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Part of the Dispatch Planner column reference. The Available at column shows the date and time a driver is free to take new work. The planner works it out from every trip and driver event on the driver’s schedule. Use it to find drivers who will be free before a trip needs to pick up. Available at is one of six columns that describe the same free stretch of time: Available at, Available in, Available for, Next planned at, Next planned in, and Next planned event. They always describe the same stretch, so you can read them together.

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At a glance

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How is the time worked out?

The planner lays out the driver’s schedule and looks for the first stretch of free time that is long enough to count.
  1. It collects the driver’s commitments. These are every trip the driver is on that has not been delivered yet, such as Covered, Dispatched, or In Transit trips, plus the driver’s most recently delivered trip. Every driver event with a start and end date, such as Vacation, Hometime, Restart, or Sick or Emergency, is a commitment too.
  2. It works out when each commitment ends.
    • If the driver has left the last stop of a trip, the trip ends at that departure time.
    • Otherwise the trip ends at the last stop’s planned time plus the Average dwell time. For an appointment stop, the planned time is the appointment. For a first-come-first-served stop, it is the stop’s ETA (never earlier than the window opens), or the end of the window if there is no ETA.
    • A driver event ends at its end date.
    • Commitments that overlap are treated as one.
  3. It finds the gaps between commitments. A gap only counts if it is at least as long as the “Available for” minimum. After the last commitment, the driver is free with no end.
  4. It picks the earliest gap that still has at least the minimum time left from now. Gaps where the planner knows where the driver will be come first. Available at is the start of the gap it picks.
Both settings are in Settings > Planning configuration, under Driver availability, and a fleet can have its own values. If your account has never changed them, the “Available for” minimum is 18 hours and the Average dwell time is 2 hours. The time is shown in 24-hour format, in the local time of the Available in location, followed by the time zone abbreviation. The year appears only when it is not the current year.

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How do driver events push availability out?

A driver event blocks time the same way a trip does. Take a driver whose trip is expected to end Tuesday at 14:00, dwell time included, and who has Hometime starting Tuesday at 20:00:
  • The gap between the trip and the Hometime is 6 hours. With an 18-hour “Available for” minimum, that gap is too short to count.
  • The planner skips it. Available at moves to the end of the Hometime event, and Available in shows the Hometime address.
If the gap were long enough, Available at would stay at Tuesday 14:00, and Next planned event would show Hometime. Upcoming events count before they start. A vacation booked for next month is already part of the schedule the planner works from.

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What does a dash mean?

The driver has no trips and no driver events on record. With nothing on the schedule, the planner has nothing to work from. The driver belongs to an outside carrier. The planner only works out availability for your own company’s drivers. Drivers supplied by another carrier always show a dash.

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Why does a driver show a time I did not expect?

A time in the past means the driver is already free. The driver has been free since that time, usually the end of their last delivery. A short gap is skipped. If the time between two commitments is shorter than the “Available for” minimum, the planner shows when the driver is free after the second one. The same thing happens as time passes. Once less than the minimum is left before the driver’s next commitment, the planner moves on to the next free stretch. The driver is free now, but the planner does not know where. If every trip and event on the driver’s schedule is still ahead, for example a new driver whose first trip has not started, the planner cannot place the driver right now. Available at shows when the driver is free after that first commitment. ETAs move it. For a first-come-first-served last stop, the end of the trip follows the stop’s ETA, so Available at updates as the ETA changes. Once the driver leaves the stop, the actual departure time is used. Only Driver 1 counts. For a two-driver team, the column follows Driver 1’s schedule. Driver 2’s trips and events do not change it. Filtering leaves out drivers with a dash. The date filter compares calendar days in the same local time the cell shows. Drivers showing a dash never match a date.