Mobile Manager Version 1.0 User’s Guide

Written by:

Son Nguyen

Brian Baluyot

Updated:August 7, 2007

1

Dispatching Solutions, Inc.

Mobile Manager User’s Guide

Table of Contents

Welcome to the Mobile Manager Version 1.0......

What is the Mobile Manager?......

System Overview......

Mobile Manager Features......

Graphical User Interface Basic......

Mobile Manager Menu Overview

Main Menu

About Menu

Loads Menu

Available Loads Menu

View Load Details Menu

Setting a Load via the Available Loads Menu

Current Loads Grid View Menu

Current Loads Details Menu

Changing Statuses from the Current Loads Grid View

Messages Menu

Reply to a message via free form

Reply to a message via yes/no response

Old Messages Menu

Send Message Menu Usage

Vehicle Menu

Setting Odometer

Entering Fuel Stop Information

Driver Menu

Settings Menu

Mobile Manager and Other Applications

Thank you!

Document Revisions

Welcome to the Mobile Manager Version 1.0

Welcome to the Mobile Manager (formerly Transport Tracker) user’s guide. This document will help you learn and understand what the Mobile Manager application is and what it does to help you and your organization get your job done. It will show the roles of the drivers, dispatchers, and the Mobile Manager enabled devices. Thank you for choosing Dispatching Solutions, Inc.’s Mobile Manager to assist you with your process and we hope you find this document useful in your quest to maximize its features.

What is the Mobile Manager?

The Mobile Manager is a Windows Mobile 5.0 compatible application. It is designed to run on a Windows Mobile 5.0 device. Typically, a Windows Mobile 5.0 device is a personal digital assistant (PDA) or a smart phone. Essentially, it is a mini personal computer. It does not have the power of a full personal computer, but is still quite capable of many functions. The Mobile Manager makes full use of a wireless modem, GPS receiver, and various functionalities of a device.

The Mobile Manager will track the location of a vehicle, if it is in a cradle or docking station. It will provide the user with the ability to send two way messages to the dispatcher. It will keep track of jobs that were assigned to a particular driver/vehicle. It allows the user to update a job’s status as they occur and this includes completion of a job. It does all of this by fully integrating with your company’s existing TDPS System. Essentially, the Mobile Manager is a communication tool that will help drivers communicate to their dispatchers what they are currently doing and in turn help dispatchers manage drivers and jobs better.

System Overview

The above diagram is an overview of how the Mobile Manager application fits into the existing TDPS System infrastructure. As you can see, the drivers play a mission critical role as they provide status updates about their current job. The TDPS Users can be just about any body, but they are usually dispatchers and company managers who make use of the status updates that the drivers send to the TDPS System via the Mobile Manager application.

Mobile Manager Features

The Mobile Manager application can be broken down into four primary functional areas that are relevant to the end-user (or drivers in most cases).

  1. Load Management
  2. Message Management
  3. Vehicle Status Management
  4. Driver Status Management
  5. Device Settings Management

Load Management

Load management is where a driver’s jobs will reside. Only load management functionalities will be accessible by the drivers via the load manager. The drivers can view available loads that were assigned to them. The drivers can also check what load they are currently on and update the statuses of their loads.

Message Management

Message management is an area where drivers can view new or old messages sent by their dispatchers using the TDPS System. This area also provides drivers with the ability to send messages to specific dispatchers or broadcast a message to any available dispatchers using the TDPS System.

Vehicle Status Management

Vehicle status management is an area where drivers may update their vehicle specific statuses, such as fuel stop, vehicle disabled, etc. Only vehicle specific functionalities will be available from this area. In other words, a user cannot change a load status from this menu because only statuses that are relevant to a vehicle will be available in this area.

Driver Status Management

Driver status management is where drivers would update their duty statuses, such as going on duty or going off duty. It is driver specific and no other functionalities will be available, except if the functionality is related to the drivers.

Device Settings Management

Device settings management is primarily used by a Dispatching Solutions, Inc. representative to set up the device properly so that it will work with your company’s TDPS System. Usually, this is a one time setup. It also hosts diagnostic tools and information that would be needed in the event the device is not working properly. Drivers only need to be aware that this area exists in case troubleshooting is necessary.

Graphical User Interface Basic

The Mobile Manager has a graphical user interface (GUI) that makes navigating the various menus easy and intuitive. The GUI was carefully design for individuals who may have limited exposure to a computer interface and limits the user from memorizing where each menu is located. The GUI is fully optimize for keyboard navigation only or use with a stylus via the touch screen. For many new users, the touch screen and stylus combination will be the most intuitive and easy to use method.

The above image is what the Mobile Manager’s main menu look like. The highlighted yellow indicates the active control. The off-yellow panel is a quick summary of what is currently happening. In this example, the device is currently on load #31795, and has entered a status of “At Jobsite”. There are no new messages and the vehicle’s odometer value is 0. The device currently has GPS problems as indicated by the red colored satellite dish icon. The current detected velocity of the vehicle shows 0 miles per hour. The “Action” button in the bottom can be access via a “soft-key”. The same can be said of the “Help” button. The Mobile Manager’s main menu is indicative of what all menus look like. Before we continue, some terms need to be explained and clarified.

What is a control?

A control is a button, grid, or an input box. In the software world, it provides access to a particular functionality or is used to control the flow of the user interface. In the Mobile Managerapplication, the highlighted control will always be the active the control. This is primarily useful for those who choose to use the keyboard as a means to navigate the menu. If a user press down on a joystick or the enter key, it will essentially be equal to the user touching the control with a stylus and activating the control’s functionality. Most people call this type of behavior a click if the control is a button or setting the cursor or setting the focus if it is a grid or input box.

What is “Action”?

The “Action” is not really a button in the software sense. It is, however, tied to a soft-key button on the actual device. A soft-key is a physical key on the device that is directly tied to a menu or a function with application itself. In the Mobile Manager, the “Action” menu contains a series of other menus that allows access to other functions that are available via buttons and context menu that are already on the menu itself (such as clicking a button, or setting a status, etc).

The action menu essentially provides an alternative way to access other areas of the application that is already visible on a menu. In this case, it will allow the user to navigate to the load manager, messaging, driver, vehicle, and settings as they would if they were using a stylus. It primarily supports keyboard-only navigation of the menu. This type of setup is very common in a Windows Mobile 5 application.

What is “Close”?

The “Close” acts similarly to the “Action” in that it is ties to a software key. The “Close” closes a menu and return to the previous menu the user was on. On the Mobile Manager’smain menu, there is not a “Close” option, but rather contains a “Help” option. However, on other menus, it simply closes the current menu.

What is a context menu?

A context menu is a floating menu that appears when a user press down on the screen and hold the stylus in place. If a menu has a context menu, it will appear with menu options that apply to the current context. In the Mobile Manager application, if a menu has input boxes and grids, then it will have a context menu. The context menu will be similar to “Action” menu. Think of it as a short cut to a specific menu function. It primarily supports the keyboard-only navigation of the menu.

Things to remember

There are only a few concepts that a user needs to remember when using the Mobile Manager.

  1. The menus are organized by functional areas. For example, if a driver wants to do something with a load, the only area to access load management functionalities is by clicking on the Loads button on the main menu. This allows the users to remember only functional areas rather than where the menu is located.
  2. Users will not be able to jump from one functional area to other unrelated one. An example would be if the user is on the load management area, the user will not be able to go to the message management area unless they navigate back to the main menu. Think of each functional area as a major branch of a tree and the trunk as the main menu.
  3. The main menu is where access to all functional areas begins.
  4. All menus can be navigated by the keyboard via a joystick like button on the actual device.
  5. All menus that have an input box, tabs, and grids will have a context menu.
  6. The “Action” menu gives the user all functions on the menu itself.
  7. All form will have a “Close” menu that will close the form, with the exception of the main menu.
  8. The highlighted control is the activate control.

Mobile Manager Menu Overview

  • Loads
  1. Available Loads
  2. Current Loads
  3. Load Statuses
  • Messages
  1. New Messages
  2. Old Messages
  3. Send Message
  • Settings
  1. Communication
  2. Device
  • Vehicle
  1. Vehicle Statuses
  • Driver
  1. Driver Statuses

Main Menu

Figure 1 - Gives you the details of the current state of the device. The first half of the screen will allow you to navigate through menus while the second half provides the current information. It contains the current load number, the current status, the number of new messages, the current odometer reading, the current velocity of the vehicle (if the device is in a cradle), as well as the health of the GPS signal. The red satellite icon indicate that there is serious GPS signal problems, yellow indicate that the signal is not that great, but it is there, and green indicate that there are no GPS problems. This icon only applies when the device is in a cradle and the vehicle is in motion.

About Menu

Figure 2 – Shows you the IMEI number of the device, the current phone number of the device, and the application version number. This is important when calling Dispatching Solutions, Inc. for assistance.

Loads Menu

Figure 3 –Provides the current status of the current load and allows you to check available loads, current loads, and load status.

Available Loads Menu

Figure 4 - This menu shows the user a quick preview of load information that is available. It is not recommended to be the way to view all available load information.

Clicking on the “Available Loads” button will bring up a detailed view with all loads available to you. Using the scroll bar youwill be allowedto see a brief description of each load. Each column can be resized using the stylus only.

Figure 5 – available loads menu with the context menu showing.

Clicking on the view selected load, or by bringing up the context menu youmay view the load details in a more space friendly menu called the View Load Details menu. Also, youmay open the View Load Details menu via the “Action” menu as well.

Figure 6 – available loads menu with the action menu showing.

View Load Details Menu

Figure 7 - provides a clean interface to view information about each load.

The View Load Details menu has five tabs. Each tab shows a specific set of information about the each load. The “Times” tab will show the load’s scheduled pickup time, pickup window, delivery time, and delivery window. The pickup window and delivery window is dependent upon the dispatcher setting the values on the dispatch using the TDPS System. The two arrow buttons at the bottom are navigation button. Use them to go to the next load or previous load. Alternatively, the user can use the joystick to navigate from one load to the next. You may also use the context menu or “Action” menu to go to another tab or load.

Figure 8–The pickup tab shows the pickup site information, such as the customer, the contact information, the address, as well as any directions entered by the dispatcher.

Figure 9 – The delivery tab shows the delivery site information, such as the customer, the contact information, the address, as well as any directions entered by the dispatcher.

Figure 10 –The load tab shows the load information. What normally appears here is the machine make, model, dimensions, etc. It is essentially what you will be picking up and delivering.

Figure 11 – The history tab shows the history of status changes that occurred on the load. The time the status changed is represented in GMT time. If you want to convert the time to PST time, then you would subtract 7 hours from the displayed time.

NOTE:Dispatching Solutions, Inc. know that this is perhaps an inconvenience, and an enhancement will be provided later.

Youmay jump to a specific load number immediately rather than navigate one load at a time by using the context menu or the “Action” menu. The context menu can be brought up on any tab. Within the context menu is the Available Loads option which will expand and show all available loads. The current load in view will have a check mark next to it. If you select a load, then the selected load will be in view and will have a check mark next to it.

Figure 12 - Shows the available load expanded menu for quick jumps on the context menu.

Figure 13 - Shows the available load expanded menu for quick jumps on the “Action” menu.

Setting a Load via the Available Loads Menu

Figure 14 - This shows the result of selecting the load to set and bringing up the context menu.

Setting a load from the Available Load menu is really basic. First highlight the entire row of the load by tapping on the row with the arrow, or with the keyboard, push down on the joystick or press enter. Then bring up the “Action” menu or context menu and select Set Load(s) option. A message box will appear asking if the user would like to set the selected load. Select “Yes” to set the load or “No”/”Cancel” to cancel the action. If “Yes” was chosen, the selected load will be set and removed from the Available Load menu. The selected load is actually visible in the Current Load menu, which will be covered next.

Figure 15 - This shows the message box asking for confirmation to set the selected load.

Upon setting a load, the load manager’s main menu will look different. It will show the current load number that was set and the current status of the load.

Figure 16 - Load manager main menu with current load set.

Current Loads Grid View Menu

You may view the current load by clicking on the current loads button on the Load Manager main menu. This will take you to the view current loads in grid format. This is very similar to the available loads grid view menu.

Figure 17 – Current loads grid view menu. You can change current load status or view the details.

To view the current load’s detail, you would need to select it and use the context menu or the action menu and select view selected load.