This guide follows a normal working day in order. Every step is on your phone, and almost all of it works without signal.
Note: Your app may look slightly different if your company has switched a feature off. If something here is not on your phone, ask your manager.
Before you start
Sign in once
Your manager sets up your account and sends you the details. Sign in once with your email and password. After that the app remembers you: open it and look at it, or touch the fingerprint reader. You should not be typing a password every morning.
Tip: If you are asked for your password every day, that is a fault. Tell your manager.
Allow what the app asks for
The first time you open the app it asks for three things. Say yes to all three:
- Location: Always (on Android, "Allow all the time"). This records your shift and your miles.
- Notifications. Messages from the office reach you this way.
- Camera. For van checks, proof of delivery and receipts.
On Android, also set the battery for DespatchOS to Unrestricted. If you skip this, the phone can stop the app in the background and your route records nothing.
Your language and the tour
The app follows your language. If it is not right, choose another one when the app asks, or later in Profile. The first time you sign in you are offered a short tour (about a minute). You can take it again any time from Profile.
Your home screen
Your home screen shows three things, top to bottom.
- The big button. This is your next step. It changes through the day: Start day, Start job, Continue job, then Day done.
- Today's work. Every job you have today. Tap a job to open it. Tap Make first to choose which one starts first.
- Dashboard. The bar at the bottom. Your van, expenses, pay and accident reports are all behind it.
Your job is already on the home screen. You do not claim it and you do not go looking for it.
Note: Claim a route only shows when the office has a route for anyone to take, for example when you are covering for someone. Only claim it if you are doing that route today. Your manager is told and must approve it. Claimed one by mistake? Tap Not mine — release.
Check and take the van
This is for company vans only. If you drive your own van, skip to Start your day.
If your van has not been checked today, the app stops you with Van check first. It takes about two minutes, and your day starts as soon as you send it.
1. Dashboard photo
Photograph the dashboard with the engine running, the mileage and the fuel gauge both in the picture. The app reads your mileage and fuel from the photo. You never type the mileage.
Warning: Do not shoot the whole cab from the door. The numbers come out too small to read. Get close.
2. Walk round the van
Walk round the van and tap Pass or Fail on every item: lights, tyres, bodywork, mirrors, windscreen and wipers, fluid levels, brakes and horn. Next stays grey until every item has an answer.
- A Fail asks for the details and a photo.
- If the van is not safe to drive, tap Do not drive. That puts a hold on the van and sends your manager an urgent alert.
- Something worth knowing but not a fail, such as a tyre that looks a bit low? Press and hold the line to add a note.
Warning: Anything you pass is you saying the van was sound when you took it. Do not tap Pass down the list from inside the cab.
3. How the van was left
You see the photos from the last time the van was checked, with any damage already on record. If nothing has changed, tap No new damage. If something is new, tap Something's new, tap where the damage is on the van and take a close-up.
Every so often the app asks for a full set: four photos, one of each side. If it is dark, choose Later in daylight.
4. The van is yours
When you see "your van's registration is in your hand", the van is on your name and today's van check is done. If the app could not save the take, it says so: phone your manager before you drive the van.
Start your day
On your home screen, tap Start day before you drive anywhere. This switches your tracking on for the shift.
If a checklist slides up with red or orange lines, tap Fix on each one. It takes you to the right setting on your phone.
Warning: Do not tap past a red line. On Samsung and Huawei phones that is the biggest single reason a route records nothing, and your manager is told you overrode it.
Note: Tap a job before you start the day and the app says Start your day first. It is not broken; that is the order.
Do the job
Open the job from your home screen. The job page shows where to collect from, where to deliver to, the contact numbers and any special instructions. The tabs at the top hold Photos, Notes from the office and your Pay for the job.
The steps
The bar at the bottom of the job page shows your next step. Swipe it or tap it when it is true:
- On my way. You are leaving for the pickup. Swiping it also opens your maps app.
- Arrived. You are at the pickup.
- Collected. The load is actually on board.
- Arrived at delivery. You have pulled onto the delivery site. This is how your waiting time is recorded.
- Proof of delivery. The goods are handed over. See the next section.
Pressed a step by mistake? Tap Undo in the message that appears. You have a few seconds. After that, ask the office to correct the time.
Tip: When you reach a site the app may ask, for example, "Arrived at delivery?". One tap on Yes does the step for you. Not now leaves it. The app never presses a step on its own.
Warning: Do not tap Collected in the yard. It stamps where you are. If you are nowhere near the customer, that is recorded.
Held up?
Waiting to load or unload? Tap Waiting or Loading on the job. One tap puts the delay on the record. Without it, a two-hour wait looks like a two-hour drive.
A route with several stops
Some days are a route of several stops. The Route screen lists them in order, with Navigate and Call for each stop and how many are done. The order is set by the office. If it needs changing, ask them.
Photos and proof of delivery
Do the proof of delivery at the drop, with the customer in front of you, not back at the yard.
- Take every photo the customer asks for. Some customers need a photo of the signed delivery note first.
- Type the full name of the person who took the delivery in Received by. "Reception" is what gets disputed later. Get the real name.
- Check the name, then send.
Wait for the photos to send. If the app says the proof of delivery is saved on this phone, you can carry on: it sends by itself when the signal is back, and only the photos that have not gone are sent again.
Note: Use the camera, not the gallery.
Customer shut, or will not take it?
Use Drop at storage and pick a reason. Do not fake a proof of delivery, and do not drive back with the goods and leave the job open. Your manager is told straight away so they can arrange the redelivery.
Expenses
Expenses are behind Dashboard at the bottom of your home screen. There are two ways to pay for fuel. Pick the right one and the money sorts itself out.
- Submit a receipt. You have already paid, with your own money or with company cash you were given. Send the receipt at the pump.
- Request an advance. You need money before you buy. The office approves it and sends the money. It is not instant. Then fill up and send the receipt.
Read the top line first
The top of the screen says where you stand: Company owes you an amount, You hold an amount of company cash, or Settled · £0.00. If you already hold company money, the app says so and asks you to send the receipt, not to ask again.
Warning: If the app says the company owes you £60, do not request £60 as well. That asks for the same money twice.
Send a receipt
- Take the dashboard photo. The app reads your mileage from it.
- Take a photo of the whole receipt, flat. You do not type the amount: the app reads the total, VAT, litres and the station from the picture.
- Send it before you leave the forecourt.
No signal? The claim is saved on your phone and sends itself when you have signal. The place and time were stamped at the pump.
If a claim is sent back to you, the reason is on the card. Fix that one and send it again. Do not start a new claim for the same fill.
Your statement
Below the buttons is Your statement: every pound out and every receipt back, with your balance. The statement is the truth about what you are owed. Fuel nearby shows fuel prices around you on a map.
End your day
Your last delivery does not end your shift. Tracking keeps running until you end the day.
- Finish every job first. If a job is still in progress, the app tells you which one.
- Tap End day under the big button on your home screen.
- Check the summary (when you started, your time on shift, the jobs you did) and confirm.
Warning: Nothing reminds you. Forget to end the day and the phone tracks all evening, and your hours and miles are wrong. End the day where you have signal, ideally back at base.
Routes paid by the day
On a day-work route, End of day asks for your scanner photo and any extra work. Mark each piece of extra work Done or Not done. Only work marked done is paid and billed.
Your pay
If your manager has switched it on, Your pay is behind Dashboard. It shows each pay period, what is due and when it is paid. Each job also has a Pay tab that tells you how that job is paid, for example covered by your day rate.
If your pay goes through a company you work for, the app says so and shows no figures. Questions about a payment go to the office.
Messages and your inbox
The inbox is at the top of your home screen. It holds what you need to do, messages, and things worth knowing.
To write to the office, tap Send a message and choose:
- Message the office. The office and your manager see it. Whoever is free answers.
- Message my manager. Private. Only your manager sees it.
No signal? The message is saved and sends when you are back online.
When something goes wrong
An accident
If anyone is hurt or in danger, call 999 first. The button is on the screen. The report can wait.
Then tap Accident behind Dashboard and start the report. It walks you through it step by step. Photograph both number plates close up, and take a wide shot showing the road, the signs and the weather. The office can see the report as you fill it in, and can ring you.
A fault on the van
Report every fault the day you first notice it, however small: what it is, how bad, and a photo. Open Vehicle behind Dashboard and tap Report a fault. If the van is not safe to drive, say so. That puts a hold on the van and tells your manager at once.
Note: A hold on a van is not a telling-off. It is the record that you flagged it early.
No signal
Work carries on. Photos, checks and job steps are saved on the phone and send themselves when you have signal. Do not do work again because you think it did not save.
Something in the app is wrong
Tap the round report button. It is on every screen, and you can drag it out of the way. Say what happened. It sends a picture of your screen with it.
Tip: If something has gone wrong, get it into the app: a fault, a drop at storage, an accident report or a problem report. A phone call to the yard leaves no record. The app does.