divers and movers signed up.
• Press Update to save your changes.