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The Tracker app

The Tracker app for iOS and Android is deliberately small: today's visits, Start journey, directions and I've arrived.

Signing in​

Operatives sign in in any of three ways:

  • by opening the invite link from their email;
  • by typing a pairing code from the admin;
  • by choosing No code? Email me one and using the code that arrives.

They stay signed in until they sign out, or you sign their devices out.

Privacy zone​

After signing in, the app offers a privacy zone under "Before you start". The operative moves a circle on a map so their home is inside it, but not in the middle. While the phone is inside the circle, the app sends no location.

  • Place it around me draws a circle with the phone's position away from the middle. The circle is between 300 m and 2 km across.
  • The zone is kept on the phone only. It isn't sent to Tracker, so you can't see it in the admin. Signing out deletes it.
  • Starting a journey inside the zone: the customer's page says the operative is on the way, but shows no position or arrival time until they leave the zone.
  • Driving through the zone: that part of the journey has no location, and shows as a dashed line in visit history.
  • A visit inside the zone: no location is shared on the way. The visit screen says so.
  • Operatives can skip it, and set or change it later in Settings.

With background location, the app sends each batch of positions itself once a zone is set. If the app is closed completely, sharing pauses until it's opened again.

A day in the app​

  • Today lists their visits in the order on the dispatch board. If your organisation allows it, it also lists visits they can pick up.
  • Start journey tells the customer they're on the way and starts sharing location. Directions open the phone's own maps app.
  • The visit screen shows the arrival time the customer is seeing, and says when they're nearly there.
  • Running late (on any of their visits, before or during the journey): two big taps. First why: traffic, roadworks, parking, previous job overran, or stopped. Then roughly when they'll get there. The customer's page and a message show the new time.
    • Prompt: if they've been stopped for a few minutes, or their arrival time has slipped well past what the customer was told, the app asks "Running late?". It only asks while they're stopped.
    • The reason also keeps stops for parts or fuel out of Tracker's traffic estimates.
  • I've arrived stops sharing and offers the next visit. Arriving within 60 m of the address also counts.

If the phone loses signal, positions are kept and sent when it's back. If the app is closed mid-journey, it picks up where it left off.

Every visit also has an operative share-location link. Send it to a subcontractor, or to anyone without the app, and they can set off and share their location from the phone's browser while the page is open.

The share-location page in a phone browserThe share-location page in a phone browser