What is Whiteboard?
Whiteboard is a gateway page for the management of driver work schedules. You can enter and monitor your fleet’s loads while being informed of other critical events occurring within the RoadLog system all from one screen.
Creating a load
To create a load, navigate to Whiteboard and click on the Loads tab. Click the Add button, then select Create Independent Load and hit OK.
You will be presented with four tabs, where you can edit and view your load’s information: New Independent Load, Pickup Information, Delivery Information, and Map.
On the New Independent Load tab, enter in your information then click next to move to the next tab. Note that all information entered will become available to the driver and all web portal users.
To select a pickup and delivery locations, use the next two tabs. On these tabs, you are required to enter a due date and an address (or, indicate that there is no pickup by selecting the “No address necessary” box). To enter the address, either double-click a previously saved address, or enter a new one. If the destination is a new address, use the “Create New Address” button (refer to Creating Addresses for detailed instructions on this step). You can also indicate an “earliest possible pickup (or delivery)”, as an indication to the driver not to show up before a certain time (e.g. before the load is ready).
Use the next button to reach the Assignment tab to select the vehicle which will receive the load. You can also indicate a driver and a trailer, however those fields are used as information for the driver, and the system imposes no restrictions on which drivers or trailers may be used with the load. If you enter a trailer number, the driver will be prompted to add this trailer to his logbook.
Creating Addresses
To enter a new address, navigate to Whiteboard and go to the Addresses Tab. Or, if creating an address from the load creation workflow, addresses are created by clicking the “Create new address” button. If accessing from the load creation workflow, leave the “Save New Address” checkbox checked so that you will be able to access this address for easier load creation in the future.
Enter the address into the form, then click the “locate address on map” button. Once you are sure that the address is correctly plotted, click the “Location confirmed” box. The confirmation of the address is a required step, because it is critical to the operation of the system. The device will prompt the driver to confirm arrival, pickup, or delivery when the vehicle is stopped within three miles of the selected location. If the address is incorrectly located, the driver will not be prompted to confirm, and may not remember to perform the confirmation.
On the second tab of the address creation, you can insert information that you may need the driver to know, such as gate hours, names, phone numbers, and other notes. These notes are completely optional, and are sent to the driver each time that address is used.
Saving and Sending Loads and Tours
Loads must be saved in order to be sent. After you click save, you will be asked when you would like to send the load. If you plan to make changes, to the load, or if you are otherwise not ready for the driver to receive the load, click Send Later. If you are ready for the driver to receive the load, go ahead and click Send Now.
What do the colored squares on the whiteboard indicate?
Whiteboard is designed to allow identification of critical events without leaving the screen. When critical events occur, cells change to red or yellow to identify the potential problem. You can hover your mouse over any colored cell to see why the cell changed color, and you can click it for more details about the triggering event.
Whiteboard calculates an Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) for the current destination. When the vehicle’s ETA is less than 1 hour from the delivery date, the due date turns Yellow. If the pickup or delivery is not completed by the due date, the cell turns red, indicating that the vehicle’s arrival was not confirmed on time.
The drivers name will turn red for 24 hours if any performance monitoring event (such as idle time, harsh driving, overspeed, etc.) occurs.
The Load Status will turn red if at least one load has been rejected by a driver or if the system encountered any other error that prevented the driver from accepting the load within the last 24 hours.
Display of completed loads
Loads will be displayed on the Loads for 48 hours after the driver confirms completion on the Loads tab, or, if the load was part of a Trip, they will disappear 24 hours after the entire series of loads in the Trip is completed.
Once the loads are no longer displayed on the Whiteboard, Loads list or Trips list, they will be accessible in the Archive. Items in the archive are not affected by any changes in the system. For example, if you delete a vehicle, the archive record will not reflect any change.
Load Status
Load Status can be accepted, Arrived for Pickup, Loaded, Arrived for Delivery, or Delivered. Hovering the mouse over the status will display the timestamp of when the load status last changed. The Load Status will turn red if at least one load has been rejected by a driver or if the system encountered any other error that prevented the driver from accepting the load within the last 24 hours.
Independent Loads vs. Trips
When you create a new load, you will be asked if you want to create an independent load, a trip, or a load to be appended to an unsent trip.
An independent load is a single load, which may be comprised of a pickup only, a delivery only, a pickup and a delivery, or neither a pickup nor a delivery. A vehicle may receive up to 100 independent loads a time, but can only work on one at a time. The driver can choose any independent load he wishes to work on at any time.
A Trip is nothing more than a series of loads which can only be completed in an order defined when the trip is sent to the vehicle. In case any part of a trip needs to be changed after it is sent, it must be cancelled, edited, then resent. It cannot be edited while the driver is working on it. When you add a new load, you will be asked if you want to create a new trip (which will contain that load) or if you want to create a load that will be appended to an existing unsent trip.
Whiteboard Map
The Whiteboard Map will display all vehicles and addresses that are selected with checkboxes across all current Whiteboard Tabs. For example, you can select a checkbox next to an item on the whiteboard to display the vehicle location, pickup location, and vehicle location. You can also select a load or a tour to show those vehicle and address locations as well. Additionally, you can select items in your address book to show those addresses. You can select as many items as you like across multiple different Whiteboard tabs, and everything will be displayed. To show fewer items, unselect items from the various other tabs.
