Dispatch & scheduling
Arrival windows
How arrival windows work from booking to the day — the customer's requested time, the window you set, how the board sets one when you drag, and telling the customer.
- 2 min read
- Checked against MoveBoard
- For dispatchers, sales, owners & admins
On this page
The arrival window is when the crew is due at the customer's door — for example 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM. It's set when the move is scheduled, and dispatch can fine-tune it on the day.
Your company's windows
Settings › Sales & orders › Arrival windows sets what can be picked:
- Pre-selected times — your standard windows, such as 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM. Add, reorder or delete them.
- Custom Time — any window between the times you allow.
- TBD — not decided yet, with the earliest and latest the truck may start.
- Default Selection — which of these a new move starts with.
Switch Custom Time or TBD off if you don't want them offered.
Requested vs set
The customer may ask for a time on your website form or portal. That's the Requested Arrival Window — a record that can't be changed. The window you set is the one the crew and the customer go by. See Schedule date and truck.
On the Dispatch board
- Dragging a job to a new time starts its window where you let go. The end comes from your windows: the one that starts at that time, or else the one starting nearest to it — four hours if you have none.
- Start window on a job's card (Job Assignments tab) lets you type the exact start and end. The trucks on the job are checked against the new time.
- The end of the window is a small list on each card on the Job Assignments tab: pick a later end in half-hour steps.
Tell the customer
Changing the window on the board doesn't message the customer by itself. On the Job Assignments tab:
- Press the envelope on the job's card (or Tell the customer on its open card), or Send to all customers for the whole day.
- Answer Yes, proceed to Your arrival time window has been updated. Do you wish to inform your customer of these changes?
The customer gets an email (Your arrival time window has been updated) and a text saying the arrival window was changed to the new time. The envelope turns into a green ✓. Move the job again and the envelope comes back, so you know to tell them again.
Late jobs
On the Dispatch Dashboard, a job is running late once its window has ended and the crew hasn't started. A TBD job is never late.
On the day
The foreman's phone sends the customer the crew's ETA as they leave — see Send the ETA text and go En Route.
Related guides
- OrdersSchedule date and truckSet the move date and arrival window, and hold trucks for a day — from Move Details or the Schedule Date/Truck pop-up.
- Dispatch & schedulingMove a job to another time, truck or dayDrag a job along its row to change its start, onto another row to change its truck, or change the move date in the order to move it to another day.
- Dispatch & schedulingJob assignments and the Unassigned truckUse the Job Assignments tab to put TBD and Unassigned jobs on real trucks, set the end of each window, and tell customers their arrival time.
- Dispatch & schedulingThe Dispatch DashboardThe day in numbers — jobs by status, who is running late, crews and trucks out, the crews' answers and, if you may see it, the money.
Still stuck? A person will help.
Open a ticket from Support inside MoveBoard, or email us — we usually reply within one business day.