Delivery areas on the map and the coverage check

Purpose#

Two separate tools decide where parcels go. Delivery areas help your dispatchers: you draw areas on a map and attach couriers to them, so when you assign a parcel the couriers of the area containing the recipient's map location come first. Coverage decides which countries and governorates a company accepts; the platform's super admin sets it.

Who can use it#

• Delivery areas: company staff accounts in the company panel (menu item Delivery areas). The page is not tied to a permission key. A merchant who owns an internal delivery company manages areas from their own panel.
• Coverage: the super admin only (menu Coverage areas). A company admin cannot change it.

What you need#

• Active couriers to attach to areas.
• A map pin for each recipient. An area is matched only by the parcel's map location (latitude and longitude); the address text is not used for areas.
• Internet access: the map loads its scripts from unpkg.com and its tiles from OpenStreetMap.

Steps#

1. Draw an area

   Open Delivery areas. Click the polygon tool at the top left of the map, click point by point around the area and close it on the first point. At least 3 points are required.

2. Name it and choose its couriers

   In the New area card enter a Name (up to 100 characters), pick a Color, tick the Couriers of this area and press Save area. The button stays disabled until a boundary is drawn.

3. Edit or delete an area

   Each saved area has a card with its courier names and the number of ready parcels inside it. The crosshair button (tooltip Show on map) shows it on the map. The pencil button opens the edit panel: change the name, color or couriers, or drag the area's points on the map, then press Save. The trash button inside that panel deletes the area after confirmation. The page cannot currently suspend an area: the Enabled box in the edit panel is saved as enabled whether or not it is ticked.

4. Attach areas from the courier form (optional)

   The courier create and edit forms have a Delivery areas field with one checkbox per area. It writes the same assignments, and a courier can belong to several areas.

5. Use the areas when distributing

   On Parcel distribution, in the Ready for distribution tab, a parcel inside an area shows the area name, and the courier dropdown in its row lists the area's couriers first, in a group named after the area, then the group Other couriers; each courier is shown with the number of undelivered parcels against their limit. In the classic parcel list, the Delivery Man Assign window shows suggestion buttons for the area's couriers with the same numbers. The Auto distribution by areas button assigns the ready parcels that fall inside an area (up to 500 per run) to the least busy eligible courier of that area; parcels without a location, outside every area, or whose area couriers are offline or at their limit stay ready for manual assignment. The button appears in the Ready for distribution tab when the company has at least one active courier, at least one area exists and there is at least one ready parcel.

Expected result#

• The area appears in its color. Ready parcels (status "Received Warehouse" or "Received by hub", both shown as "Ready" on the distribution board) are counted per area.
• Auto distribution handles up to 500 ready parcels. For each parcel in an area it picks the least busy active courier of that area who has not reached that courier's own parcel limit (the classic courier form pre-fills Maximum parcels with 10; on Couriers and commissions the Parcel limit with it box falls back to 50 when left empty). Couriers who are offline are skipped when the company requires couriers to be online. A message reports how many parcels were assigned, had no area, sat in areas without active couriers, or had couriers at their limit.

When no area matches#

If the parcel has no map pin, or the pin is outside every area, no suggestion appears and the courier dropdown lists all active couriers (least busy first, each shown with load / limit); those who reached their parcel limit, or who are offline when the company requires couriers to be online, are shown but disabled. Once the company has at least one area, the board shows No area on a parcel that can be assigned and offers the filter Outside areas / no location; a company with no areas sees neither. Auto distribution skips the parcel and leaves it ready for manual assignment. Areas are suggestions only: manual assignment never checks them. If areas overlap, the couriers of all matching areas are suggested.

Coverage: which destinations a company accepts#

The super admin opens Coverage areas, expands a company (or shipping carrier) and chooses No restriction (all of Syria) or Specific countries and governorates. For specific coverage tick at least one country (Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar or Egypt) and either All governorates or at least one governorate, then Save.

When a parcel is created from the merchant panel, the API, a connected store or an Excel import, the recipient's country and governorate are checked, and the sender's too when it can be determined. In Syria the governorate comes from the city and address text, or else from the nearest governorate centre to the map pin (approximate). A rejected parcel shows one of these messages: "“…” doesn't ship to … Supported countries: …", "We couldn't determine the Recipient's governorate — “…” only delivers to: … Choose the governorate explicitly.", or "“…” doesn't deliver to … (Recipient). Supported governorates: …". The price estimate shows the same message. With no restriction set, nothing is checked.

Common mistakes#

• Parcels never match an area. The recipient has no map pin, or it lies outside the drawn boundary.
• Boundary with fewer than 3 points. A boundary needs 3 or more points. Until one is drawn the Save area button stays disabled. If the form is forced through without a boundary, the server answers "Draw the area boundaries on the map first."; a request carrying only 1 or 2 valid points is rejected with "Area boundaries must have at least 3 points."
• Blank map. The scripts or tiles did not load; check the internet connection.
• Parcel rejected for coverage. In the recipient details choose the governorate in the Governorate dropdown instead of Automatic from location, or ask the platform administrator to widen your coverage.

Limits and permissions#

• Areas belong to one company, and a courier can be in several areas.
• Without the feature's database tables the page answers 503 and asks for the migration to be run; ask the platform administrator.
• Coverage is stored per company; an empty governorate list means all governorates of that country.