End-to-end overview
The full path a store's orders take in a single cycle, pulling together everything in this chapter.
One cycle, one store
- Fetch orders and drivers for this store. Orders already sitting with a Third-Party carrier from an earlier cycle are re-examined here — see Re-checking orders already with a carrier.
- Is this a Third-Party-first zone?
- Yes → try a Third-Party carrier first. If it takes the order, that order is done.
- No → go straight to step 3.
- Own solver — PG Mode or Google OR-Tools, chosen automatically unless you force one.
- If Priority Customers (Platinum) is enabled and applicable, this step is replaced by the double simulation described in Priority Customers (Platinum). Everything before and after stays the same.
- Idle driver retry — free store drivers the solver didn't use.
- Third-Party fallback, but only for orders from a standard zone. An order from a Third-Party-first zone has already had its carrier turn and gets no second one.
- Post-process — categorise results and identify orders that can be grouped onto one driver.
- Still unassigned?
- No → save and notify.
- Yes → the final relaxed attempt, described in Last-Option: the final safety net. If it places the order, save and notify. If not, the order is marked Critical or Pending and the next cycle retries from scratch.
- Save and notify — assignments are written, drivers are pushed a notification, alarms are processed.
The two things worth remembering
Every order gets exactly two attempts per cycle — one with your own fleet, one with Third-Party — plus the Last-Option safety net at the end. The zone configuration changes the order of those two attempts, never the number.
Nothing is ever cancelled without a replacement lined up. An order already with a carrier is only pulled back once a real own-fleet assignment has been found and the cancellation with the carrier has succeeded.
Related pages
- The assignment cycle, step by step — the five steps in detail
- The three assignment mechanisms — how PG Mode, Google OR-Tools and carriers combine
- Last-Option: the final safety net — what happens at step 7
- Known system boundaries — what this flow deliberately does not do