Tasks

Learn more about Tasks, how to use them, and the many ways in which they will support your growing business

Trucking companies and 3PLs have unique ways of working. Determined by the different services you provide, the sectors you work with, and the people you employ, your internal processes will be different than your peers’. These processes you have built over time define the way you work, and your software should support you.

Our goal has always been to empower our customers to embrace their unique ways of working, while making those processes and action items easier. We recognize that a lot of work is done in addition to the movement of freight in Rose Rocket, so we have built a new Custom Tasks functionality to help you and your team plan, organize and track this work.

What are Custom Tasks?

Rose Rocket by default has a set of tasks under the legs on the manifest but it was limited to major movement-related tasks like a pickup, delivery, load, unload, and arrive.

Now, you can create additional Custom Tasks to track other kinds of work that support the movement of freight. Not only will this add flexibility and let you plan your work the way you want, it helps with record-keeping and ensures accountability for all members of the team.

KEY BENEFITS:

• Increase precision and reduce mistakes: With each custom task created, you are adding precision and detail to your operations, allowing for more accuracy and less mistakes.
• Standardize your workflow: Each custom task will ensure that your team follows best practices and executes on your business processes
• Improve teamwork and communication: Each custom task records information like start date, due date, and assignee, allowing you and your team to coordinate and ensure nothing slips between the cracks.

Examples of Custom Tasks

Custom Tasks are about giving you flexibility. You can create any task you would like, but here are some common examples of what may be a custom task.

Picking up and Delivering Specialty Shipments:

If your company offers moving services that are beyond general freight, you and your team may want to keep track of these tasks.

• Check Call: Add a check call 72 or 24 hours before the delivery to ensure the shipment is ready.
• Pack: Dedicate time for specialty moves that require additional packing.
• Delivery Call: Add a confirmation call prior to arriving so the customer can prepare for the shipment.
• Unpack: Dedicate time for specialty moves that require unpacking at the destination.

Trailer Switches:

You can create tasks to help with deliveries that require trailer switches.

• Drop Empty: Add a task to let the driver know they have to drop the empty off at a specific location.
• Pickup Empty: Let your driver know they have to bobtail to another location to pick up an empty.
• Break: If these trips are long, schedule a break for your driver.

Delivering During COVID-19:

To ensure driver safety and the safety of others, you may want to add additional sanitary measures and track them with tasks.

• Clean Equipment: Set a task to remind drivers to sanitize equipment after use.
• Clean Truck: Ask drivers to wipe down the truck, including seat and steering wheel.
• Refill PPE: Ask drivers to stock up on PPE at the end of each shift, or the beginning of the next.

The Rundown:

What defines a Custom Task? A custom task is any task that is not a Load, Unload, Pickup, Delivery, or Arrive. This means that it can literally be any task you want it to be.

However, to help you organize and track your tasks, each task is categorized into something called a Task Type. This is set up on an organization-level, to help you benchmark different types of tasks in the future.

How does it get created? You can apply a task on a leg, manifest, or order level. This means that the task you want completed may be related to a specific stop, to a manifest on a broader level, or to related to the entire order. More on that later.

What information is tracked? When tasks are created, we will track additional information, including start and end dates and times, assignees, special notes, and support attached documents. We even provide three custom fields for maximum flexibility.

How do I organize them? Custom Tasks comes with a new Planning page, called Tasks. This page allows you and your team to see the list of all Custom Tasks, and your team can edit, complete, or delete them directly on the page.

Simply put, it is a new layer of effectiveness for your team while being able to better keep a record of all of the work you do.

Ready to get started?

How to get it:

Custom Tasks comes with a new planning page, and it adds new fields and elements to the Orders Details, Manifest Details, and other areas of Rose Rocket. Because of this, it is enabled on a customer by customer basis.

Following the webinar, a member of our Customer Success team will enable this for your company.

Setting it up:

Once Custom Tasks are enabled for your team, head to Settings → Tasks, to set up your task types. You can add any task type that isn’t a default movement task.

Custom Tasks has up to 3 custom fields that can hold additional information. These fields are the same across all Tasks Types, so make sure you add fields that are the most prevalent and important.

Adding Tasks:

Once you have set up your Task Types, it will default to showing you the Custom Tasks feature.

You can add a task in three different ways:

• Add to Order: You can add a task on an order. These are tasks that need to be done for an order, and don’t necessarily have a sequence required. These do not appear on a Manifest. To add, click on “Add Task” on an Order details page.

Fill in the relevant information, and upload any documents necessary. You can assign an order-level task to any user, and the Order ID is automatically associated with the task.

• Add to Manifest: You can add a task to a manifest. These are tasks that pertain to the entire manifest, but don’t have a sequence required. To add, click on “Add Task” on a Manifest Details page.

Fill in the relevant information, and upload any documents necessary. A Manifest-level task can be assigned to an internal user only if you are dispatching internally. When dispatched to a carrier, the carrier will be assigned the Custom Task. The Manifest ID is automatically associated with the task.

• Add to Legs: You can add a task to an existing leg (which will show up on an order), or to an “empty stop” (which will not show up on an order). These are relevant for tasks that are required before, or after, a specific leg is done. To add, click on the three dots of the leg to expand the menu, and select “Add Task to Stop”.

Fill in the relevant information, and upload any documents necessary. A Leg-level task can be assigned to an internal user only if you are dispatching internally. When dispatched to a carrier, the carrier will be assigned the Custom Task. The manifest ID is automatically associated with the task.

Once you’ve added a task to a leg, you can reorder them by dragging the tasks.

Managing Tasks:

To help you and your team better see and manage these tasks, we have introduced a new planning page, called Tasks. Here, you will see a list of tasks that you can filter, edit, complete, and delete.

You can filter your tasks by:

• Assignee
• Custom Types: These are your custom task types.
• Start/End Times
• Primary Types: These are your default movement tasks, like Load, Unload, Pickup, Deliver, and Arrive.

Similar to your Orders or Manifests list, you can create your own custom Quick Filters here to keep on top of specific types of tasks, like ones assigned to you, or any unassigned tasks.

Editing, Deleting and Completing Tasks:

There are four places you can edit, delete or complete a task. You can do so on the order, the manifest, the legs, and on the Tasks List page.

To Edit or Delete, click on the three dots for an expanded menu.

To complete a task, simply click on the Task to expand the option to mark Complete.