The driver apps

Apps for iPhone and Android, built for drivers rather than adapted from a web page. They come with a subscription at no extra charge, and they are being released to the app stores.

Built native, for a reason

A driver's phone spends its day in and out of a van, in yards and basements and lift shafts where the signal comes and goes. The apps are written for each platform rather than wrapped around a web page, because that is what makes them keep working when the network does not.

What a driver does in them

• Load the van, ticking each drop as it goes on, before the day can start.
• Work the round in order, each drop saying who it is for, what is going, roughly when they will arrive and what to take at the door.
• Navigate, opening whichever maps app they use, to the pin the office dropped where there is one and the full address where there is not.
• Deliver, with a signature and who signed, typed or spoken, or a photograph where the customer asked for it to be left.
• Take cash or card at the door. Card shows a code the customer scans and pays on their own phone, so card details never pass through the driver's.
• Sell off the van, when somebody asks for a spare at the market.
• Hand cash in at the end of the day, counted in by the office against the same figure.

No signal, and it carries on

Today's round lives on the phone. Losing signal changes nothing on screen, and the app says how old its copy is rather than pretending. Everything a driver does still works: loading, setting off, delivering with a signature or a photograph, cash, not delivered, undo. Changes queue with the time they actually happened and send themselves in order when signal returns, and nothing is ever sent twice.

Accessibility

The apps follow the phone's own settings rather than making a driver learn ours.

• VoiceOver on iPhone and TalkBack on Android, with actions on each drop so navigating, delivering and recording a failed delivery can all be done without seeing the screen.
• Larger text, with layouts that reflow rather than cutting words off.
• Dark mode, following the phone.
• Reduced motion, when the phone asks for it.

What is supported, and what is not yet, is written down in our accessibility statement.

Getting them

The apps come with a Bottle subscription: there is nothing extra to pay and no per-driver charge. Drivers sign in with the same email and password they use for Bottle on the web, so there is no second account to set up. The office invites them once, from People, and that invitation covers both.

Both apps are being released to the App Store and Google Play. We would rather say that plainly than promise a date we do not yet control. If you would like to be told when they land, register your interest and we will let you know.

What happens on the round

The driver's day goes through a round from load to yard, and planning rounds covers the office side that puts it on the phone.