2. Running Dispatch

Terms: 

• Tso = our customer (the business). 

• Supervisor = the person running the vehicle in the field. 

• End User = the Tso customer receiving the order.

• Dispatch = whoever is running the shift from the Operations Console. 

• Autonomous / Manual = the two delivery-method tags on an order; not a description of how the car is being driven (see Principle 3).

Principles

These lead every Dispatch shift. They're how we make decisions and why.

1. We eat glass – our End Users and customers do not. Bugs, workarounds, and manual steps are ours to absorb. The End User gets their food and Tso gets a clean handoff, even if that means stepping states by hand. An internal failure never becomes their problem.

2. Protect autonomous deliveries. Never interrupt or compromise an autonomous run. Past due, stuck, unresponsive – work the problem (reassign, manual-complete, escalate to Chad Agate). Never cancel an autonomous delivery – even if the Console lets you; that's not a Dispatch call. (Example of the failure mode: a Supervisor saw a duplicate order, got confused, and drove the car back to the store. That breaks this principle.)

3. Words matter. "Manual" is a delivery-method tag on an order. It does not mean driving the car by hand instead of FSD. Loose language here has already caused Principle 2 violations – people read "manual" for taking over FSD as "manual delivery" and broke the autonomous experience. Say what you mean.

4. We're building a future that doesn't exist. There will be no Supervisor in the vehicle. Decisions made now for today's convenience must still hold then. So when a ticket says "call this number when you arrive," Dispatch makes that call, not the Supervisor. Remove responsibility from the Supervisor, never add it – because one day there's no Supervisor to make it.

What Dispatch is

Dispatch is mission control for a delivery shift. You keep the right Supervisors on duty against the right stores, fix assignment and order problems in the Operations Console, and get stuck deliveries moving. Supervisors work the field; you work the Operations Console and the Dispatch channel.

If nobody is on duty, quotes to Tso expire and orders stop. Duty status is the single most important thing you manage.

Coverage window

Dispatch runs from one hour before shift start to 30 minutes after shift close.

Tools

Your duties

1. Order problem-solving. Wrong address (you call the End User for the right one – Principle 4), can't-find-customer, gate codes and access issues, order exceptions (duplicates, batching problems, orders stuck in the wrong state), and merchant coordination – calling the store, and stopping a store from cancelling an order when the fix is on the platform side.

2. You work from the Drivers side of the Operations Console. What that means on shift: when you put a Supervisor on, you pick their retailer, and you'll only see the vehicles already permissioned for it. You assign, unassign, and manage shifts freely within that list. You can't misroute a vehicle to a store it isn't cleared for, and that's deliberate. Vehicle permissioning is an escalation call for Autolane.

3. Shift prep. Put Supervisors on duty, assign each Supervisor to a permissioned vehicle for their retailer, and confirm the Supervisor can actually see their assigned car before shift start. (This failed in the past – a Supervisor couldn't see his assignment. Confirm it every time.)

4. Daily schedule share. Post the day's schedule to the Tso managers each morning.

5. Direct line. The Dispatcher on shift is the live contact point for Supervisors and Tso. Post your phone number in the channel canvas at the start of every shift.

6. Exception logging. Every delivery exception or error gets a note in the Operations Console as it happens. Required.

7. End User support (Intercom). Dispatch handles End User tickets in Intercom during the shift – an End User is waiting, so pick them up immediately. You'll be added to the Intercom Slack channel too.

   1. Pick it up within 60 seconds.

   2. Work it to resolution. If you resolved it outside the thread — by phone, through the store, or via a Supervisor — add a comment saying how it resolved.

   3. Close your own tickets before shift end.

   4. Tickets Fin resolves in <60s need nothing from you.

8. Shift close. Confirm the end-of-shift inspection is done, close out open issues, and post anything unresolved before you go off shift.

The shift loop

Before the shift

1. Go on Dispatch: Mark yourself on dispatch at the beginning of your shift – it logs your actions to you and switches on your dispatch tools. (how: The Operations Console for Dispatch → "Going on dispatch").

2. Post vehicle assignments in the #ext-tso-dispatch channel at least one hour before start – Supervisor → 6-digit vehicle ID, per store. Delivery-equipped cars only (insulated bags in back). Confirm field-ready cars with Chad Wagner.

3. Depot arrival. Supervisors are due at the depot prior to their shift start time. Every program sets the report time (how long before the delivery window Supervisors are due at the depot). Early arrival beyond the report-ahead time is paid idle time, not diligence. Don't praise early arrivals. The script is "keep start time as slated."

4. Start the shift in the Console: select the Supervisor, select their retailer, then pick from the permissioned vehicles that appear. (how: The Operations Console for Dispatch → "Starting a Supervisor's shift") The Supervisor announces inspection complete and heads to the store.

5. Put them on duty at the store when they arrive (or are within ~5 min of the store). (how: → "Putting a Supervisor on duty")

During the shift

• Log every exception as it happens – skip, reassign, address edit, manual completion. Leave a note under the order’s Activity every time in the Operations Console.

• Work on order problems using the Operations Console and the channel (#ext-tso-dispatch), and keep tabs on any new End User tickets in Intercom.

• Keep the channel disciplined – one issue, one top-level message, everything else in-thread (more on that below).

Closing the shift

1. Confirm the end-of-shift inspection is done.

2. Take Supervisors off duty at the scheduled end. (how: → "Taking a Supervisor off duty")

3. Supervisors return to the depot; as each arrives, unassign them from the vehicle.

4. Close out open issues; post anything unresolved before you go off shift.

Error handling & troubleshooting

Dispatch fixes what lives on the driver and order side.

Escalate to Autolane

Every skip, reassignment, and manual completion gets a note in the Console.

Escalation

Some issues you'll find but can't fix. During a covered shift you have one escalation path:

Tag @ops in #ext-tso-dispatch. That reaches the on-call Autolane coverage rotation. Everyone's phone numbers are on the contact card pinned to that channel – use them if Slack isn't getting a fast enough response.

Response and resolution targets:

Who ultimately owns what, if you need the right person by name:

The #ext-tso-dispatch channel

For shift comms only – live issues on an active shift.

Who's in it: every Supervisor, Dispatch, and the Autolane escalation contacts.

How it works:

• One issue, one top-level message. All follow-up in the thread.

• Format: [CAR 6332 or ORDER #656] – ISSUE NAME – Description

  1. Prefix with CAR or ORDER every time.

Example: ORDER #656 – WRONG ADDRESS – Customer gave wrong address

The Dispatcher on shift redirects any replies into a thread on the top-level message. We're strict about it on purpose – thread discipline is what makes the tracking clean.

Everything that isn't a live shift issue – staffing, training schedules, driver-account setup, window signs – goes in the daily-ops channel (#autolane-austin-brick), not here.

Getting onboarded to Dispatch

Dispatch is more involved than the supervisor role – you can't learn it in one lunch shift. The model:

1. Start on a slower shift (lunch). Watch one, do one – get comfortable with the vehicle, the app, and the Console at low volume.

2. Fast-follow with a peak shift, same day or next. You run it live during a peak dinner shift while a trainer sits in the next seat, monitoring, giving feedback, and answering questions.

3. The trainer signs you off at the end of that peak shift or requires another one before you go solo.

To sign off, the peak shift has to have covered enough real ground: ~10 deliveries, at least 3 of them autonomous, and at least one exception worked end to end.