Using the Fleet Groups Tab
Use the Fleet Groups top-level tab to separate your vehicles into groups for monitoring by dispatchers.
When assigning the Dispatcher position to a user, you select the default Fleet Group or Groups for that dispatcher to monitor. Dispatchers see information only for vehicles in the fleet groups that they are monitoring. In this manner, you can divide your fleet so that each dispatcher monitors only a subset of the fleet.
As a safety feature, if information arrives from a vehicle in a fleet group that no dispatchers are monitoring, myAvail displays that information for all dispatchers. This feature ensures that someone can handle the request from that vehicle.
myAvail does not consider users who can observe dispatch but do not have the Active Dispatcher permission to be monitoring any fleet groups. For more details, please see the myAvail System Administrators Guide.
Defining Fleet Groups
When you select the Fleet Group top-level tab, myAvail displays the following screen.
You can use different criteria to define fleet groups. To define a fleet group, select values from one or more criteria lists. Because some of the criteria are valid only when an operator is logged in to a vehicle (such as the block/run or route that the vehicle is operating on), myAvail defines a default fleet group for each vehicle in the system. This default group ensures that all vehicles belong to a fleet group.
Service Levels
For each fleet group that you define you may select which service level that definition is applicable to. If the service level definition is left blank, then the Fleet Group applies to all service levels, check the Service Levels checkbox to select all service levels.
When building fleet groups, simple is best. It is recommended to select from the most general category possible and to use a single category. If selections are made from multiple categories a match on any will include the vehicle in the fleet group.
Vehicle Types
Vehicle Type refers to the operating type of a vehicle and can change based on the work being performed by that vehicle at that time. For example, a body-on-chassis vehicle that is normally used for demand response work would be considered a demand response vehicle type when the operator logs in with a demand response run number. However, if that vehicle needs to be used on a fixed route for a day, and the operator logs in with a fixed route run number, then the vehicle type for that vehicle, while it is logged in to the fixed route run number, is Fixed-Route vehicle. A vehicle’s type can change based on the run number used at logon. When nobody is logged on to that vehicle, it has a default vehicle type which is defined when the vehicle is assigned to the system.
Vehicle Numbers
This category lets you separate your vehicles into fleet groups by vehicle number.
Blocks
This category lets you group block numbers into fleet groups to allow a dispatcher to monitor a group of blocks.
Runs
This category lets you group run numbers into fleet groups to allow a dispatcher to monitor a group of runs.
Routes
This category lets you define a fleet group as a group of routes so that one dispatcher can monitor one group of routes while another dispatcher monitors another group of routes.
Adding a Fleet Group
To define a new fleet group, unhide the toolbar and click the Add icon . This prompts you to enter the fleet group name. After you enter a name, select the criteria you want to use to define that fleet group. Be sure to select the Service Level for the fleet group that is valid.
Viewing and Editing a Fleet Group
To view the information for an existing fleet group, select the fleet group from the Fleet Group drop-down list. Change the definition of that fleet group by selecting or un-selecting criteria. Once you have completed your changes, click Save. At any time, click Cancel to discard your changes.