Trip Dispatch

A trip carries the route from origin to destination, planned start and end, customer, vehicle, driver and trip reference. Dispatcher reviews requested journeys against the assigned vehicle and driver before approving them. After approval, ordered stops become the journey plan and the trip can be scheduled. This is the point at which the team should agree the operational commitment, because a selected vehicle may also appear in another planned interval.

A requested trip is a useful handoff from the group planning team. It should contain enough travel detail for Dispatcher to decide whether the assignment works. The customer links to party records, while the vehicle and driver link to their own records. Keep the trip reference stable so a transport document, charge or delivery confirmation can be traced to the same journey.

• Request queue. Dispatcher reviews Requested trips before committing an assignment.
• Assignment. The trip links one customer, vehicle and driver to its planned interval.
• Stops. Trip stops records the ordered locations and planned arrival dates.

A group travelling from one city to a pilgrimage site may need an early start and a return that uses another trip. Dispatcher reads the participant count from the group context, checks vehicle capacity and examines the planned interval before approving either journey. The board then shows whether each trip remains requested, has been approved, is scheduled or is already moving.

Agree who may approve a requested trip and how conflicts are resolved when a vehicle or driver is requested twice. Check how dispatchers identify eligible drivers in people records and how they interpret vehicle status. Decide which transport documents need review before a scheduled departure and which person verifies each file. Keep a clear practice for cancelling a journey and for recording a revised plan without hiding the original request.

Trip status carries the dispatch decision. The request, approval and scheduled stages have different meanings to the team. A manager should be able to tell from the board what still needs a decision and what is committed. The planned dates should stay visible alongside the actual dates so a delay does not erase the initial plan.

Use a representative group movement. Create its customer, vehicle and driver references, enter origin, destination and the planned interval, then review the request. Ask Dispatcher to compare vehicle capacity with the group’s participant count and check another trip for a conflicting interval. Add ordered stops and verify their sequence. Once the decision is made, inspect the trip schedule with Operations Manager and have the driver read the assigned journey.

• Trip Dispatch Board — Review journeys by status with customer, vehicle and driver visible.
• Requested trips — Work through trip requests awaiting the dispatch decision.
• Trip Schedule — Compare planned starts and ends for approved and active journeys.

Use trip dispatch for the decision sequence and journey execution for actual movement. See roles for access ownership.