Automated dispatch, for a fleet of two to fifty trucks, is the arithmetic done by the software rather than the dispatcher: the run sized from the stops and the stop and drive times, the driving limit checked, the windowed stops counted per truck, the roster's coverage worked from the days off. Automated dispatch software and automated dispatching systems in the enterprise sense go further and assign loads to trucks by rule or by a model; ai dispatch software and intelligent dispatch are the same thing with a model in the loop. This page is what automates well at small-fleet scale, what an automatic dispatch system gets wrong about a territory it cannot see, and where dispatch automation starts on this site.
What automates well: the sizing and the checks
Multiplying stops by stop and drive times, subtracting from the driving limit, counting windowed stops per truck, working the roster's slack and coverage: none of it needs a dispatcher and all of it is wrong when done in the head. The free dispatch schedule and the dispatch scheduling sheet on this site do exactly that, automatically, as the figures are typed. That is the automation a small fleet gets the most from, and it costs nothing.
What automates badly: the assignment
An automated dispatch system that assigns loads to trucks by rule knows the stops and the windows and does not know that truck 2's driver cannot back into the Perrysburg dock, that the Tuesday customer wants the same face, or that the new driver should not take the Findlay run in the rain. At a hundred trucks the rule beats the memory; at five the dispatcher's memory beats the rule. Auto dispatch software at small-fleet scale is best as a suggestion the dispatcher overrides in a second.
AI dispatch software, honestly
Ai dispatch software and intelligent dispatch products use a model to propose assignments and re-sequence stops when something changes. Read what they are trained on: a model that has never seen your territory proposes routes a local dispatcher would not, and improves only with your fleet's own record of runs and exceptions. That record is what Runsheetly Pro keeps, which is why keeping the board comes before buying the model.
Dispatch automation in the right order
First the sizing and the checks, free, on every run. Then the board, so the record of runs and exceptions exists. Then, at a size where the dispatcher cannot hold the territory in their head, assignment by rule with a human override. Then, if ever, a model trained on the fleet's own record. Automated dispatching bought in the reverse order is a subscription that dispatches worse than the whiteboard did.
Questions people ask about automated dispatch
What is automated dispatch?
The dispatch arithmetic (run length, limit check, windowed stops, roster coverage) done by software as the figures are entered, and at larger scale the assignment of loads to trucks by rule or by a model.
Does automatic dispatch work for a small fleet?
The sizing and the checks do, free, on the sheets here. Automatic assignment works when the rule knows more than the dispatcher, which at five trucks it does not; keep it as a suggestion with an override.
Is ai dispatch software worth it?
Only with a record of your own runs and exceptions for it to learn from. Keep the board first; a model without the fleet's record proposes a stranger's routes.