Note: This article covers the Dispatch Beta. If you’re using legacy Dispatch, the steps here don’t apply.
The map in Dispatch does more than show pins. You can select visits from it, look up an address, draw your service territories, see where your crews are, and move the map to its own window. This article covers each tool.
1. Select visits from the map
Click a pin. Clicking a pin selects its visit and ticks its row in the list. Pins that show a number badge are stacks, meaning several visits at the same address. Rest your cursor on a stack to see its list, or zoom in to split it into individual pins.
Use the lasso. To select several visits at once:
Click Lasso select. Your pointer becomes a crosshair and the map stops panning.
Press and hold on the map, then drag a loop around the pins you want.
Release. Every plotted visit inside the loop is added to your selection, and the lasso turns itself off.
The lasso only adds to your selection, so it never deselects anything. It also skips the hourglass pins for waitlisted work. The lasso isn’t available while you’re building a route.
Right-click a pin for that visit’s actions, like View and Reschedule. Hover a pin to see its details, which follow your Event card details settings.
2. Look up an address
Click Search for an address (the map-pin button).
Type an address in the Search an address… bar and pick one of the suggestions.
A blue teardrop pin drops at the address, and the map recenters and zooms in (it never zooms out). The address pin is just a marker, so it doesn’t select any visit. Click the X in the bar to clear it.
If nothing matches, you’ll see “Couldn’t find that address.” under the bar.
3. Zoom to a visit
Open a visit’s ⋮ menu (or right-click its card in Board view) and choose Zoom to location. The map glides to its pin at a close zoom. If you’re already zoomed in closer, it keeps your zoom. To see every pin for the day again, click Fit map to stops.
4. Custom areas
Custom areas are shapes you draw on the map, like service territories or neighborhoods. Open Custom areas on the map to see them. The count (for example, 2/5) shows how many are visible out of how many exist.
Areas are shared with everyone in your company, including their names, shapes, colors, and order. Showing or hiding them is personal. It’s saved in your browser, and a new browser starts with all areas hidden.
Show or hide areas
Click an area’s eye icon to show or hide it. The eye in the header shows or hides all of them at once.
Draw an area
Open Custom areas and click + (Add area).
Click at least 3 points on the map to outline the area. Use Undo point (or Backspace) to remove the last point, or Cancel to stop.
Click Finish.
In the Name this area dialog, enter a name (up to 60 characters) and pick a color. Press Enter or click Save area.
You’ll see “Added [name],” and the shape appears on the map. A company can have up to 100 areas.
Change an area
Open the area’s ⋮ menu in Custom areas and choose:
Edit shape: drag a corner to move it, drag a small hollow handle on an edge to add a corner, or right-click a corner to remove it (an area needs at least 3 corners). Click Save shape when you’re done. If you leave with unsaved changes, you’ll be asked to discard them.
Change name or color: update either one and click Save.
Delete: choose Delete, then confirm with Delete area.
To reorder areas, drag the grip handle on the left of a row. The new order applies right away, for everyone.
Who can edit areas
Editing areas has its own permission. Without it, you can still see and show or hide areas, but you can’t add, change, reorder, or delete them. If you try, you’ll see “You don’t have permission to edit custom areas.”
Changes a teammate makes show up for you after you reload the page.
5. Show live truck locations
Open the View menu.
Check Show trucks.
A round marker in each person’s employee color appears at their last known position from the past 6 hours. Hover a marker to see their name and how long ago they were last seen (for example, “Last seen X minutes ago”). Markers refresh every 2 minutes.
Trucks show wherever people were last seen, whichever day you’re viewing.
Clicking a truck doesn’t select anything.
You need access to employees to see trucks. Without it, the option can be checked but no trucks show.
6. Pop out the map
If you work on two screens, you can move the map to its own window:
Click the map’s pop-out button (below Fit map to stops). Your browser may ask you to allow pop-ups.
The map opens in a separate window, and the board’s map area shows “The map is open in its own window.”
While it’s popped out:
Selection is shared both ways. Click a pin in the window and the visit is selected on the board, and the other way around.
It follows the board. It shows the same day, your filters, and your map options from the View menu. The window has no View menu of its own.
Hovering a pin shows every detail for that visit.
It pauses while you build a route. The window blurs and shows “Routing in progress,” then picks back up when you finish.
Zoom to location isn’t available from the list. Bring the map back first.
To return the map, click Bring it back here, close the window, or choose Close the map window from the View menu.
Good to know
Visits with no location can’t be plotted. A note at the bottom of the map tells you how many are missing.
Map options like route numbers and landmark pins live in the View menu.