The Four-Part Glass Day: an auto glass dispatch checklist for every job

The Four-Part Glass Day is a dispatch checklist for mobile glass shops: before you promise a stop, check the four things every job moves at once. They are the same four as the video, in the same order:

1. The tech: a tech who can't do that car's calibration is the wrong person for that stop.
2. The van's shelf: what's on it this morning decides which jobs are even possible today, before anyone talks about distance.
3. The exact glass for that VIN: a close match isn't a match, and the wrong windshield means the tech arrives and can't do the job.
4. The cure time: the car isn't finished when the glass is set, so the schedule has to hold the drive-away time.

Below is the full checklist, the questions to answer for each part, how to build tomorrow's board in order, and what stays with a person.

Why four parts, not one

Mechanical dispatch moves one resource: a car into a bay. Mobile glass moves four things that can each ruin the day on their own, and most scheduling tools only see one of them, usually the tech's location. When any of the other three is wrong, the customer has already planned their morning around you, and now they've lost it.

Think of each job like a flight. The crew, the plane, the cargo and the turnaround all have to line up before anyone gets a departure time. In glass, those are the tech, the van, the part and the cure. Our longer page on auto glass dispatch automation covers the background.

Who it is for

• Independent mobile glass shops that build tomorrow's schedule by hand every afternoon.
• Shops with mixed techs, where some do static calibrations and some don't.
• Owners who have had a tech drive across town with a windshield that didn't fit.

What you need first

• The calibration capability of each tech (none, dynamic, static) written down.
• Tonight's van load list, or whatever tells you what's on each shelf.
• The VIN for every booked job, not just year, make and model.
• The data sheet for each urethane you use, with its minimum drive-away time.

The checklist, part by part

Copy this into tomorrow's dispatch sheet. One line per job, and nothing gets a promised time until all four columns are checked.

Part	Question to answer	Checked when
Tech	Can this tech do this car's calibration (static, dynamic or none)?	The vehicle's procedure is known and matched to a tech
Van shelf	Is the exact part on this van, in the shop, or on a transfer that lands in time?	The part is physically staged
Glass	Does the part match the VIN, including brackets and sensors?	VIN-decoded fitment is confirmed
Cure	How long before the car can be driven, with this urethane in tomorrow's weather?	The drive-away time is on the schedule

Part 1. The tech

A tech who can set a windshield but can't do the car's calibration is a different dispatch unit from one who can. The vehicle's own procedure decides which calibration it needs: AGRR's technical guidance says the procedure for the scheduled vehicle defines whether you perform a dynamic or a static calibration, and some vehicles allow either.

Static and dynamic behave very differently on a route. Static calibration is done indoors with targets placed at the exact height, distance and angle the OEM specifies on a level floor, so it often moves the job into the shop. Dynamic calibration is done by driving on a road with clear lane markings, and it depends on weather, road quality and traffic. Some vehicles need static first, and some need both.

Check: look up the procedure the day before, then assign a tech who is set up for it. If it's static and the tech can't take targets on the road, the job goes on the shop board, not the route.

Part 2. The van's shelf

A van is a small warehouse with a fixed capacity. Whatever is on the shelf tonight decides which jobs are possible tomorrow, before you look at a map.

Check: for every job, mark where its part is: on the van, at the shop or in transit with an arrival time. A job whose part isn't staged doesn't get a promised time. This is the step shops skip under pressure, and it produces the worst mornings in the business.

Part 3. The exact glass for that VIN

A close-enough part is not a part. Two windshields can look identical and still differ in the camera bracket, the rain sensor or the heating element. If the part doesn't match the VIN, the tech arrives and can't do the job.

Check: decode the VIN, confirm the part number and its options (bracket, sensor, tint, heating), and note any OEM versus aftermarket decision the customer or insurer has a say in. Our page on auto glass quote automation covers getting this right at the quote, which is where it should start.

Part 4. The cure time

The tech is done when the glass is set. The car is not. I-CAR defines minimum drive-away time as the point when the adhesive is strong enough for the vehicle to be released, and says it may be as little as 30-60 minutes for fast-cure products and 2-8 hours or longer for conventional moisture-cured products. Cold or dry weather makes it longer, and the product's data sheet gives the number.

AGRR reported in 2024 that most major adhesive makers now offer products with a 30-minute minimum drive-away time, which helps, but only if the schedule uses the time for the product actually on the van.

Check: write the drive-away time on the job line, and don't book the customer to leave, or the next stop to depend on this car, inside that window.

How to build tomorrow's board in order

1. Cluster by area. Two jobs twelve minutes apart are worth more than two jobs forty minutes apart.
2. Sort by job type. A chip repair, a mobile replacement and a replacement that needs static calibration are three different stop lengths.
3. Run the four-part check on every job. Anything that fails a column stays unpromised.
4. Group static calibrations at the shop. They can't travel.
5. Leave room for the same-day crack. The emergency call is part of the demand, so a day with zero slack can't absorb it.

What stays with a person

Software can propose the route, flag an unstaged part and rebuild the day when a same-day call arrives. A person approves every change. The call on the damage (repair or replace), anything said to an insurer, the tech's read of a job site and the decision that a car is safe to drive away all stay with qualified people.

How to tell it worked

Track three things for a month: stops where the tech arrived and couldn't do the job, customers told a new time on the day, and jobs that waited on a part. Each should fall once the four columns are checked before promising. If you want to walk through your messiest recent day, the Multi-Shop Operating Gap Assessment is where to start.