Fieldworker GPS tracking

OctopusPro allows you to track your fieldworkers’ locations once they have indicated they are on their way to a job. For each booking, there is a live map for admins to get a view of fieldworkers’ locations on a map. You can track your fieldworkers’ movements on the booking site from when they start heading to the job site, to the time they arrive at the job site, to the time they start the job, to the time they finish and check out from the booking site. All fieldworker movements are tracked and marked on the booking’s visit map.

OctopusPro enables you to

• Track your fieldworker’s location easily and ensure that your staff is present and productive.
• Save a record of your fieldworker’s attendance. So, whenever you can check the attendance of your fieldworker by viewing the booking so you can see the month or date of the arrival status. 
• Provide a more accurate ETA to customers and fieldworkers based on the real-time location this means you always have a good explanation if a technician going to be late.
• Ensure that workers are on the job when they are supposed to be.

Table of contents:

• Tracking a fieldworker’s location from the booking details page as an admin user
• Tracking a fieldworker’s location from the customer portal as a customer 
• Tracking a fieldworker’s activity status from the fieldworker’s activity log 
• How fieldworker GPS tracking works 

Tracking a fieldworker’s location from the booking details page as an admin user

You can activate the booking tracking process from Settings > General Settings > Booking Settings. 

 A booking tracking process is a group of actions and reminders that appear to fieldworkers using the app on the days they have scheduled visits at your customers’ locations. This feature uses GPS tracking through the app to help ensure your fieldworkers arrive at their scheduled bookings on time, keeping your admin users informed about your fieldworkers’ locations from the moment they start heading to their bookings until they finish and leave their booking location. This process also keeps your admin users and customers informed when their fieldworkers are running late or when there are changes to their expected arrival times. The booking tracking process includes the following actions, which will appear to your fieldworkers throughout the lifetime of their scheduled booking. If you prefer to always display the full booking address to your fieldworkers, you can update this in your fieldworker permissions settings located in Settings > Company Settings > Users > Assign credentials. Visit “Fieldworker Permission“ for more information about the feature.

To view the fieldworker tracking map from the booking details page 

• Go to Bookings > Upcoming or past bookings.
• Select the specific booking for which you want to track your fieldworker.
• Within the booking details, under the “Scheduled Appointments” section you will find a fieldworker tracking map, this map provides real-time tracking of the fieldworkers movements from the moment they start heading to the job site until they complete the task and check out.
• Also, you will find booking’s exact address and all the assigned fieldworkers’ exact locations for this booking from ‘View GPS tracking map’ .
• Click on the “Add new appointment” icon to view the second fieldworker tracking on the map.

 

A new map will display, indicating the fieldworker’s location and tracking status. Also, when the job is completed, you can see the status of the job on the way: arrived, started, and finished.

Each visit to a job has four statuses: “I’m on my way, I’ve arrived, start the job, and finish the job,” which fieldworkers must choose according to their condition. When the fieldworker presses the “I’m on my way” button from the OctopusPro app, the current location of the fieldworker will be marked on the fieldworker tracking map of the booking that you will see on the booking details page. Then you can notice the movements of this fieldworker on the map with an exact date and time. The status of the fieldworker’s movements will be as follows: The fieldworker will start the job and state that he is “On the way“ with time; when he arrives, you will see the exact time and the total distance traveled while on the way to the job; this will also inform your admin users of their estimated time of arrival based on the current location of the fieldworker or the time entered by your fieldworker in the ETA popup. When he starts the job, it will be displayed with the time underneath “Started“ in order to be sure everything is clear and recorded when they are within 500 meters of their booking location, as the app verifies the location using GPS coordinates to ensure your fieldworkers can only check in from the booking location; and he will finish with the date, time, and total distance calculated. Visit “Booking Location Types” for more information about attending a booking at a mobile location as a fieldworker.

Also, you can receive notification for the fieldworker movement process when he’s on the way or when he is running late to the location with time and date, and it’s clickable so that you will be redirected to the booking details page for more information.

How fieldworker GPS tracking works 

Your fieldworker will receive a new booking that has been added to their calendar as a notification, so when they open the app, a pop-up window will appear to accept the booking or decline it. 

Then the fieldworker will be redirected to the booking page, where they can click “On my way.” Visit the “Booking Location Types“ user guide to learn more about activating the running late alarm for fieldworkers feature.

Then a pop-up will appear asking to notify your customer via SMS; to proceed with the process, click on ”Send.”

• A pop-up window will appear, asking you to navigate to the GPS location of your customer that you are heading to.
• Click on “Navigate,“ and you will be redirected to “Google Maps,” showing your current location and the location to which you are traveling.

Click on “I have arrived“ when you arrive at your customer‘s location. 

You can’t click on “I have arrived” when you are far from your customer’s location. You will receive a message from the system that displays the following. 

Tracking a fieldworker’s location from the customer portal as a customer 

• Your fieldworker tracking system delivers a better customer experience with the use of automated text messages that notify customers their service technician is en route.
• Tracking your fieldworker enables customers to know if the fieldworker has started the job and contact technicians through the customer portal. It’s beneficial for the customer to see the fieldworker status from the customer portal.
• Underneath the map, the customer can track the fieldworker’s location while they are on their way to their job and see their estimated time of arrival, the exact date and time, the job status in general, and when he starts and finishes the job. The customer will also see if the fieldworker is going to be late according to the “On the way“ status and the SMS message that will be sent to him.  

1. Click on the “Add more“ icon. 
2. The customer will view the fieldworker’s movement process along with the date and time.

Tracking a fieldworker’s activity status from the fieldworker’s activity log 

• To check your fieldworker’s activity log, go to “Fieldworkers” and view the fieldworker profile, then click on the “Activity” section and click on the “Add More” icon of the “Activity Log” to view the detailed activity.
• All the activity status of the fieldworker is recorded, and you can see if the fieldworker is running late or if he is on his way with the estimated time and the time recorded on the activity log with the clickable booking number. Visit “View activity log” to learn more about the feature.

For more information, please visit the Octopuspro user guide and subscribe to our YouTube channel.