Guide and Term Dictionary

What is SNOWiQ?

SNOWiQ is a snowplow fleet management and reporting tool for municipalities, snow plow operators, and the public. Based on our TERRAiQ platform, SNOWiQ uses a combination of smartphone-based GPS and cloud technology, delivering a 360-degree view of individual contractor vehicles and your overall snow removal fleet, without costly hardware investments. Your team and drivers simply log into the SNOWiQ app from the smartphones and devices they already own. SNOWiQ is a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that combines your internal reporting needs with the convenience of a public dashboard—two mobile applications and a citizen web portal that satisfies all your vehicle tracking, business intelligence, and communication needs. SNOWiQ is designed to meet the unique needs of fleet supervisors, snowplow operators, and the public they serve.

For Storm Operations Managers/Supervisors - SNOWiQ’s easy-to-use application lets you visualize your contractor fleet in real-time, from city-wide fleet activity, down to individual neighborhoods. Prioritize fleet movements, dynamically assign, re-route, redeploy, or add drivers, from within the app. You can also enforce quality control, improve performance, time management, and customer service.

For Snowplow Operators - Municipal and contractor drivers can use their smartphones they already own to advertise their availability, receive notifications when routes are assigned to them, seamlessly switch to Google Maps for directions, and confirm when routes are completed.

For the Public - SNOWiQ’s public portal provides residents and businesses with much-needed transparency into snow removal efforts. The portal displays when streets will be plowed, weather updates, and snow removal statistics.

Application Summaries

Storm Operations Center (SOC)

Platform: Web Application
Audience: Storm Operations Managers, Supervisors, Inspectors and Contractor Managers

This application is primarily used for planning purposes by the SOC Manager to plan and create storm events, review and send 311 tickets to their respective depots, and view the current progress of all actions currently involved in the county. This application is Web-based but can be accessed on mobile devices (iPads, tablets, etc.), if needed. Old documentation refers to this web application as Admin Portal.

Supervisor App (SA)

Platform: iPad and Android Tablets
Audience: Supervisors and Inspectors

This mobile application is used to create driver assignments for an active storm event, create address specific route assignments, view and manage driver assignment progress, and view and manage 311 tickets that are assigned by Storm Operations Managers/Supervisors from the SOC.

Driver App (DA)

Platform: iOS and Android Smartphones
Audience: Drivers

This mobile application is accessed on plow drivers’ (contractor or employee) mobile device. This application allows drivers to view their current assigned routes, their progress, and to set the status of their route to “Completed” in order to move on to their next assignment.

Resident Portal (RP)

Platform: Web Site
Audience: Neighborhood Residents

This web site allows residents of the county to view statistics about the current storm event as well as data on the progress of different phases (salting, plowing, etc.).

Roles in SNOWiQ (SOC-User Management)

Storm Operations Manager

The Admin (or Storm Operations Manager) - This user’s primary role is to plan work on upcoming storm events. They are responsible for creating the events in the Snow Operations Center (SOC), along with setting up the phases for supervisors to create assignments for resources. They will mainly use the SNOWiQ SOC for planning and management.

Supervisor

Supervisors are managers over specific depots (potentially more than one) and are responsible for the management of phases and assignments. Supervisors also work with Storm Operations Managers during storm events planning to create phases and assignments. Supervisors have access to the SNOWiQ SOC for planning and the SNOWiQ Supervisor Application (SA) to create assignments, stop and start phases, and review tickets for assignment. Supervisors can only view routes assigned to their depot, which is automatically set to their default depot. Supervisors also manage their Contractor workforce.

Inspector

Inspectors are responsible for the management of contractor resorces, route assignements of assignments, and ensuring the completion of those assignments by reviewing the work done by the drivers onsite when an assignment is completed. Inspectors primarily use the SNOWiQ Supervisor Application (SA).

Currently, Supervisors and Inspectors have the same application access (both SA and SOC). The difference is primarily in who they manage: Inspectors manage Contractors, Supervisors primarily manage employees, and Chief Supervisors are responsible for the whole Depot.

Contractor Manager

Contractor Manager - A Contractor Manager is an individual who represents a contracted company that acts as a resource to support Snow Storm Events on a part-time basis. The Contractor Manager has access to SOC and is responsible for managing a contractor’s fleet, and is responsible for providing up-to-date equipment information and confirming truck availability.

Driver

Drivers are responsible for assignments sent to them by Storm Operations Managers, supervisors, or inspectors. This could include a pre-determined route, a specific address, or queued assignments for multiple phases during a storm event. Assignments may include plowing, salting, a combination of plowing and salting, or multi-pass assignments. Drivers will use the SNOWiQ Driver App on their mobile device to receive assignments and act on those assignments to completion.

Resident

Residents have the ability to log into the SNOWiQ Resident Portal to view statistics of the current storm event for the entire county, a specific service area (depot), or a route that their address is associated with. This allows users to get a better understanding of what actions are currently underway in reference to the current situation.

SNOWiQ Vocabulary

Season

When a Season is referenced in conjunction with SNOWiQ, it typically refers to a period of time in which there is an increased chance of snowfall in the area and that personnel should be available for snow cleanup and emergency request duties.

Event

An Event is a single entity created by a Storm Operations Manager to create a plan for an upcoming snow storm (typically 1-2 weeks before the actual storm).

Phase

Phase - A Phase in SnowIQ is a timeframe used during a Storm Event to define certain activities to be performed by drivers. An example of a Phase would be ‘Plowing’ - a Phase with an Activity set to ‘Plowing’ would set all assignments to this activity and drivers included in this phase would need to plow their assigned routes. One phase must be completed before the next can begin, as they cannot overlap.

Depot

A Depot is a centralized hub that manages a number of routes in the service area. Typically, a single Supervisor manages a depot. A Depot can potentially have multiple Inspectors that manage individual routes within the service area.

Driver

See ‘Driver’ Definition under the ‘Roles’ section above. When logged into the app, Storm Operations Managers, supervisors, and inspectors will be able to see the driver markers on an interactive map along with their current status at the time (notated by a color specified in Status below). Employees can be found on the map with a circular snowplow marker while contractors will be found with a square marker.

Truck

Truck is a heavy vehicle equipment that has its profile in the system. All Truck profiles are created by Storm Operations Manager and stored in the system and can be managed in Truck Management module.

Truck Statuses

Active	Truck successfully passed inspection and has been certified in the system.
Inactive	Truck has been uncertified because of a failed inspection.
In Rewiew	Contractor’s truck has been created and is pending certification by the contractor manager.

Resource

A Resource is composed of a Driver and a Truck. Resources are managed in the Storm Operation Center and Supervisor app. Resources can have different statuses depending on the Storm Event stage.

Resource Check-in Statuses

New	Create a new resource, or import a resource from a previous event.
Checked-in	The Storm Event has started and a driver user is logged in to his profile on the Driver app and has confirmed a truck.
Released	The driver has been released from the truck.
Abandoned	When a driver changes truck, a new resource is created and the old one becomes Abandoned.

Resource Service Statuses

Logged in (Contractor Only)	A Contractor is logged in to the system, but has not yet accepted any new assignments and is not working on any active assignments. This status is for drivers awaiting a new status after logging in. (This status means no payment is being calculated for the driver, whether they just logged on or have been released.)
StandBy (Contractor Only)	is for Contract Drivers who are in position, awaiting assignment. This status is applied manually to a driver by their supervisor. (This status allows for calculation of payment by half of their rate.)
Ready	is the default status for County Drivers after logging on. For Contract Drivers, it is applied manually by their supervisor to indicate that the driver is ready to begin work on another assignment. (This status allows for calculation of payment at the Contract Driver’s full rate.)
In Service	is for Drivers who have accepted and started an assignment.
Paused	is for when a supervisor manually pauses a driver. This puts all assignments in the driver’s queue on hold until the Supervisor resumes the driver manually.
Offline	is for users that are not logged into the SNOWiQ Driver Application, drivers that are out of range of the service area (out of range), or any drivers that are not able to broadcast/receive GPS coordinates to the system (out of service).

Route

Route - is a number of geo-located path lines within a depot that was previously uploaded into SOC that is used in assignments to drivers along with a status indicator (color-coded based on route status). Route is a combination of route segments with one or more segment types (emergency, primary or neighborhood). A Route can have multiple assignments and drivers attached to it.

Route Types

Emergency: These routes have priority over Residential routes. When selected in an assignment these routes are to be worked first and, depending on the active route plan settings, an emergency route could be represented by either emergency (red) road segments or a combination of emergency (red) road segments and primary (blue) road segments.
Residential: These routes have a lower priority and are to be worked on after Emergency routes are completed. Depending on the active route plan settings (uploaded into the system in Route Plans), a residential route could be represented by either neighborhood (orange) road segments or a combination of neighborhood (orange) road segments and primary (blue) road segments.

Route Statuses

Unassigned	There are no assignments created for the route.
In Progress	The route has one of the four statuses below. This aggregated status is used when using filters throughout all applications for simplification.
Pending	There is at least one assignment but it hasn’t yet been accepted by the Driver.
Assigned	There is at least one accepted assignment for the route.
Started	There is at least one started assignment for the route.
Complete Pending	There is at least one completed pass on a multi-pass assignment and it’s awaiting action from Supervisor.
Completed	The route has had its assignment(s) completed by assigned driver(s), or the inspector/supervisor manually set the route to ‘completed’.
Inspected	The route has had its assignment verified and finalized by an inspector.

Assignment

The Assignment - A task created by a Supervisor and assigned to a Resource. An assignment can be for an existing route, an address, or a ticket.

Assignment Statuses

Pending	Supervisor has created a new Assignment which is pending acceptance from the Driver.
Paused	Supervisor has manually paused an Assignment.
Accepted	Driver has accepted the assignment.
Started	Driver has arrived at the destination, manually started the assignment, or the assignment has resumed from a paused state.
Completed	Driver has finished working on assignment, or the supervisor has manually marked the route as complete.
Completed Pending	Driver has manually completed a route pass on a multi-pass assignment, and the assignment is pending a review by the Supervisor to determine if another pass is needed.
Cancelled	Supervisor manually canceled the assignment.

Ticket

Ticket - A geo-point service request from different users of the system. Once the ticket is created, the system automatically associate it with a route. Depending on the user who requested the service, a ticket can have different type.

Ticket Types

MC311 (or Residential): Service requests imported from the Montgomery County 311 system where residents report snow storm related issues.
Emergency: Service requests from emergency services (EMS, Fire Dept), or other requests created by a Storm Operations Manager user.

Ticket Statuses

New	The system has validated that the 311 ticket is valid for assignment, or a new emergency ticket was created but not yet sent out for assignment.
Sent	The Storm Operations Manager user has reviewed the ticket and sent it to Supervisor App (SA) for assignment creation.
Assigned	The Supervisor has created the Assignement in the SA and has sent it to the Driver, but the work has not begun.
In Progress	The Driver commenced work on the ticket assignment.
Pending	The system has defined the ticket as invalid and is preparing to close it.
Closed	A Supervisor has manually closed a ticket; or the system has checked the sevice request and found it invalid and set the ticket to closed; or the assigned resource has finished the work and marked the assignment as completed.