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Scheduling plans: how the automatic cycle works

The dispatcher runs on a schedule you define per store, or per group of stores. Scheduling and assignment behaviour are configured together, in the same plan.

How the automatic cycle works

  • Each plan defines how often the dispatcher should run for a group of stores.
  • You can optionally restrict execution to a daily time window — for example, only between 08:00 and 23:00.
  • If a run fails, the cycle is not broken. The next run is still scheduled automatically, as long as the plan is active.
  • If a run falls outside the configured time window it is skipped for that cycle, but the schedule keeps going and resumes normally once back inside the window.

Scheduling settings

Setting Default What it does
Plan name — A label to help you identify this plan. Optional, free text
Stores — The stores this plan applies to. One plan can cover several
Active Off Whether the automatic cycle is currently running for this plan
Run interval 60 seconds How often the dispatcher re-runs. Allowed range: 60–300 seconds
Daily time window None Optional start and end time. If not set, the plan runs 24/7
Last run — Read-only. When this plan last actually ran

Assignment behaviour settings

Setting Default What it does
Assignment mode Automatic Forces PG Mode or Google OR-Tools, or leaves the choice automatic (recommended)
Routing strategy Automatic Only relevant when Google OR-Tools is used
Stop time at customer 5 min Extra time accounted for at each customer stop
Stop time at store 3 min Extra time accounted for at each store stop
Maximum orders per driver 3 Most orders bundled onto a single own driver. Allowed range: 1–5
Offline driver grace period 5 min How long a briefly-offline driver is tolerated before being treated as unavailable
Apply results On When off, the run is a simulation only and nothing is changed
Extra time margin 10 min Additional slack allowed. Only relevant to Google OR-Tools
Minimum orders to accept a plan 0 How many orders Google OR-Tools must successfully assign for its plan to be accepted
Priority Customers (Platinum) Disabled Enables and configures the Platinum layer — see Priority Customers (Platinum)
Traffic-aware estimates Off More accurate time estimates, at a higher cost
Traffic estimate type — Optimistic, pessimistic or best guess. Only used when traffic-aware estimates are on
Return-time reuse — Advanced. Controls how aggressively previously calculated driver-to-store times are reused instead of recalculated

Store-level delivery settings

Two further settings live at the store level, not inside the scheduling plan. They are configured from the store's dispatcher settings and control how much delay is tolerated before an order is treated as at risk.

Setting Applies to What it does
Own-fleet delay tolerance Your own fleet — in-house and own-fleet contractors, treated equally The delay tolerance used when checking whether your own fleet can deliver on time. If a store has no in-house drivers at all, this value is automatically replaced by the Third-Party tolerance below, so an all-contractor store isn't held to a stricter standard than it can meet
Third-Party delay tolerance Third-Party carriers The delay tolerance used to decide whether a carrier can be trusted to deliver on time. It always applies to carriers, whether or not the store also has in-house drivers

Capacity works differently from delay tolerance. Your own fleet has a per-driver limit — each vehicle carries up to the configured maximum at once. Third-Party carriers have a single shared pool per store, per carrier company — for example "this carrier can handle 10 concurrent orders at this store", however many individual couriers they have on the road. This is why a carrier can appear full for a store even when it looks like it has plenty of drivers: the limit is set at company level, not per courier.

Activating and pausing a plan

This is the part most likely to cause confusion.

Action Starts the cycle? Stops the cycle?
Create a plan with Active switched on Yes —
Create a plan with Active switched off No — it stays dormant —
Edit an existing plan and switch Active on No effect — it only updates the stored value —
Edit an existing plan and switch Active off — Yes, from the next run onwards
Use the dedicated Activate action Yes —
Use the dedicated Pause action — Yes
Delete a plan — Yes

Recommendation: don't rely on editing the Active field through a general edit form. Always use the dedicated Activate and Pause actions — editing the field directly can leave a plan marked active but not actually running.

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