Product updates

Adding drivers to your account one by one is a slow and manual process, and managing your driver team can take a long time if you have a large workforce and need to make multiple changes.

Using Spoke’s Public API, you can now manage and bulk add up to 50 drivers at a time to your team. The API allows you to automatically onboard new drivers with an identifying driver email or phone number.

Automate your last mile management and get the most out of Spoke's Public API by using the latest endpoints:

• Create Driver
• Update Driver
• Delete Driver
• Import Drivers

Previously, Drivers could not use Spoke with in-vehicle technologies like Android Auto or CarPlay. Now the app is fully compatible with both.

Drivers can connect their Spoke app with their vehicle infotainment display using Android Auto or CarPlay, which gives them the advantage of using a larger integrated dashboard screen for navigation and delivery.

How to use Spoke with Android Auto or CarPlay⁠

• In phone settings, make sure that Spoke is selected as an app that will be available on Android Auto or CarPlay
• On the phone, go to a route and optimize it
• Connect the phone to the vehicle infotainment display
• The phone will project a simplified version of Spoke onto the vehicle’s infotainment display
• When proof of delivery is required for a stop, a message on the infotainment display prompts Drivers to use their phones as usual to collect the required POD

Being able to easily identify which client a delivery belongs to helps make sure that the individual client’s delivery requirements are carried out and can speed up dispute resolution.

Once a client has been invited to Spoke Connect, when a spreadsheet with client IDs is uploaded, those stops are now automatically tagged with the client name.

New clients can now be added directly from the stop details, making onboarding them to Spoke Connect even easier and faster.

How to add a client to a stop⁠

• Click on the stop details
• Go to > Order information > Client
• Select an existing client from the dropdown menu to assign them to that stop, or click > Add a new client
• To add a new client, you can now send your client an invite email or a unique link to join Spoke Connect
• Once a client has joined Spoke Connect, when a spreadsheet with client IDs is uploaded, those stops will automatically be tagged with the client's name

By default, SMS notifications for recipients are sent from Spoke, and tracking pages are also branded with Spoke's logo. However, recipients are unlikely to recognize or trust the Spoke brand. They are typically expecting delivery notifications that are branded with the name of the retailer they purchased from or the courier handling their delivery.

Users on the Spoke Dispatch Pro Plan can now enhance the trust and recognition levels of their recipient notifications by adding their company logo and contact details to the recipient tracking page and creating a branded SMS sender name.

How to add company branding to recipient notifications⁠

• Go to Workspace > General > Profile
• Company logo > Upload your logo
• Use the slider to adjust the logo size > Save image
• Your company logo will now appear on the recipient tracking page link
• Go to External parties > Recipient notification > Advanced SMS options
• Add your custom sender name
• Your custom sender name will now appear when a recipient receives their SMS notification

Often, Dispatchers can notice something on a route, such as crisscrossing drivers or one driver having a disproportionate workload, and not understand the reason for routes being optimized in this way.

Now, it is easier and faster to access and edit route-level settings, allowing Dispatchers to visualize their impact better and change them if needed.

On a route, Dispatchers can now toggle to see and edit each route’s optimization preferences and properties, and preview the impact of any changes on the route map view.

Route overrides can also be set on an individual route, allowing for easier customization of start locations, driving speed, and more.

How to edit route settings and set route overrides:⁠

• On a route toggle to > Settings
• To edit your route optimization preferences, click > the pencil icon

It can be hard for Drivers to find one brown cardboard package in a vehicle full of brown cardboard packages, and searching for the correct item at a stop can waste valuable time.

Unique Stop IDs are now automatically attached to every stop, and once a route is confirmed, they never change, even if the stop is edited or reoptimized.

Writing the Stop ID on each package can help Drivers load vehicles in a logical order, and the Stop ID is also displayed when approaching a stop, so that Drivers can instantly know which package to look for.

How Drivers can use Stop IDs to find packages faster⁠

• In the Driver app go to Settings > Stop ID
• Select your Stop ID format
• Select > Modern to use alphanumeric Stop IDs A1 A2 A3
• Select > Legacy to use numeric Stop IDs 1 2 3
• Select when to assign Stop IDs, after optimizing your route, or as stops are added
• Once you tap > Confirm on a route Stop IDs will be fixed

The latest update to our API means you can now add proof of delivery requirements.

Enhance your API integration to include proof of delivery requirements for stops, which will automatically use your POD global account settings.

Set the POD API field as False, and the feature will be turned off, and drivers will not be prompted to collect POD in their driver app.

Set POD API field as True, and the feature will be turned on for that stop with your global account settings for POD applied. Drivers will be prompted on their driver app to collect the type of POD specified in your global account settings, eg, signature POD is mandatory

How to add proof of delivery requirements to your API integration⁠

• For each stop you want to require POD for add the field > proofOfAttemptRequirements
• Set the enabled flag to true, false, or null
• If marked as true, your global account settings for POD will be applied to stops

Preparing client order data for import into Spoke Dispatch can be a time-consuming yet necessary task, but that has just gotten easier.

Spoke Connect now allows your clients to import their orders directly into your Spoke Dispatch account and instantly access real-time information about their deliveries.

Clients can import their orders at any time. Once an order is marked by the client as ready for delivery, it will automatically appear on your unassigned stops list as a delivery ready to be added to a route.

Clients can also track the status of their deliveries via Spoke Connect, which allows them to resolve any customer disputes directly. All the information they need about a package’s progress and status is visible in real-time.

How clients can upload orders to Spoke Connect⁠

• Your client will log in to their Spoke Connect dashboard

Previously, all dashboard members could view and modify all account activity. Consequently, dashboard members from one depot could accidentally make changes that affected another depot.

The latest update to dashboard permissions means that Owners and Admins who have the highest level of permissions remain able to view and edit anything across their entire Spoke Dispatch account.

Depot managers, Dispatchers, and Read-only roles can now only see and change activity for their assigned depots. This allows each depot to be managed independently and prevents unintentional changes.

How to assign depots to dashboard members:⁠

• Go to Settings > Dashboard members
• Select a Dashboard member to edit
• Assign a Depot
• Assign a dashboard member role

Drivers sometimes tap start on their route so they can view the details of their journey several hours before actually beginning their route. This can have a knock-on impact on recipient ETAs, which are triggered when a driver taps start on a route.

When drivers tap start to look at their route but don't actually start their route for a while, recipients will receive incorrect ETAs based on the time the driver tapped start, not when they really began their route.

New notifications in the Driver app provide drivers with a clear warning before they start their route about the impact of that action on recipient ETAs. When a driver receives a new route notification, they are now guided to look at it in their routes list rather than tapping start.