Signing on as a controller

Click Sign On in the top bar, choose your name, and enter your password to begin your shift. Your name then shows in the top bar. Click it again to sign off at the end of your shift. Forgotten your password? Any admin can set you a new one in the Database Manager → Controllers tab.

Locking the console

The padlock button locks the screen so nobody can use the console while you step away, without signing you off. Unlock it to carry on where you left off.

Switching between Map and Dashboard views

Use the Dashboard View / Map View button in the top bar to swap layouts. Both have exactly the same features — the Map view centres on a live map, the Dashboard shows cards and stats. Pick whichever suits your screen.

Day / night theme

The moon/sun button switches between a light and dark colour scheme — handy for night shifts.

Voice alerts (spoken updates)

The speaker button turns spoken alerts on or off. When on, the console reads out events as they happen during your shift — a rider heading to collect, a pickup, a delivery. It only announces things happening live, so signing in won't read out old jobs.

Activity feed & text size

The scrolling feed at the top shows the current jobs and what's happening with them right now. Use the A− / A+ buttons to make that feed's text smaller or larger; your choice is remembered on that device.

Signing riders on (Active Fleet)

Click + Add in the Active Fleet panel to bring an available volunteer on shift. They then appear in the fleet list and on the map, ready to be given jobs.

The rider menu (break, send home, locate)

Click a rider in the fleet to open their menu. From there you can put them on a break, send them back to base or another location, relocate them on the map, view their next-of-kin (NOK) details, or sign them off when their shift ends.

Send to base / location

In the rider menu, use Send to Base/Location to direct a rider to a chosen hospital or base. If the rider has a home location saved, you can also send them home at the end of their shift.

Fleet Vehicles & allocation

The Fleet Vehicles panel lists your bikes and cars (managed on the Vehicles tab of the Database Manager). Allocate a vehicle to a rider for their shift; the vehicle they used is recorded against every job they complete, and the allocation clears when they sign off.

Suggested rider

For an unassigned job, the console suggests the nearest free, suitable rider — taking distance and whether the load suits a bike or a car into account. Click Assign on the suggestion to accept it, or assign anyone you like manually. It's only a hint; you're always in control.

Rider status at a glance

Each rider shows a clear status chip — ✓ FREE, ● BUSY, ⏸ BREAK — using a symbol as well as colour so it's readable at a glance and for colour-blind users.

Logging a new job

In the Log Request panel, choose a Pickup and Destination, click the description box to pick the items, set the Priority if needed, add any Notes for the rider, then press Generate Job. The job appears in the Active Jobs list as pending. You can also type a ward/department into the optional box to add it to the location name. For a place that isn't on your locations list — a one-off job offered to the group, or a relay handover — tick Relay / one-off job at the top of the panel. That swaps the location dropdowns for free-text boxes, so you can type any pickup and dropoff and give a postcode to put it on the map. The job runs exactly like any other and is tagged RELAY / ONE-OFF on the board so it's clear it wasn't a regular run.

Choosing items / description

Clicking the description box opens the item selector. Tick common items (e.g. bloods, samples, milk) or type a custom item in the "Other" box. If you don't yet know what's being carried, tick Items unknown and the rider confirms the actual items when they collect.

Job priority (Urgent)

Set a job's priority to 🔴 Urgent when it's time-critical. Urgent jobs jump to the top of the board, pulse red, show a red URGENT badge everywhere (including on the rider's phone), send the rider an unmissable "URGENT" alert when assigned, and are tagged Urgent in the reports. Routine is the default. Use Urgent sparingly so it keeps its meaning.

Notes & standing directions

Add free-text Notes when logging a job (access codes, "ring on arrival", etc.) — the rider sees them on their phone. If a location has standing directions saved (on its Database record), they fill the notes in automatically, and you can add to them.

what3words on a job

You can add a pickup and/or delivery ///what3words address to pinpoint the exact door. Choose one from a location's mapped points, or type one in. The rider gets a tap-to-open ///link. See also the what3words directory (below).

Assigning a job to a rider

Click a free rider in the fleet, then choose a pending job to assign it to them. The rider sees it instantly in their Volunteer Portal (with a push notification), and the route is drawn on the map. Assign several to one rider and they queue.

Rider confirm / decline (acceptance)

When you assign a job, the rider gets Confirm and Can't do it buttons on their phone. Until they accept, the job shows a bold amber ⏳ AWAITING ACCEPTANCE line so you know they haven't confirmed yet. The moment they tap Confirm you get an alert and a chime, and that line turns green: ✓ [rider] ACCEPTED (with the time). If they decline, you get an amber alert with their reason and the job goes back on the board to reassign.

Tracking: pickup & delivery

As the rider progresses, confirm Pickup and then Delivery (normally the rider does this in their portal with a signature; an Admin can also close a job). Each step is time-stamped. When delivery is confirmed the job moves into the completed records. A job's coloured time badge turns amber after 30 minutes and red after an hour, so a job that's waiting stands out.

Signatures (offline-safe)

Riders capture a signature at pickup and at delivery in their portal. If they're out of signal, the signature is saved on their phone and uploads automatically when they're back online — nothing is lost. View signatures by opening a job's details from the job list or Job History.

Unassign or Close a job

Unassign takes a rider off a job (it goes back to pending) and stands them down. Close records a job that won't be completed the normal way — e.g. "nothing to collect" or "stood down" — with a reason, so it still appears in the records. Cancel removes a job entirely.

Scheduled Jobs

Use Scheduled Jobs to set up runs in advance. Pick the pickup, destination, items, an optional rider, and a time — for a single date, or across many days at once (pick weekdays and a "repeat until" date, or add individual dates). Each becomes a pending job automatically ahead of its time, and you can Start Now from the board.

Shift Rota

The calendar button opens the 4-week rota. Click a 4-hour block to book a rider or driver, or use + add under Controllers to book a controller. Page through weeks with Previous / Next, and export the rota to CSV.

Job History & reports

The history button opens all server-archived completed jobs. Filter by time range, search by job reference, rider or location, and export as a printable report, CSV, or Excel (.xlsx). Each record includes the times created/collected/delivered, a job number, the vehicle used, the priority, and running-cost/savings figures. An Admin can correct a record or add a past job — the original archive is never overwritten, and every edit is logged.

Cost & savings (Rates)

Reports show what the runs cost to run versus what a commercial courier would have charged — i.e. the money volunteers saved. Set the per-mile and call-out rates on the Database Manager's Rates tab; sensible UK defaults are used until you do.

Volunteer stats

A recognition report totalling each volunteer's completed jobs, miles and rostered hours, and how long since their last job (flagging anyone not active for 30+ days — worth a check-in). Exportable to Excel.

Vehicle checks in reports

Riders submit a pre-ride vehicle check (POWDER for bikes, a car list for cars) from their portal. Those checks show against the day in the reports, and any reported issue is flagged so you can act on it.

Snapshot

The camera button creates a plain-text summary of today's live situation (riders, active jobs, and jobs completed today) that you can copy and paste, e.g. into a handover message. Previous days aren't included — look those up in Job History.

Shift handover notes

The 📝 button leaves a note for the next controller (e.g. "the fridge at Ward 4 is broken"). It stays pinned on every console until a controller taps Acknowledge. Who left it and who acknowledged it is recorded in the change log.

Change log (Admins)

Admins can view a running log of who did what and when — jobs created, assigned, unassigned, cancelled and closed, riders signed on/off, rider confirmations and declines, handover notes, and database changes. It's your "what happened on that shift?" record.

Export CSV / Clear List

Export CSV downloads a copy of the current shift's completed jobs — a good end-of-shift backup. Clear List only clears the on-screen list; the data stays safely archived on the server.

Volunteers (riders & drivers)

On the Volunteers tab you add and edit people: name, callsign, next-of-kin, an optional photo, and an optional home location by postcode (used for "Send Home"). Their portal password is issued automatically the moment you add them — you do not set it. Mark someone inactive to keep their history without showing them on shift. Controller/Admin access is granted on the Controllers tab. You can also import many volunteers at once from a CSV file.

Portal passwords

Volunteers sign in with one password and nothing else — it identifies them, so there is no name to pick and no list of volunteers on the sign-in screen. Everyone is issued a four-letter code automatically; it is shown beside their name on this tab, and that is the list to print and hand out. A volunteer can set their own from the portal, and once they do, the issued code stops working — otherwise your printed list would be a master key to everybody's account. If they forget it, press Reset password to put them back on their issued code. PINs no longer sign anybody in.

Controllers, admins & passwords

On the Controllers tab you add controllers, grant admin rights, and set or reset passwords. Leaving the password blank when editing keeps the current one. The main Admin account is protected — it can't be deleted or have its password changed by other admins.

Locations, departments, directions & what3words

On the Locations tab you add hospitals, surgeries and bases with their coordinates and an optional ///what3words. For large sites add departments (e.g. Pathology, Maternity) that appear as sub-options when logging a job. You can also save standing directions for a site — access notes that auto-fill a job's Notes whenever that site is used.

what3words directory (Map view)

The /// button opens a searchable directory of every site's what3words points. Look one up and drop it straight into a job's pickup or delivery, copy it, and (as an admin) add/edit/remove points or bulk-import a what3words CSV — each ///address is validated and pinned on the map.

Vehicles & MOT/service reminders

On the Vehicles tab you manage the fleet of bikes and cars (name, type, registration, notes). Add MOT, service and insurance due dates to get amber "due soon" and red "overdue" reminders, and optionally record which volunteer a vehicle is kept with (its custodian). These are the vehicles you allocate to riders for their shifts.

Rates (cost & savings)

On the Rates tab (admin) set the per-mile running cost for bikes and cars, and the courier per-mile and call-out rates. Reports use these to show your running cost and the money saved versus a commercial courier.

Incoming hospital requests

Hospitals can submit a delivery request themselves on your group's request page — this site's address with /r on the end (the longer /request.html still works) — using an access code: either your group's shared code, or a ward's own code printed on its poster. There is no login. New requests pop up on the console with an alert and a repeating chime, and a 📥 Requests button appears bottom-right while any are unanswered. Accept turns one into a job on the board ready to assign; Decline asks for a reason the requester sees. Either way the ward's own page follows the run (accepted → collected → delivered) while they keep it open. Only pass the access code to clinical staff, and tell them it is for requests, never for emergencies — those still come by phone.

Volunteer Portal

The motorbike button opens the Volunteer Portal — the phone view riders use to see their jobs, navigate, capture signatures, do a vehicle check and book their own shifts. There's a separate Help button inside the portal too.

Version number

The small version (e.g. v2.27) shown in the corner confirms which release you're running. If you ever report a problem, mention this number.