Bottle Brain

Bottle Brain shows what Bottle has learned about how you run your rounds, and why. It learns the way a new starter does, one step at a time, and it needs time to see what you do.

Bottle plans in private. Nobody sees that plan and it changes nothing, so keep planning and sending your rounds as usual.

Bottle Brain is for the owner, on a business it’s been turned on for. Open Bottle Brain under Deliveries. The page is called What Bottle has learned.

The counts at the top

Days watched: days Bottle’s own plan has been compared with what you sent. A day nothing went out doesn’t count.
Things learned: what has passed its checks.
Handover notes from you: what you’ve told Bottle.
Waiting for you: what Bottle wants you to check.

How Bottle learns

The steps show where your business has got to. Bottle is here marks the step it has reached. A step only gets a tick once it has happened.

You hand over how you work: tell Bottle what it should know. Press Answer a few questions, or Tell Bottle something to write a note. Notes are kept as notes, and they don’t change a plan.
It watches each day: Bottle makes its own plan for each day and compares it with what you send.
It tries things out against what you do: after seeing something on 3 separate days, Bottle starts using it in its own plans. If what you send goes against it, that counts against it.
It earns your trust: after 5 of its plans have held up against what you sent, with no more than 1 going against it, something counts as learned. If nothing backs it up for 90 days, Bottle asks you.
It takes on more: this is where it’s going. Today it doesn’t take anything over, and you stay in charge.

Your next step says what, if anything, Bottle needs from you today.

When a driver’s rounds run outside the rota

Bottle compares when each driver’s rounds really start and finish with their shift on the rota. It goes by when they confirm the load, and when they leave their last stop or mark it done. Stops a delivery partner did don’t count.

Bottle tells you once a driver has worked at least 8 days in the last 4 weeks, and on at least half of them their rounds ran more than 15 minutes outside the rota. For example: Lee’s rounds usually run to about 18:30, past the end of the rota at 17:00.

The card shows the usual times beside the rota. Press Update the rota to change their shift pattern, if their day has changed. Bottle never changes the rota itself. Until you do, its plans keep to the rota, and a plan says so when that leaves orders waiting. If it’s wrong, press That’s wrong and Bottle stops saying it. Once the rota covers the driver’s usual day, Bottle stops saying it too.

The daily note from Bottle also says how many rounds were sent past their driver’s hours the day before.

Delivery areas to add

Bottle Brain lists places a driver often delivers to that their delivery area leaves out, with how many deliveries they made there in the last 8 weeks. It offers a postcode district, or a whole postcode area when one driver goes to at least 3 of its districts and makes at least 80% of its deliveries. It needs at least 3 deliveries, and only the driver who goes there most is offered it.

Press Add, such as Add KT3, to put it on that driver’s delivery area. Press Don’t offer this again and Bottle won’t offer it for that driver again. Nothing changes until you choose.

Bottle Brain settings

Press Bottle Brain settings on the page. It only shows where there’s something for you to set.

When Bottle plans the next day

Choose the time Bottle works out its plan for the next day, in UK time, from 12:00 to 23:00. Orders added after this time are added to its plan until that driver’s round is sent, and an order given to a delivery partner comes off it. The plan is private, so it doesn’t change your rounds. The same setting is on Round settings.

How much you give Bottle to do

On a business that can give Bottle more to do, this is also on Round settings.

Keep planning and sending your rounds yourself, whatever you choose here. Nothing on this page plans or sends a round for you yet.

For Planning and Sending rounds, the screen shows every step, what Bottle does today, what it needs to show first, and Your next step.

Give it more asks first, and only opens once the checks are met. Sending rounds can’t go ahead of Planning.
Take it back to moves it down a step straight away. It only asks if that brings Sending rounds down too.
Steps marked Not yet available can’t be chosen, as nothing in Bottle acts on them yet.

The checks compare its plans with what people sent. They don’t show how good the plans are, as distance and time aren’t measured yet.

If its plans agree with what people sent less than half the time over 10 days, Bottle moves back a step without asking.

The handover notes

The handover notes lists your handover notes and what Bottle has picked up from your rounds. Filter them by Learned, Still checking, You told us and Please check, or by Customers, Drivers and vehicles and How you plan. Each list shows 10 at a time. Press Next and Previous to see the rest.

See why shows what supports something, what goes against it, and the plans that used it.
That’s right is for something still being checked or gone quiet. Bottle trusts it straight away, and plans can use it.
That’s wrong stops plans using it, and Bottle won’t learn it again unless you press Let Bottle learn this again.
Edit and Delete change what you told Bottle.

Lately lists the last things that happened. Please check asks about what has gone quiet, one at a time: press Still right or That’s wrong. An answer goes in a few seconds, so you can press Undo first.