Allocating routes to a worker or crew

A route allocation bundles many jobs from a route workstream into one scheduled card, with one title and one time window. Give it to one worker, or to several people working as a crew. Every holder sees the same jobs and the same progress.

Open the route board

On the Schedule, open Add multiple and choose Allocate routes ("Assign routes to teams"). If you have more than one route workstream, each has its own entry — Allocate routes ({workstream}). The board opens as Schedule routes.

The table lists the workstream's jobs with their route, the custom fields that hold values, client and status. To choose jobs:

• Select by route ticks every job with the chosen Route values — several routes can go into one allocation.
• Tick jobs one by one, or Search jobs or routes to find them.
• Done and cancelled jobs are hidden. Switch on Show completed to include them.

The footer counts what you have picked ("5 jobs selected"), with Clear selection to start again.

Set the crew and the window

On a wide screen the details sit in a panel on the right:

• Route title — required ("Give the route a title.").
• Give to — opens Give the route to, a searchable list (Search people) showing each person's job title, trade and team. Tick everyone on the crew and confirm with Give to {n} people. A route can go to up to 20 people. Give a crew one route; don't make copies of the same work for each person.
• When — the route's start and end, in the workspace's time zone, which is shown underneath.
• Start point — optional. Click it to choose a saved site, or choose Use an address for a one-off address. It is where the crew's Directions take them.

• Selected jobs ({n}) — the jobs you ticked, with their route and client.

Choose Save draft to keep planning, or Publish to make the route live for its holders. One allocation holds up to 2,000 jobs, all from the same route workstream. A supervisor can allocate only within the workstreams they manage.

Saving checks everyone you give the route to against every job on it — as at being put on the job for a draft, and as at publishing when you choose Publish. A refusal names the person and the problem. If a supervisor may allow it and you hold Override eligibility, Assign anyway (or Publish anyway) asks for a reason and saves the route, recorded as an override. A route is published whole or not at all. See Clashes, leave and who cannot go.

Plan the stop order

Crew plan and above. Once at least two jobs are ticked and the route has a start point, Stop order offers Plan stop order. Maliru orders the jobs by distance from the start point: each stop is the nearest one left after the stop before, and any crossings are then untangled so the route doesn't double back. It measures straight-line distance, not driving time.

The dialog shows where the route starts ("From North depot"), the number of stops and the total distance ("8 stops · 9.4 mi"), then the stops in order, each with its distance from the stop before, in your workspace's units. Drag a stop by its handle to move it; Back to planned order puts Maliru's order back.

A parent's sub-jobs at the same place are one stop. The dialog shows the parent's name and how many sub-jobs it holds ("3 sub-jobs · 2 Mill Lane"), and dragging it moves them all. Fixing the address of such a stop gives every one of its sub-jobs the same place, so they stay one stop.

No job is dropped without saying so. Any job Maliru can't place is listed under the order:

• Needs an address: the job has no address or coordinates of its own and no site with an address ("3 jobs have no address yet. Add one to include them in the planned route."). Add address opens the job's Where is this job?; once you save, the order is planned again.
• Address not found: the address matched nowhere. Check address opens the same dialog.
• Not checked: the address couldn't be checked just now. Plan again to include it.
• Approximate location. Check the address: only part of the address matched, or it could be placed only roughly, such as a misspelt street placed at its town. The stop is in the order, but Check it.

A site is placed by its address, or by the map position saved on it, never by its name alone. A job given coordinates is placed exactly where they say, with nothing looked up. If the start point itself can't be found, nothing is ordered until its address is fixed.

Choose Use this order. The board then reads "8 stops in order. The crew is guided through them one by one.", with Clear to remove the order, and saving the route saves it. Jobs left out of the order, or added later, stay on the route and come after the planned stops. Up to 200 stops can be planned at once, and a parent's sub-jobs at one place count as one.

On the Free and Team plans Plan stop order shows the Crew lock. A route planned on Crew keeps its order, and keeps guiding its crew, if the plan changes.

See the route on a map

Crew plan and above, in a browser. With jobs ticked, Map beside Selected jobs shows them on a map: a pin for the start point, a numbered pin for each stop in the order the crew will drive them (the planned order, or the list order before planning), and a line joining them in that order, so a zig-zag or a stray pin stands out. A parent's sub-jobs at one place are one pin. Plan stop order has the same map under Map; drag the stops in List and the pins are numbered again in the new order.

The pins tell you how sure Maliru is of each place: a job's coordinates and a site's saved position are exact; a pin found from an address is placed by Google; an orange pin was found only roughly, so Check its address. Select a pin to see its job and open Where is this job? to fix it; the map then places it again.

Stops Maliru can't place are listed beside the map, never left out: Add address for a job with no address or coordinates, Check for an address that matched nowhere.

What each holder sees

Each person gets one route card in Today and Work. They confirm the route once, for themselves, instead of confirming every job; one crew member's confirmation doesn't stand in for another's. Publishing tells each holder once: "New route: {route}". See Confirmations, declines and automatic reminders.

When the route has a start point, their route card on Today and Work, and the route itself, show it with Directions.

When you planned the stop order, the card shows Next stop 2 of 8 with that stop's address, and Directions goes to that stop. It moves on as the crew finishes each stop and reads All stops done at the end. See Working a route on your phone.

Opening the card shows the shared job list. As any holder moves a job's status, everyone sees the progress change. Statuses in the workstream's Done category count towards completion, whatever they are called.

The allocation counts as scheduled work for each holder's day and clock-in. The jobs' Scheduled and Team fields show the route's window and crew.

Track it from the office

The route appears alongside shifts in the List, Calendar and Board. In the List, its row's menu (Route actions) has Open route and Cancel route.

Opening the route shows its window, its holders, a status pill and progress — "7 of 12 complete" with a percentage — and the jobs in sortable columns: Job, the workstream's report columns, and Completion status. Per-holder confirmation shows on the route's calendar card rather than here.

To update several jobs at once, tick them in the route. A panel opens at the foot — Update 3 selected jobs, with 3 of 12 selected beside it. Pick the New status (Choose status), add a Note (optional) and choose Apply status.

Share report builds the route completion PDF using the workstream's report columns and status colours, with the route's window and the time it was made in the workspace's time zone. Edit reopens the board; see Editing or cancelling a published route and PDF reports: submissions and route completion.

To schedule a parent's sub-jobs, tick the parent on the board or tick its sub-jobs one by one. See Parents and sub-jobs in route workstreams.