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The customer tracking link

Give a customer a live link with a map, an arrival countdown, a progress bar, the driver and truck details, a rating form and a receipt.

For
DispatcherAdministratorOwner
Hosting
Any hosting
Devices
All devices
Business
Towing

Checked against Pop Dispatch 0.1.0

Every tow call gets a tracking link. You will be able to share it with the customer, know what the page shows, and know when the position appears.

Before you start #

  • Set the public base address so the link carries your own web address. See "Public address and trusted proxies".
  • The customer needs a phone or computer with a web browser. They sign in to nothing.

Steps #

  1. Create the tow call. The call gets a tracking link when it is saved. See "Take a tow call in the console".
  2. Open the call. The link shows on the call as track_link (a path such as /track/<32 characters>). With a public base address set, the full link starts with your address.
  3. Send the full link to the customer by text message or email.
  4. The customer opens the link. The page shows the call number, the status in words, your business name, the vehicle, the pickup and drop-off, the estimated arrival, the time of each step so far and the driver's first name.
  5. A progress bar shows five steps: Driver assigned, On the way, Arrived, Towing your vehicle and Delivered. The current step is marked.
  6. While the driver is on the way or towing, a live map shows the truck, the pickup and drop-off pins and the route driven so far. The truck glides from one position to the next. A countdown counts down to the arrival, and the page refreshes it each time a new estimate comes in. The map has no map key and no per-view fee. Street names show when your map file is installed. See "Office map extract".
  7. The page shows the driver's first name and photo (when you added one), the truck and its plate, a Share this link button and a Call the office button that dials your business phone from Settings, Business.
  8. After the vehicle is delivered, the page asks for a rating from 1 to 5 with an optional comment, and shows a receipt page the customer can print.

What you see afterwards #

Each rating and comment is kept with the call. A customer rates once.

The link works while the call is open and for 30 days after it is delivered, completed or canceled. After that the page answers that the link is no longer valid, so an old message stops showing the customer's addresses.

What stops showing when the call ends #

When the vehicle is delivered, completed or canceled, the map, the truck position, the route and the driver's photo leave the page. The customer keeps the status, times, rating form and receipt for 30 days.

What the page leaves out #

The page lists no customer phone numbers, no money (apart from the receipt total), no customer or account records and no notes. Anyone who holds the link sees the page, so share it with the customer only.

Technical details
  • The route is GET /track/:token and needs no sign-in. The token is 32 lowercase hexadecimal characters. The answer holds number, status, status_label, business, vehicle, pickup, dropoff, eta_at, updated_at, times, driver (first_name, or null), position (lat, lng, at, or null) and link.
  • The web console draws /track/<token> from this answer. The server serves the page for a browser and the data for any other client.
  • Thirty days after delivered_at, completed_at or cancelled_at the route answers 404 like an unknown token.
  • The server looks the token up in each business in turn, so the route sits in the public rate bucket of 120 requests a minute for each address. See "API rate limits".
  • Live updates come from GET /track/:token/stream (server-sent events). The page falls back to asking again every 30 seconds when the stream is unavailable. A stream lasts up to 10 minutes and the page opens a new one.
  • The answer also holds pickup_pos, drop_pos, trail (up to 120 recent points, only while the position shows), truck, phone, driver_photo, can_rate, feedback, receipt_available and eta_minutes. POST /track/:token/feedback takes rating and comment. GET /track/:token/receipt answers once the vehicle is delivered. PATCH /tow/drivers/:id/photo with a file_id sets the driver photo.
  • Every position the driver sends while a call is open is added to job_position_trail. Positions from a registered hardware tracker join the same trail.
  • GET /tow/calls/:id carries track_link, and GET /tow/yard rows carry lien.

If something goes wrong #

  • This tracking link is not valid. (404): the link was cut short or changed. A bad token and a missing call give the same answer. Send the link again.
  • The link shows only a path: set the public base address.
  • No position shows: the driver has not been dispatched yet, the last position is older than 15 minutes, or the truck has reached the pickup.
  • The map has no street names: install the map file. See "Office map extract".
  • Call the office is missing: add the business phone in Settings, Business.