A driver app built for the curb, not the office

Navigation they already use

Navigate opens Google Maps, Waze or Apple Maps with the exact pin, and the app keeps sharing location in the background while the driver follows directions.

Location only while they work

The app shares a driver’s location for today’s route only. Sharing starts when the driver taps Start my day or Navigate, or on its own once the app is open in the hour before the route (a reminder asks them to open it). It stops after the last stop or when they tap End my day, and a phone that sits still long after the shift stops sharing and asks “Still working?”. Your board shows “Not started” and “Day ended”, so an off-duty driver never looks like a problem. When the dispatcher hands the route over to another driver, the app says so and stops sharing location.

Pick up at the depot first

An order sent to the van after it left is still at the depot. The app shows a “Pick up at the depot first” card listing it, and the driver taps “I have it” once it’s loaded, and your board shows it in the van. A rescue driver who already left the depot gets a “Pick up at the depot” stop on their route instead, timed with the drive back.

Load the van, then check it

Turn on the van loading check in Settings and drivers see “Load the vehicle” before they start: last stop first, so the first stop ends up nearest the door. They scan each package label with the phone camera, or tick the stops on a list if you prefer. Your board shows each van’s count (“Loaded 38/40”), and the order’s story and the tracking page show when it went in the van.

• Off, optional or required; when required, drivers finish loading, or say what is missing, before Start my day
• A package of another driver’s route is caught at once: “Wrong van. This package belongs to Chris’s route. Keep it aside.”, and the dispatcher sees it too
• Scans are read against your own barcodes when orders carry them (import, the order form or the API), or Afi Planner’s labels
• A damaged label can be marked “Loaded without scanning”
• A van that leaves without stops or without a required check shows in Needs attention

A canceled order says so

When dispatch cancels an order the driver has, the driver gets a notice and the stop reads “Order canceled — don’t deliver it”, with “Bring the parcel back to the depot” when it is already in the van. It moves to the Done list as canceled, never as a skip of theirs, and it can’t be delivered by mistake. The route link in the browser says the same.

Call dispatch in one tap

Add your dispatch phone in Settings, with an after-hours number if you have one. “Call dispatch” then sits in the app’s route header, on the problem screen and in every message that tells the driver to call you, and the route page in the browser has it too. After hours it dials the after-hours number. Customers never see this number.

Several orders at one address, one stop

When orders that follow each other on the route go to the same address, the app shows them as one stop: one row in the list, all marked arrived together, and one Deliver screen with one scan list, one photo for every order and one slide. Apartments in the same building still sign apart, with a name and signature per unit. Each order keeps its own delivery report, and Undo takes the whole stop back.

• Untick an order to deliver it on its own later
• Problem reports one order failed on its own
• Pickups at one place in a row work the same way: one Pick up screen with every order ticked, a scan for each order when you require scans, and one slide

Signed in once, ready every day

Send a sign-in link by SMS, show a QR code once, or give the driver a username and password from Drivers → Driver app sign-in. After that, the app finds each day’s route on its own and notifies the driver when it’s ready or when it changes. Once drivers choose their own password, a forwarded link is not enough: it asks for that password, with the username already filled in.

• Check my phone, in the app’s menu: location on and allowed all the time, precise location, notifications and, on Android, the battery setting, each with the steps to fix it
• A practice route of five made-up stops that never leaves the phone: navigate, photo, signature, a problem, skip for now, undo, and a trainer who plays the customer on the last stop. No customer gets a message, and nothing shows on your board or in reports
• “Working tomorrow?” the evening before: drivers confirm tomorrow’s hours or say they can’t come, and the answers show on your Schedule

Several accounts on one phone

Drivers who work for two companies, or two drivers who share a phone, keep one account each on the same phone and switch the way you switch accounts in a mail app: tap the avatar at the top right and pick one. Each account keeps its own routes, history, performance and notifications.

• Each account shows its company and today’s state: route today, next route, or no route yet
• A notification opens the account it was sent to
• Sign out of one account and the others stay
• Location keeps sharing for the route being driven while the driver looks at another account