Dispatch and assignment workflow definition

We set the rules that match orders to drivers and riders: manual or automatic assignment, nearest or batched logic, priority tiers, hold windows for stacking, reassignment triggers and the path an exception takes.

The dispatch rulebook that results is one a new dispatcher can follow and a finance lead can price.

• An assignment decision tree by order type, distance, value and promised window.
• Priority tiers with the cost of breaching each, so urgency has a price.
• Hold-and-stack rules that state how long an order waits for a second drop.
• An exception matrix covering refusals, absent customers, vehicle breakdowns and customer changes, each with an owner and a time limit.
• A pay-impact table showing how each rule changes rider earnings and delivery cost.

• Cost per drop is compared across shifts and dispatchers.
• Average distance from rider to pickup at assignment is reported for every shift, so you see what each assignment costs in distance.
• More orders are assigned by rule than by manual override.
• Reassignment after a first assignment is counted, and the rate shows where a rule needs work.
• An exception reaches resolution on a clock.

Without written rules, each dispatcher optimizes for the next order on the screen. Fast assignments raise travel distance, urgent orders jump the queue, and cost per drop depends on who is on shift. The fleet looks busy and the margin drifts.

• Cost per drop moves with the dispatcher on duty.
• Riders are sent the full width of a zone for an order a nearer rider could have taken.
• No one can say when an order may wait to be stacked and when it must go at once.
• Reassignments after a refusal are decided in a chat group.
• A busy evening breaks the rules that held on a quiet morning.

Operations heads and chief executives of delivery businesses, q-commerce operators, restaurant groups and distributors whose dispatch depends on the judgement of a few experienced people, and boards wanting that judgement written down.

Qasim Abbas set the unit economics of a fleet of about 1,000 vehicles, where speed is one question and margin is the other. Every rule here is tested the same way: what the assignment costs and what it earns.

We write the rules against last month's orders from your dispatch platform, Tookan or another, and test what each rule would have changed. See how fees work.

Should dispatch be automatic?

Automatic assignment suits dense, repeatable volume. Manual control still earns its place for high-value or sensitive orders. The rulebook states which orders go to each.

What does a finance lead get from the rulebook?

A price on every rule. Every rule is tested on what the assignment costs and what it earns, and the pay-impact table shows how each rule changes rider earnings and delivery cost.

What does a new dispatcher work from?

An assignment decision tree by order type, distance, value and promised window, and an exception matrix that gives every exception an owner and a time limit.

Forward a recent evening's dispatch log to a private briefing. We show you what the current rules cost on it and which two would change the most.