The right engineer on site, inside the response window
Matching each reactive ticket to the best-placed engineer - by skills, proximity, availability and van stock - then tracking the job from dispatch to GPS-verified arrival, so the response clock is stopped on evidence, not on trust.
- Client
- Aldgate Borough Council · 42 buildings
- Contract
- NEC4 Term Service Contract · £2.4m / year
- Reference
- ALD-DSP-S04
- Period
- 1 to 31 May 2026 · Month 18
- Prepared by
- Sentinel FM Ltd · via BuiltAI
- Stage
- Dispatch · Stage 04 of 6
Illustrative example: fictional project and parties.
Getting the right engineer on site
Once a call is triaged and briefed, Dispatch routes the work: it finds the engineer best placed to meet the response target, tracks the job from acknowledgement to arrival, and stops the SLA response clock on a verified timestamp. Dispatch ranks the options and recommends; the operator makes the call and commits the engineer.
Aldgate is a 42-building term-maintenance portfolio, now in its 18th month with BuiltAI. In May 2026 the desk handled 180 reactive calls, 8 of them P1 emergencies. This stage covers what happens after triage: getting boots on the ground within the window and putting the arrival on the record.
How the match is made
Every reactive ticket is scored against four factors. The operator sees the ranked shortlist and the recommendation, then dispatches the engineer who best balances competency, distance and remaining SLA window.
Skills match
The right trade competency for the fault - roofing, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, multi-trade or specialist. A roof leak needs a roofer.
Proximity
Who is closest. Current GPS location from the engineer app, live travel time and traffic conditions.
Availability
The current job's ETA, queue depth and how much of the response window is left. Can they get there in time?
Van stock
Whether the likely parts are already on board. If not, the nearest stores and a collection time are added to the ETA.
TKT-2026-03847 - three engineers assessed
For the recurring library roof leak, three engineers held roofing competency and were in range. This is the comparison the operator saw before dispatching.
| Engineer | Skills | Current job | ETA | Van stock | Call |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D. OkonkwoVan 14 | Roofing, multi-trade | Westfield Community Centre - P3 fire door, 30 min left | 10:45 | All parts | Recommended |
| S. AhmedVan 07 | Roofing, electrical | Depot - available now | 11:15 | No ceiling tiles | Backup |
| K. PryceVan 11 | Plumbing, multi-trade | Borough Hall - P2 plumbing, 2h left | 13:00 | All parts | SLA risk |
Operator selected D. Okonkwo: the closest engineer with roofing competency, all the likely parts on board and an ETA comfortably inside the window. S. Ahmed was held as backup should the current job overrun. K. Pryce's 13:00 ETA sat inside the four-hour target but left no margin for delay, so he stayed on the Borough Hall job.
From dispatch to arrival, timestamped
TKT-2026-03847 is the ticket threaded through this worked example: a recurring roof leak at Aldgate Central Library, its third reactive call in seven months. Every step from dispatch to arrival is captured on the app.
- Ticket
- TKT-2026-03847 · P2
- Site and asset
- Aldgate Central Library - north-east roof valley gutter
- Fault
- Roof leak, recurring - 3 reactive calls in 7 months
- Response target
- 4 hours (P2)
- Engineer
- D. Okonkwo, Van 14 (roofing, multi-trade)
- Outcome
- Response met in 1h 24m; fix window of 6h 36m runs to 17:14
- Dispatched - 09:18.
Operator assigned the ticket to D. Okonkwo through the engineer app, four minutes after the call was logged.
- Acknowledged - 09:22.
Okonkwo accepted on his mobile and confirmed a 10:45 ETA, finishing a P3 fire-door job at Westfield Community Centre.
- En route - 10:12.
Westfield job closed and marked en route, an estimated 25-minute run to the library.
- On site - 10:38.
Arrived seven minutes ahead of the 10:45 ETA, GPS-verified at Aldgate Central Library. Response time 1h 24m against the four-hour P2 target.
- Response clock stopped - met.
1h 24m versus the four-hour target. Fix deadline set at 17:14, with 6h 36m of the fix window remaining.
Dispatch performance - May 2026
The illustrative monthly register records 175 SLA-met calls out of 180, giving calculated contract compliance of 97.2% against the 95.0% target. This is the monthly outcome calculation, not a separate Dispatch-stage measure. The example records average dispatch acknowledgement of 8 minutes. The month's calls broke down across four priority bands.
Eight P1 calls this period, every one answered inside the one-hour target - 42 minutes on average, the fastest 18 minutes to a reported gas smell. No P1 breach in 14 consecutive months.
The stated causes are two P2 items (a road closure and keyholder access) and three P3 items (a parts delay, a misdiagnosis needing a return visit, and queue overload in the bank-holiday week), all logged. For TKT-2026-03829, the Parkside Library boiler, access is recorded at 3h 55m; that milestone does not explain the client-recorded 4h 45m response or reconcile the register's 6h 20m fix. Deduction exposure this period was £800: £550 accepted and £250 disputed, pending clock review and the contract manager's decision. The Parkside item is carried into Defence, Stage 06, with its stated keyholder-access basis.
Stage 04 gate - on site, clock stopped
Dispatch closes only when the response clock is stopped on a verified arrival, not on a promise. The gate confirms each of these before the ticket moves on.
- Engineer matched on skills, proximity, availability and van stock.
- Dispatch options compared - the operator made an informed decision.
- Ticket acknowledged with a confirmed ETA.
- En-route timestamp captured.
- On-site arrival timestamped and GPS-verified.
- Response target confirmed met or breached on the record.
Hand-off to Evidence (Stage 05): D. Okonkwo on site at 10:38, fix deadline 17:14. The engineer now diagnoses, completes or escalates, captures evidence and closes the ticket.