When do you need this
When you have limited queue capacity on your yard and you want to offload some of your trucks to a remote waiting parking.
When you want your transport to wait next to their final (un)loading location, to reduce idle time in-between operations.
Main idea
You can fully automate your truck flows between different queues, based on live capacity:
A remote queue for a waiting area further away from your yard.
A nearby queue for the parking spots just outside your yard.
One or more onsite queues for waiting locations inside your yard.
Remote & nearby queues
After registration, visitors can be automatically assigned to the nearby or the remote queue, based on planning & capacity.
From the remote queue, visitors are dispatched to approach the nearby queue or directly to a (un)loading location.
Remote & nearby queues are configured in Configuration > Dispatch dashboards > Edit > Basic information tab > Queue capacity management.
Onsite queues
With onsite queues, you can dispatch trucks to waiting locations close to their final (un)loading location, to reduce idle time in between operations.
Visitors are called off to waiting locations manually or via automatic dispatch rules. This enables fully automated flows with a double auto-dispatch: from offsite → onsite queue → final dock.
Waiting locations
Waiting locations are configured in Configuration > Dispatch dashboards > Edit > Virtual yard layout tab. You can set the "Location type" when editing a yard location. They are indicated by an arrow icon (see the dispatch dashboard icon legend).
Visitors on waiting locations who are waiting for dispatch appear in the onsite queue when Queue capacity management and the Group by queue option are enabled. The "Yard location" on the visitor in the waiting queue also indicates that the visitor is on a waiting location.
Live (un)loading visitors who are dispatched to a waiting location keep their status:
Visitors who are dispatched from the remote/nearby queue to an onsite waiting location will still be waiting for dispatch to their final location.
Visitors who are waiting for documents or ready for check-out can be dispatched to a waiting location to free up the docks.
Only exception: if the visitor's status is "Checked-in", it changes back to "Waiting dispatch" when dispatched to a waiting location.
There is no status change trigger from "waiting dispatch" to "waiting dispatch" when dispatched to a waiting location.
For assets, waiting locations act as regular locations, where assets can be dropped off or picked up.
Remote to nearby queue
You can automatically dispatch visitors from the remote to the nearby queue, or you can choose to do this manually.
Autofill nearby queue
Open the Options at the top of the queue and toggle “Autofill nearby queue”.
There are 2 main ways to fill the nearby queue:
Adding newly registered visitors to the nearby queue
FIFO (first in, first out): Visitors are allowed in the nearby queue as long as there is a free spot. Only when it is full, visitors are sent to the remote queue.
Based on slot tracking: Only visitors in their “arrival window” are allowed in the nearby queue.
Sending visitors from the remote queue to the nearby queue
Queue autofill will automatically call off visitors from the remote queue. This can be enabled or disabled by the dispatcher for a short period of time, depending on when they want to fill up the nearby queue.
Autofill from remote queue options:
FIFO: From the moment a spot frees up in the nearby queue, a visitor in the remote queue will be called off based on a configured order.
Based on slot tracking: A call-off will happen when both a spot is free in the nearby queue, and a visitor in the remote queue is in their “arrival window”.
All these options can be configured in Configuration > Dispatch dashboards > Edit > Basic information tab > Queue capacity management.
Manually change the queue of a visitor
Won’t do
Queuing based on dock usage time prediction.
Queuing based on ETA data / trucks not arrived yet.
Communication
On the self-service kiosk - after registration
When automatic queuing is enabled visitors registering on the self-service kiosk will receive 2 type of confirmation screens. The specific content can be differentiated per profile and per configured SSK.
When dispatched to nearby queue | When dispatched to remote queue |
Where to configure: on the self service kiosk, per profile.
Via text message
When you allow autofill from the remote queue, you still have to manually enable the text message communication towards the driver. You can use the Trigger “When the (nearby/remote) queue of a visitor changes. See more: Triggers & Actions.