Our drivers app is available in the iTunes store for iPhone and the Google Play store for Android devices.  Once you have downloaded and opened the drivers app, a popup will be displayed on the screen asking your driver for permission to access your drivers location.  Your driver should select the Always Allow option.  If your driver doesn’t see this popup, please navigate to the app within your drivers phone settings and have your driver grant permission to the Zippykind app by enabling location services.

Location services which engages the drivers cell phone GPS uses a lot of battery and as such we have created two options for tracking your driver.  One which uses less battery called Geofence Tracking and another mode which uses more battery called Interval Tracking.

The location services on your drivers phone will not start until your driver has logged into the drivers app.   Once your driver logs into the drivers app, your driver can choose the mode of location tracking that he or she prefers.

Geofence Tracking Mode

The default mode of location tracking is called Geofence Tracking.  Geofence Tracking is more battery efficient because it ignores your drivers location when your driver is stationary and will only start tracking your driver when the driver is in-motion and has traveled outside of your drivers stationary geofence which is 1,000 meters.  For example, if your driver parks at a dropoff location and spends more than 5 minutes at the dropoff location, the drivers app will go from in-motion status to stationary status and no more location updates will be sent from that driver.  The driver will have to travel outside of the geofence (1,000 meters) that has been created for the location tracking to continue.  The geofence is a circle that is drawn around the drivers location with a radius of 1,000 meters. The geofence is not shown to the driver in any visual display, it is created and tracked within the code of the app to determine the drivers in-motion or stationary status.

Geofence mode of tracking is not recommended for short trips as the location services on the drivers phone will be less frequently engaged.

Interval Tracking Mode

Alternatively,  Interval tracking consumes more battery, but offers more reliable and consistent tracking.  Every 30 seconds regardless of stationary or in-motion status, your drivers cell phone will fetch the GPS coordinates of the driver and send them to the Zippykind servers.  Your driver can opt-in to Interval Tracking by clicking on the menu icon towards the top right of the drivers app from the home screen and then select Settings from the menu.  Your driver should see a screen as shown below.  Your driver should toggle on Interval Tracking.  Your driver has now changed their tracking mode to Interval tracking.

Common Issues With Location Updates

• One of the most common reasons why a drivers location isn’t being updated regularly is because the driver is terminating (closing) the Zippykind drivers app.  If you notice that the location of the driver is being updated only when the driver updates the status of a ticket, this is usually because the driver is terminating the app and then reopening the app to make a status update.  Instead of terminating the app, the driver should click on the home button on Android or iPhone which will minimize the app and allow background location tracking to continue.
• Driver has battery saving mode enabled which will throttle the phones GPS location services.  GPS location service on a phone uses quite a bit of battery power and phones that have battery saving mode enabled will throttle down the number of GPS location updates.
• The location tracking relies on your drivers consistent connection to the internet.  The drivers app sends the GPS coordinates of your drivers to the Zippykind servers which is then made available to the customer tracking page and the dispatch operator dashboard map.  If your driver has an intermittent signal because he or she has entered a bad coverage area, the location tracking will be less frequent. Refreshing the dashboard map through the dispatch software or refreshing the drivers tracking page that is sent to the customer doesn’t re-fetch the drivers coordinates, the maps are automatically updated as soon the Zippykind servers receive a location update from the drivers cell phone.
• Driver is using an outdated version of the drivers app.  Ask your driver to search for Zippykind Delivery Driver in the app store and then ask your driver to open the app detail page within the app store.  Your driver should see an Open button if the app is up-to-date or if the app is not up-to-date, the driver should see an Update button.  After clicking the Update button, the app should start to update and will let the driver know once the app has been updated.  Your driver can open the app and click on the menu icon and then click on Settings to view the installed version of the app (i.e Version 1.4.5).  The Installed version should match the version number shown in the app store.
• Drivers cell phone service provider doesn’t offer good coverage.  Some providers offer better coverage than others.  Carriers such as At&t, Verizon, T-mobile and Sprint usually offer reliable coverage depending on your area.

If you are still having issues, please contact us so that we can look closer into the issue.