A Tour is the operational plan for getting work done: an ordered list of
stops, driven by one carrier with a driver and vehicle, carrying one or more
shipments from pickup to dropoff.
A Tour is the execution side of a job in Orbit. It is an ordered list of Stops, assigned to one Carrier — usually with a specific driver and vehicle — and it carries one or more Shipments that have been planned onto it. Where the Order holds the commercial and billing side of a booking, the Tour holds who drives it, in what vehicle, and in what order the stops are visited.
A Tour is also the only thing a carrier attaches to. To give work to a carrier, you assign it to a tour — never to a shipment or an order. As the tour is driven, the shipments it carries progress on their own.
Key highlights
The plan that gets driven — an ordered list of stops with one carrier, driver and vehicle.
Carries shipments — one or more Shipments planned onto it.
Where the carrier attaches — a carrier is assigned to a Tour, not to a shipment or order.
You review to complete — a finished tour is reviewed and closed in Orbit MissionControl.
Nothing is deleted — cancelling a tour keeps it and frees its shipments to be re-planned.
Most shipments are carried straight through, and the whole shipment sits on one tour. Where a shipment is carried in stages, it is the individual stage that sits on the tour rather than the whole shipment. One tour can therefore carry a stage of a journey that continues on a different tour, with a different carrier, on a different day.
From the tour's point of view nothing changes: it is still an ordered list of stops with cargo to collect and drop. See the Legs article for how a journey is divided into stages.
A new Tour starts without a carrier. You can assign a carrier to it directly, or offer the work through a Callout on the marketplace and assign the carrier whose bid or acceptance wins. Once a carrier is attached — usually together with a driver and vehicle — the tour is ready to run. Assigning through the marketplace is a dispatch task; see the dispatch and marketplace articles for how offers work.
When the assignment names a driver, that driver receives a New Tour Assigned notification. A driver who loses the tour together with their carrier receives Tour Unassigned. An assignment to the carrier alone, without a driver, notifies the carrier's users who can see offers. The New Tour Assigned and Tour Unassigned emails name the tour's net price, excluding VAT. They name it only to users whose role may see prices, and only when the tour has a price above zero.
A Tour is scoped to a Region, so operator lists and dispatch can be filtered by region.
A Tour moves through its own set of statuses as it is dispatched, driven and closed. You move it along by taking actions — assigning a carrier, the driver running the tour, and reviewing it — rather than by editing a status field.
Status
What it means
Not Assigned
No carrier yet — the tour still needs dispatching.
Assigned
A carrier (and usually a driver and vehicle) is attached, but the tour has not started. Some views label this Upcoming.
Running
The driver has started; the tour is progressing stop by stop. While running, Orbit also shows the driver's position along the route — arrived at or departed from a given stop.
Review Required
The driver has finished the last stop and the tour is awaiting the operator's review.
Completed
The tour has been reviewed and closed.
Cancelled
The tour was called off. It remains readable.
The same stage can read differently in different views — for example an Assigned tour appears as Upcoming in some places. The underlying stage is the same wherever you see it.
In the Orbit MissionControl tour list, a late running tour's badge names the first late stop and its delay. Hover over or focus the badge to see the late stops, with each stop's estimated arrival and window end.
A running tour can also show no activity when the planned arrival at its next open stop — or the planned tour end when no stops remain — is more than five hours past and the driver has not reported anything since. Driver reports include starting the tour, arriving at or departing from a stop, adding proof, and recording a pickup or dropoff. The badge says how long it has been since the last report. It takes the late badge's place while the tour is stale; the two badges never appear together.
Once assigned, the driver starts the tour and it becomes Running, working through each stop in order. After the last stop, the tour finishes and waits for you to review it. Reviewing a finished tour in Orbit MissionControl is how a tour reaches Completed — it is the step that closes the tour. Review becomes available once the tour has finished its stops. The review shows what to check, lets you correct stop times and add missing proofs, and closes the tour with Complete Review; see Reviewing a Tour.
Driving a Tour is also what advances the shipments it carries. As stops are completed and the tour is reviewed, each shipment moves through its own execution statuses to Delivered. You never mark shipments delivered by hand — you drive the tour, and the shipments follow. A shipment carried in stages reaches Delivered only once every stage has been delivered, so finishing one tour may leave it still in progress. See the Order, Shipment, Tour & Leg Statuses article for how statuses update as you work.
Each action in the tour's timeline shows when the driver recorded it on the device and sits at that time in the timeline. An action that reached Orbit more than five minutes after it was recorded, for example after a stretch without network, is marked reported late. Hover over the marker to see when it was recorded and when it arrived.
In the Tours list, switch to Map to see the tours that match the current filters and search. The map shows up to the first 100 matching tours; narrow the filters to see a different set. Tours use different colours, and the map distinguishes the driven part from the part still ahead. Until a road route is available, the map shows a dashed, approximate line between stops.
Stops at the same address appear together. At a wider map view, nearby stops can also appear in a cluster; select a cluster to zoom in. Hover over a route or stop to see its tour details, or select it to keep the tour card open while you explore the map. The map fits the selected tour's stops and route, and includes the driver's position and GPS track when those are shown. Clear the selection to return to the overview of all tours.
Use Driver positions to show the latest available position for running tours. Select a tour, then turn on GPS track to show its recorded track. A tour without an available position or track has no corresponding marker or line.
When a driver opens a Tour in Orbit Cockpit, the tour details show, from top to bottom:
The head: by when the driver must be at stop 1 to reach every stop on time, and the tour price for users whose role may see prices. A comment that dispatch left on the tour appears below as Note from dispatch. Once the latest start has passed, the head says so, for example Latest start 07:30 has passed.
Requirements: what the tour needs, next to the driver's vehicle, the carrier and the driver.
Tasks, Route, Comments and Documents, where they are available. Documents ends with the carrier's Terms of carriage when the tour has them.
Stops: the stops of the tour, always last. A stop that is closed on its day says Closed on the stop day.
To load the tour again, the driver pulls the tour details down. When the tour cannot be loaded, Orbit Cockpit shows Failed to Load Tours and keeps the details as they were.
Requirements compares what the tour needs with the vehicle, the carrier and the driver who drive it. The driver is the tour's driver, or the signed-in driver when the tour has none. The section has up to three cards:
Vehicle: the vehicle class the tour requires (Required), the driver's vehicle with its number plate and class (Your vehicle), the most weight the tour has on board at any point (Max. weight on board) with the vehicle's payload below it, the tallest package (Tallest package) with the height of the cargo space, a package that does not fit the load floor even when turned, or the packages that do not fit the vehicle at all, the vehicle extras the tour requires, and the Driver.
Cargo: dangerous goods with their ADR summary, and waste. Only a tour that carries either shows this card.
Other requirements: the carrier, driver and service extras the tour requires, and Ambient. They are listed without a check.
Each finding is a problem or a note:
Finding
Counts as
The weight on board is above the vehicle's payload
Problem
The carrier lacks the waste permit the cargo needs: the §53 notice for waste, the §54 permit for hazardous waste
Problem
The tour needs full ADR compliance and the driver has no ADR certificate on file
Problem
The tallest package is taller than the cargo space
Note
A package does not fit the load floor, or the load does not fit the vehicle
Note
The vehicle lacks a vehicle extra the tour requires, shown as, for example, Taillift · missing
Note
The vehicle is of a smaller class than required, shown as Smaller than required
Note
The section title shows the problems in red, such as 3 problems. A tour without problems shows its notes instead, such as 2 notes, and a tour with neither shows nothing. Notes stay visible next to the problems. A smaller class is counted only when the vehicle has neither a payload nor a cargo height on file, because otherwise the weight and height checks already say whether the load fits. A vehicle of a bigger class than required is no finding.
The vehicle card also checks the whole load against the vehicle's cargo space, stop by stop, with the same check Orbit MissionControl and Orbit Connect use. Its answer arrives a moment after the tour opens, and until then the card shows the load floor check alone. When the load does not fit, the note The load does not fit the vehicle lists the packages that find no place below it, one line each with the package's name and size, for example 2 × Euro pallet 120 × 80 × 100 cm. Packages of the same name and size share a line, and after three lines the rest are counted, for example + 2 more. The note of the load floor check reads the same and names the package that does not fit the floor. The whole-load answer takes its place, so the count stays the same when both find the same problem. Without a connection, or for a vehicle without cargo dimensions on file, the card stays as the load floor check has it. The answer is kept while the app runs: opening the tour again does not check again, but a changed load, stop order or vehicle does.
No finding blocks the start. The driver can always start the tour and asks dispatch when something does not match.
Orbit Cockpit reports only what it knows. A check without the data it needs stays silent and shows the tour's value alone: a vehicle without a payload or a cargo height, a load without a weight or dimensions, or a tour without a required class, which then has no Required row. When the vehicle has no extras on file, the required ones are listed without a check, together with Equipment of HH AB 123 is not on file. When the tour's ADR data is incomplete, the cargo card says ADR data incomplete. Ask dispatch before you load., and it is not counted.
Before the start, a tap on Your vehicle opens Choose vehicle. It lists the active vehicles of the driver's carrier with their number plate and class, those of the required class first. Orbit Cockpit offers the choice while the tour is Assigned, when the carrier has another vehicle, and to drivers whose role allows them to start the tour.
The chosen vehicle is saved on the tour at once, so dispatch sees it in Orbit MissionControl and Orbit Connect before the tour starts. While it saves, the row shows a spinner, the requirements are already checked for the new vehicle, and Start Tour waits. If the vehicle cannot be saved, for example without a connection, the row returns to the previous vehicle and Orbit Cockpit shows Couldn't Save the Vehicle with Try again.
When the load does not fit the chosen vehicle, Orbit Cockpit asks first with Load Does Not Fit in the Vehicle. The question uses the same check as the vehicle card, so it appears exactly when the card names packages that do not fit, and a vehicle already checked is not checked again. Choose anyway saves the vehicle, Cancel keeps the vehicle the tour had.
Start Tour starts the tour with the vehicle that is saved on it. A tour without a vehicle opens Choose vehicle on Start Tour when the carrier has several vehicles, and starts with the one the driver chooses: the vehicle goes onto the tour with the start, so this works without a connection too. When the carrier has a single vehicle, the tour starts with that one.
Once the tour runs, Requirements folds into one row with the vehicle's number plate and class, and its title shows problems only. A tap opens the cards again to read; the vehicle can no longer be changed in Orbit Cockpit. The head then counts the stops left, with their distance and driving time when the tour has drive times, and names the next stop.
A Tour is driven by one driver, and only that driver's phone tracks it. When another driver of the same carrier starts the tour, chooses its vehicle, records an arrival or a departure at one of its stops, or completes or skips one of its tasks in Orbit Cockpit, Orbit Cockpit first asks Take Over This Tour? and sends nothing yet. The question names the driver the tour is assigned to and the driver who is signed in.
Take Over and Continue: the signed-in driver becomes the tour's driver, and then the action goes ahead. From then on their phone tracks the tour, and Orbit Cockpit does not ask again on it.
Cancel: nothing is sent. The tour, the stop and the task stay as they were.
Acting on another driver's tour always means taking it over first. A tour without a driver asks nothing: the first driver who works on it becomes its driver.
The former driver receives a Tour Unassigned notification, and their phone stops tracking the tour the next time it loads it. A driver whom an operator or a carrier dispatcher replaces on a tour receives the same notification. In Orbit MissionControl, the takeover appears in the tour's log as an assignment to the new driver, together with who made it.
Taking over needs a connection. Without one, Orbit Cockpit shows Tour Could Not Be Taken Over and sends nothing, so the driver can try again once the phone is back online.
Orbit Cockpit keeps the base data a driver needs on the phone, such as the company, the vehicles, the load types and the driver's role. When Orbit Cockpit starts without a connection, or Orbit cannot be reached, it opens with the data it stored the last time it was online, so the driver can get started. How old that data is decides what the driver sees first:
Data from
What Orbit Cockpit shows
Under two hours ago
It opens straight away.
Two hours or more
For a second, a start screen names the time of the data, for example As of today 08:10, together with No connection. Then it opens.
Twelve hours or more
The start screen also says Your tours may have changed. Check them as soon as you have signal. The tour list then shows the As of line at its top until it has loaded the tours again.
The tour list shows the tours stored on the phone. When none are stored, it stays empty until the phone is back online. As soon as there is a connection, Orbit Cockpit loads fresh data and stores it for the next start.
The stored data belongs to the driver who signed in. When another driver signs in on the same phone without a connection, Orbit Cockpit does not use it: without data of their own on the phone, that driver sees Data Could Not Be Loaded, as on a first start without a connection. Try Again loads the data once the phone is online.
Cancelling a Tour never deletes it. The tour is marked Cancelled and stays readable, and the work it was carrying detaches and becomes plannable again — ready to be put onto another tour, with its history intact.
Where a shipment was carried in stages, only the stage that was on this tour detaches. The rest of the journey is untouched, so you re-plan that one stage rather than the whole shipment.
A tour leaves a depot in Warsaw with three drops across the city. It starts Not Assigned; an operator offers the work through a Callout, and the carrier that wins is assigned, moving the tour to Assigned. The next morning the driver starts the tour (Running) and works through the stops. After the final drop the tour reaches Review Required; the operator reviews it in Orbit MissionControl and it becomes Completed. In the same step, each Shipment the tour carried reads Delivered.
Review it once the driver has finished. Reviewing a finished tour is the
step that closes it and moves it to Completed.
Can I complete a tour that is still running?
Review becomes available once the tour has finished its stops, so a running
tour is closed by letting it finish and then reviewing it.
How do I put a carrier on a tour?
Assign a carrier directly, or offer the work as a Callout and assign the
carrier that wins. The carrier attaches to the Tour, not to a shipment or
order.
What happens if a driver starts a tour that is assigned to someone else?
Orbit Cockpit asks the driver to take the tour over first. With Take
Over and Continue they become its driver and their phone tracks it; the
former driver is notified. With Cancel nothing is sent.
Can a driver start a tour that shows problems under Requirements?
Yes. The checks in Orbit Cockpit are advisory and never block the start.
A problem tells the driver to ask dispatch before loading.
Why does a vehicle extra show no check in Orbit Cockpit?
The vehicle has no extras on file, so Orbit Cockpit cannot tell what it
carries. It lists the extras the tour requires without a check and says
that the vehicle's equipment is not on file. Once the vehicle's extras
are on file, each required extra is checked.
What happens if the vehicle a driver chooses cannot be saved?
The tour keeps its previous vehicle, and Orbit Cockpit shows Couldn't
Save the Vehicle with Try again. The driver chooses again once the phone is
online.
Can a driver start Orbit Cockpit without a connection?
Yes, once the driver has used Orbit Cockpit on that phone with a connection.
It then opens with the stored data and says how old it is when it is two
hours old or more. On a first start without a connection it shows Data
Could Not Be Loaded.
What does reported late mean in the tour timeline?
The driver recorded the action in Orbit Cockpit while the device had no
network, and it reached Orbit more than five minutes later. The time shown
is when the driver recorded it.
Does cancelling a tour delete it?
No. A cancelled tour stays readable, and the work it carried becomes
plannable again so you can put it onto another tour.
I completed the tour, but the shipment is not delivered. Why?
Because that shipment is carried in stages and your tour carried only one of
them. It reaches Delivered once every stage has been delivered. See the
Legs article.
Why does the same tour show a different status word in different places?
Some views phrase a stage differently — for example Assigned shown as
Upcoming. The stage itself is the same.
