Ask partners to quote a job

Goal

Send one round of quote requests for selected jobs to the partners you choose, and see their replies on the booking.

Prerequisites

• Your role can edit partners.
• Your plan includes the partner network (Operations or Scale). Asking more than one partner in the same round needs the same plans.
• At least one partner is in your directory, active, and set up with a base address, radius and largest vehicle so 4fleet can match it to the job.
• The booking has its pickup and route filled in. A booking that still needs details cannot be sourced.

Steps

1. Open the booking and select the Partner quotes tab. On an enquiry, the same card is on the enquiry page.
2. In the card, check that Ask partners is the selected method. The other choice, Direct assign, is for a deal you already agreed by phone.
3. Under Jobs, tick the jobs the partners should quote, or choose Whole job.
4. Tick the partners to ask in the partner list, or select Select all to tick every partner that can cover the route. Partners marked as unable to cover the job cannot be selected.
5. Set Expires to 24h, 72h or 7 days. This is how long the partners have to reply.
6. Add a Note if the partners need to know something. It is optional.
7. Select Ask partners to quote. The button shows the number of partners. Above 10 partners a confirmation window lists the partners first, because the emails go out at once. Select Send to the number of partners to continue.
8. Read the message that follows. Email accepted by provider means the invites went out. Partners invited, email failed or Partners invited, delivery unconfirmed means some did not, and the round lists a Retry delivery for them.

Expected result

The round appears in the Partner quotes tab with each invited partner and its state. The booking also shows in Partners > Dispatches as an open round until you choose a partner.

Troubleshooting

• If you see Partner quotes conflict with "One or more selected jobs are already waiting for partner quotes.", those jobs already have an open round. Use Add to partner quotes to ask more partners in that round, or Supersede to replace the round.
• If a red notice says partner quotes could not be loaded, do not send. The card cannot tell whether partners were already asked, and sending now could start a second round and email the same partners again. Reload first.
• If the partner list says No partners with matching capabilities found. Manual outreach required., no partner in your directory fits this route and size. Add a partner or widen its radius.
• If the send buttons are missing, your role cannot edit partners, or the booking still needs details.
• If a partner never opens the email, check its address on the partner's page and use Retry delivery.