What Smart Dispatch does
Smart Dispatch fills a day's unscheduled jobs onto crew slots for you, so you can review a full board instead of dragging every card by hand. It works on the Dispatch schedule, not in the TOB-E chat.
Smart Dispatch scores each unscheduled job against each crew slot on the day you are viewing, then places the jobs that fit.
Smart Dispatch never moves a job you have already placed. It plans around those jobs instead.
Every placement lands on the board unpublished. Nothing reaches your crews until you click Publish.
Smart Dispatch gives you a results report that lists every job it handled, where it put each one, and why. You can rate each run from the report.
Before you start
Available to anyone with the Dispatch permission.
Smart Dispatch and the TOB-E chat are separate. Having the Dispatch permission is enough, whether or not TOB-E is switched on for you in User Management. Your company can use Smart Dispatch without turning on the TOB-E chat for anyone.
Your crews and trucks need to be on the slots before you run. A dispatch template is the quickest way to get them there, and dragging them on by hand works just as well. See the next section.
The Smart Dispatch panel appears at the top of the Jobs sidebar on the Scheduling tab of the Dispatch Schedule page. It is not on the other tabs. Use the arrow at the right of the panel heading to collapse or expand it.
Select one branch. The Smart Dispatch panel appears only when exactly one branch is selected, so it stays hidden with no branch selected and with several selected.
Smart Dispatch only considers jobs that are Booked, dated to the day you are viewing, in the selected branch, and not already on a slot.
You can run Smart Dispatch 3 times per minute. A fourth run inside the same minute is rejected.
How your slots get their crews and trucks
Smart Dispatch decides which crew should take a job by reading the crew members and trucks already assigned to each slot. It does not staff your slots for you, so the slots need crews and trucks on them before you run.
Dispatch templates are the quickest way to get there, because they put the same crews and trucks on the board every day without anyone rebuilding it. You do not have to use them. Dragging crew and trucks onto slots by hand works exactly the same way, and Smart Dispatch cannot tell the difference.
Two of the five factors read your crews directly. Resource feasibility checks whether a slot has enough people and trucks for the job, and crew rating x job value looks up the reviews of the crew members on the slot.
A slot with nobody on it fails resource feasibility outright. Smart Dispatch cannot place a job on a crew that does not exist.
When your branch has a dispatch template assigned to that day of the week, SmartMoving builds the day's slots from it, carrying over the crew and truck assignments.
When no template is assigned to that day of the week, SmartMoving builds empty slots named Crew Name 1, Crew Name 2, and so on, with no crew and no trucks on them.
💡 SmartTip: If your board shows slots called Crew Name 1 and Crew Name 2, no template is assigned to that day of the week. Assign one in Templates > Days of the Week, or drag crew and trucks onto the slots yourself, before running Smart Dispatch.
Note: Keep your dispatch templates as they already are when you start out. Run Smart Dispatch a few times and read the results report before you change how your slots are built.
How to run Smart Dispatch
Click Dispatch in the left navigation, then open the Schedule page.
Select the Scheduling tab and choose the date you want to fill. The Smart Dispatch panel sits at the top of the Jobs sidebar.
Check that your slots have crew and trucks on them. If they do not, drag crew and trucks onto the slots, or check that a dispatch template is assigned to that day of the week.
Read the count under the panel heading. It reads [N] jobs ready to place across [M] slots, or No unscheduled jobs to place when the list is empty.
Place any job that has to go to a specific crew. Smart Dispatch plans around jobs already on a slot, so fixing those first gives it more to work with.
Pick a strategy. Click the Strategy dropdown and choose one of the six presets, or click the pencil icon to open the full Smart Dispatch strategy control. The two rules and whether each is on show under the strategy.
Click Run Smart Dispatch. The button label changes to a progress message while the run works.
If jobs you placed by hand are on the board and still unpublished, a confirmation opens naming how many. Choose Keep them and run to plan around them, Clear them first to return them to the unscheduled list and start fresh, or Cancel to stop. Published jobs, commercial jobs, and jobs that need crew skills stay on the board either way.
Watch the cards land on the board one at a time. The Smart Dispatch · Results report opens on its own once the last card settles.
Review the report, rate the run with the thumbs up or thumbs down at the bottom, then click Close. The placements are already on the board.
Adjust anything you want to change by dragging cards on the schedule.
Click Publish to send the schedule to your crews. The button shows how many changes are pending.
How to choose a Smart Dispatch strategy
A Smart Dispatch strategy decides what matters most when more than one crew could do the same job. Pick one from the Strategy dropdown on the Smart Dispatch panel, or click the pencil icon to open the Smart Dispatch strategy control and adjust it further.
The six presets are:
Preset | What it does |
Balanced | The default mix. No single factor dominates. |
Minimize drive time | Keeps crews on tight, nearby routes. Leans on geographic proximity. |
Right crew for the job | Puts your best-rated crews on the high-value moves. Leans on crew rating. |
Even out the day | Spreads work across crews instead of loading a few. Leans on workload balance. |
Fill the morning | Packs early slots first so the day starts dense. Leans on time-window fit. |
Cover the hard jobs first | Prioritizes the staffing-heavy jobs that otherwise fall through. Leans on resource feasibility. |
Note: Your Smart Dispatch strategy is saved to the browser, not to your SmartMoving login. Coming back to the Scheduling tab on the same computer finds the same strategy in effect, and on a shared dispatch computer everyone who signs in there sees whichever strategy was set last.
What the five Smart Dispatch factors measure
Every Smart Dispatch preset weighs the same five factors, and every factor counts on every run. The preset decides how much each one counts. This table covers what each factor measures and what limits it.
Factor | What it measures | What limits it |
Time-window fit | How tightly the job fits an open arrival window. | The crew needs a gap big enough to hold the whole job. No gap, no placement. |
Geographic proximity | How much driving the job adds to the crew's day: from where the crew unloads its last job to where it loads this one, and on to wherever it goes next. With no other stops that day, it measures out from the branch and back. | Measures straight-line miles, not road distance or drive time. |
Resource feasibility | Whether the crew has enough people and trucks for the job. | Counts crew members and trucks on the slot. It does not check equipment or crew skills. A job bigger than the slot's trucks can hold is still placed and marked Worth checking. |
Crew rating x job value | Sends higher-value jobs to better-reviewed crews. | Needs at least 5 reviews across the crew in the last 90 days. Below that, ratings sit the run out. |
Workload balance | Spreads work across crews, counting hours already worked earlier in the week. | Small differences stay small. When every crew is within about a day's work of each other, this factor barely moves the score, however high you weight it. |
In the Smart Dispatch strategy control, each factor row shows an emphasis badge:
High: the main thing this strategy goes on when two crews could both do the job.
Medium: breaks the tie when the bigger factors come out close.
Low: only matters when everything else is a wash.
Excluded: switched off and not counted at all.
Switch a factor off to leave it out of the decision entirely. At least one factor has to stay on. Click Reset to [preset name] to put every factor back, then click Save strategy.
How the Smart Dispatch rules work
The Rules section of the Smart Dispatch strategy control holds two rules, separate from the factors, because a rule is either on or off. The Smart Dispatch panel always shows how both are set, for example Crew member 40 hour weekly limit is on and Longest jobs first is off.
Stay under 40 hours a week is on by default.
On: Smart Dispatch will not place a job that pushes a crew member past 40 hours for the week, however good the fit looks. A job blocked this way is reported as Would push [crew member] past 40 hours this week.
Off: Smart Dispatch places the best-scoring job regardless of weekly hours. Crews near 40 can go over.
The Smart Dispatch · Results report header states which way the rule was set for that run.
Place the longest jobs first is off by default.
Off: Smart Dispatch tries every order and keeps whichever one seats the most jobs.
On: Smart Dispatch places the biggest jobs first, so they get the long open blocks of the day before short jobs break those blocks up. Expect fewer jobs on the board. The results report shows Longest jobs placed first for that run.
How to read the Smart Dispatch results report
The Smart Dispatch · Results report opens on its own after a run. To reopen it, click View results → on the Smart Dispatch panel. The last run's results stay available after you reload the page. The report is read-only. It tells you what happened and how Smart Dispatch decided, and changing the plan means moving a card on the schedule.
Four metric cards run across the top:
Placed on the board: how many jobs Smart Dispatch placed, out of the total it processed.
Could not place: how many jobs it left off the board.
Worth checking: how many placements carry a caution.
The day: Slots used, and Job hours on the board. A slot is a row on the board and may be short a crew member.
Under the cards, a line names the end of your dispatch day, for example Your dispatch day ends at 6pm. Change it with End Hour in Availability Settings.
Below that, one table lists every job. Blocked jobs lead, then placements carrying a warning, then the clean ones. Each placed row shows the slot, the time, and a fit band: Strong fit, Workable, or Stretch. Click any row to expand it.
A placed row that starts later than its arrival window opens also shows the window, for example Window 8am - 10am.
An expanded placed row shows a plain-language summary of why that crew was chosen, then each factor with a band: Strong fit, Workable, Stretch, or Excluded for a factor you switched off.
An expanded blocked row shows the full reason the job could not be placed. A job that could still fit somewhere reads Still placeable. Drag it onto a crew, or change your strategy and run again.
The footer reads On the board, not published. Move any card on the schedule to change it. After you publish, it reads Published.
Why a job could not be placed
A job in the Could not place count carries a short blocker headline in the Smart Dispatch results report. The headline names a constraint that failed on every slot on the board.
No team has a crew member free or No team has [N] crew free: no slot has enough people for the job. If every job on the day comes back this way, your slots have no crew on them. Check that a dispatch template is assigned to that day of the week, or staff the slots by hand.
No open window fits a [start] - [end] job: no slot has an open time window long enough for the job's arrival window and duration.
Too long for the dispatch day: from its arrival time, the job would not finish before midnight, so it cannot be placed on this board.
Job has no arrival window: the job has no arrival window to fit against.
All compatible slots already filled: every slot that could take this job was filled by the plan that placed the most jobs.
Every slot is on hold: every slot that could take the job is held for an unbooked job.
Would push [crew member] past 40 hours this week: the placement would break the 40-hour rule while the rule is on.
No slots available: the day has no slot Smart Dispatch could pair the job with.
Commercial job: Smart Dispatch leaves commercial jobs for a dispatcher to place.
Needs crew skills: Smart Dispatch leaves jobs with crew skill requirements for a dispatcher to place, because it matches on crew size and cannot check skills.
What a "Worth checking" warning means
A job in the Worth checking count was placed. The warning says why a dispatcher might still want to look at it. Expand the row in the Smart Dispatch results report to read it.
Under-crewed: the job needs more crew than the slot has.
Over-crewed: the slot holds a much larger crew than the job needs.
Short on trucks: the job needs more trucks than the slot has.
Volume exceeds trucks: the job's volume is more than the slot's trucks hold, for example job is 1,680 cu ft but its truck holds 450.
No estimated duration: the job was placed against its minimum time, or at its arrival time with no time reserved.
Runs past the configured end of day: the placement ends after your company's configured end hour, which the warning names.
How to rate a Smart Dispatch run
Every results report asks for a rating at the bottom, beside Close. Before you publish it reads Does this plan look right?, and after you publish it reads Did this run get it right?
Click the thumbs up if the plan looks right. The rating saves straight away, and the prompt changes to Thanks, noted. Click the thumbs up again to clear it.
Click the thumbs down if something was off. A What was off? panel opens.
Pick one or more reasons: Wrong crew for the job, Bad start times, Too much driving, Placed or skipped the wrong jobs, or Something else.
If you pick Something else, describe what happened in the What happened? box.
Click Submit feedback. A thumbs down saves only when you submit, and at least one reason is required. Click Cancel to close the panel without saving.
Once a thumbs down is saved, the report shows You said: followed by the reasons you picked. Your rating is saved with the run it belongs to.
How to clear jobs Smart Dispatch placed
On the Smart Dispatch panel, click Clear jobs. It appears whenever jobs Smart Dispatch placed are still unpublished, including after you reload the page.
Read the confirmation titled Clear Smart Dispatch jobs?. Only the unpublished jobs Smart Dispatch placed go back to the unscheduled list. Jobs you placed by hand stay where they are, and nothing published is touched.
Click Clear Smart Dispatch jobs. The jobs return to the unscheduled list and the board refreshes.
⚠️ Warning: Clearing Smart Dispatch jobs cannot be undone. It sweeps every unpublished job Smart Dispatch placed on the day you are viewing.
Note: A job a crew has already started stays on its slot. When that happens, a message reads Board partly cleared and names how many jobs stayed.
Key details
Smart Dispatch is available to anyone with the Dispatch permission. TOB-E chat access is a separate setting and is not required.
Smart Dispatch places jobs onto slots. It does not assign crew members or trucks. Those come from a dispatch template or from staffing the slots by hand.
Smart Dispatch works one branch and one date at a time. The panel appears only when exactly one branch is selected.
The Smart Dispatch panel is on the Scheduling tab of the Dispatch Schedule page only. The other tabs on that page do not show it.
Smart Dispatch places Booked jobs only. Jobs in any other status stay off the board. Commercial jobs and jobs with crew skill requirements are left for a dispatcher.
Smart Dispatch never moves a job that already sits on a slot, whether you placed it or an earlier run did.
Placements are unpublished. Crews see nothing until you click Publish.
Resource feasibility counts crew members and trucks on the slot. It does not check equipment or crew skills. A job that is bigger than its truck holds is placed and flagged Worth checking.
Geographic proximity uses straight-line miles, not road distance, drive time, or traffic.
Crew rating stays neutral until a crew has 5 or more reviews in the last 90 days.
Place the longest jobs first is off by default. With it off, Smart Dispatch keeps whichever order seats the most jobs.
After a run, Run Smart Dispatch stays disabled until you change the board or the strategy. Hovering the disabled button explains which applies.
Your strategy choices are saved to the browser, not to your login. On a shared dispatch computer, everyone sees whichever strategy was set last.
Best practices
Make sure your slots are staffed before you run Smart Dispatch, either from a dispatch template assigned to that day of the week or by dragging crew and trucks on yourself. Crew and trucks on the slots are what Smart Dispatch reads to decide anything.
Place your fixed jobs first, then run Smart Dispatch to fill in around them.
Start with Balanced to see how Smart Dispatch fills a day, then settle on the strategy that matches how you run your business. Most companies land on one they use most days and switch only when a day calls for it.
Keep your templates as they are at first. Run Smart Dispatch a few times and watch for patterns in the results report before you rebuild how your slots are set up.
Read the Could not place list before you publish. Those jobs need a dispatcher.
Check the Worth checking count on every run. Those jobs went onto the board, so they are easy to skip past, and the warning is the only place the shortfall is named.
Expand a placement you disagree with rather than moving it straight away. The factor bands often show a constraint worth knowing about.
Run, adjust the board by hand, then run again over whatever is left. Smart Dispatch plans around every card you have moved.
Rate your runs, especially the ones that miss. A thumbs down with a reason records exactly what was off about that plan.
Troubleshooting
Every job came back under Could not place, saying no team has a crew member free. Your slots have no crew on them, so Smart Dispatch had nothing to place jobs onto. Slots named Crew Name 1, Crew Name 2, and so on are the tell, and they usually mean no dispatch template is assigned to that day of the week. Assign one in Templates > Days of the Week, or drag crew and trucks onto the slots yourself, then run Smart Dispatch again.
The Smart Dispatch panel is missing from the Jobs sidebar. Check that you are on the Scheduling tab of the Dispatch Schedule page, since the panel does not appear on the other tabs. Then check the branch picker, because the panel appears only when exactly one branch is selected, and it stays hidden if no branch is selected. If you are on the right tab with a single branch selected and the panel is still missing, contact SmartMoving Support.
The Run Smart Dispatch button is disabled after a run. Smart Dispatch gives one answer per board and strategy, so it waits for a change. Move a card on the schedule or change the strategy and the button re-enables. When every job on the list is placed, the tooltip reads Every job on the list is placed. Nothing left to run.
Fewer jobs were placed than expected. Check whether Longest jobs first is on shows on the panel. With that rule on, Smart Dispatch places the biggest jobs first and expects to fit fewer jobs overall. Turn it off in the Rules section of the Smart Dispatch strategy control and run again.
Save strategy is disabled in the Smart Dispatch strategy control. Every factor has been switched off, and Smart Dispatch has nothing left to rank crews by. Switch at least one factor back on.
A run failed and an error appeared. Nothing changed on the board. A clear you asked for on that run either committed with the placements or did not happen at all. Wait a moment and click Run Smart Dispatch again. Running more than 3 times in one minute is rejected.
The report is empty and reads "No unscheduled jobs found for this date." Every job for the selected date and branch is already on a slot, or the day has no Booked jobs. Check the date and branch at the top of the Schedule page.
Clearing Smart Dispatch jobs left some jobs on their slots. Jobs a crew has already started cannot be unscheduled, and jobs you placed by hand are never cleared. The message Board partly cleared names how many stayed. Move those jobs by hand if they need to change.