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We’ve just released a new and improved version of Suggest Routes. The recommendations are better and it’s much easier to visualize suggestions on the map. If you’re already familiar with this feature, there are two major changes to know about: 1. Better Suggestions Suggestions are made by considering nearby route day groups to find the […]
Quick Start lets you learn Headlight in an organized manner. Each lesson consists of a brief explanation, short video tutorial (typically 2 to 4 minutes) and a spot for questions and comments. These build progressively, but feel free to dive in anywhere or skip ones that aren’t needed immediately. You can always come back any time for a refresher course.
This lesson covers the basics of using Headlight. It includes searching for orders, Info Balloons, finding addresses and places, screen layout, map display options and some “hidden” map features. Since most Headlight features rely on the Dashboard, it’s highly recommended for new users.
Learn to add individual orders, deliveries and service calls and place them accurately on the map. Although most will match properly (a process called “geocoding” or “pinning”), there’s usually a few mistakes along the way. Learn how to quickly identify and correct missing, incomplete or invalid delivery addresses.
A depot is any place where the routes start and finish. It could be an office location, warehouse, processing plant or service center. You’ll learn how to change the default location, add new ones and pick different symbols for displaying depots and routes. If the depots aren’t pinned accurately, the route mileage won’t be accurate. This lesson also covers customizing the Map Markers used for displaying orders on the map.
You’ll probably be pulling data from another system into Headlight. That could include CSV files, Excel spreadsheets or a standalone billing, order entry or CRM system. This is a short and invaluable lesson.
Fleet Manager is used for planning daily routes, reviewing existing routes and creating route scenarios. Topics include changing display options, renaming product categories, customizing Route Statistics and filtering routes. Knowing your way around will save considerable time when planning routes.
Alrighty – it’s routing time! This lesson starts by importing a file with new orders and finishes with a street-ready route scenario. For companies with multiple vehicles and depots, we recommend watching this lesson before moving onto Multiple Vehicle Routing.
This lesson explains how to route multiple vehicles out of multiple depots. It includes assigning drivers to specific areas, balancing routes by different criteria (stops, hours, revenue) and useful tips for getting the job done quickly. The three examples can easily be adapted to handle almost any routing situation. For anyone spending hours each day on route planning, this is the must-watch lesson.
Most companies expect drivers to sequence each day’s order and add special deliveries manually. That takes at least 30-45 minutes each day. Instead, try handing out daily route books with maps and driving directions. You’ll make everyone’s workday shorter, drop the fleet mileage by 20-40% and make things easy for relief drivers (like the office manager!).
This lesson explains how to add (and remove) additional users. It’s particularly useful across different departments and office locations. Learn how sales and service can take advantage of different Headlight features to make their jobs easier.
Use Headlight to quickly answer common service questions. Customer service reps can instantly find a driver assignment, ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival), locate nearby drivers for same-day orders, email a delivery schedule and even print directions for an emergency delivery from the office.
Do your customer ever call and ask: “I need something right away. When can you be out here?” This lesson explains how to efficiently route last minute deliveries. Different industries have different terms (e.g. will call, ASAP, special, emergency, on demand), but it all means the same thing. Here’s how to look like you’re going out of the way without actually going out of the way.
This tutorial explains the process for configuring the Headlight delivery calendar. Bottled water and coffee service companies can also add holidays for the upcoming year to make sure the delivery schedule matches the billing system.
Instead of using multiple SKUs, Headlight allows you to group similar product together. For purposes of route planning, it doesn’t matter what kind of 5 gallon bottles are being delivered. The product file needs to be customized to (a) reflect your preferred product groupings and (b) normalized volume.
Every delivery or service call takes some amount of time to complete. In Headlight, that’s known as the service time (or premise time). It’s the number of minutes required to complete the delivery or service call. Service times are important for determining the arrival time (ETA) for each delivery during the day and estimating how long the route will take to complete.
Many businesses have restrictions when deliveries can be made either because the business isn’t open or won’t allow vendors onsite during certain times. These restrictions are often collected manually using different formats (e.g. military time, am/pm, English phrases, etc). They must be standardized to allow importing into Headlight Route Planner from a spreadsheet or CSV […]
Headlight can run from any standard browser like Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Internet Explorer, but using the Fleet Manager application takes an extra couple of steps. You’ll need to configure a Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) to run Fleet Manager. This utility come with all versions of Windows and the setup instructions are similar. Click here […]
Headlight can run from any standard browser like Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Internet Explorer, but using the Fleet Manager application takes an extra couple of steps. You’ll need to configure a Remote Desktop Client (RDC) to run Fleet Manager. This free component can be downloaded from Microsoft and the setup instructions are the same for […]
Every HeadlightTM account includes a secure FTP dropbox for receiving customer, delivery and product information. The Headlight Data BridgeTM checks your dropbox every night and performs a “smart synchronization”.
Check out Headlight’s brand new Reports Tab. In addition to displaying lists of customers that meet different criteria, these reports are also interactive. Show the map location by clicking the account ID or use the Edit link to update the account information. You’ll also find examples of custom reports and MobileIQ’s route balancing project forms.
The latest Headlight release includes some major enhancement for getting customers pinned (aka geocoded) on the map correctly. It includes reporting tools for identifying mispinned accounts, ability to view individual route days and using Google Maps for all address lookups.
The latest Headlight release includes some new features that will help you keep the route information up-to-date. Most of you already use Smart Sync to transfer information between the billing system and Headlight. Depending on the vendor, it may even be happening automatically behind the scenes each night. The problem was users often forget to […]
This tutorial explains the process for updating Headlight using Smart Sync files. We recommend weekly updates for most industries with prescheduled delivery routes, but consider making daily updates when new accounts are added frequently. Enable Smart Sync Before importing files the first time, Smart Sync must be part of your Headlight plan and enabled. Just […]
Every Headlight account come with Smart Sync. In order to use this feature, you’ll need to have Smart Sync enabled and some technical information which can be found under Setup.
