Arrivals and geofences: GPS arrival at job sites

Overview#

Every job address is a geofence automatically. When a truck tracker or a tech's phone stays inside that circle, TradesWork records the arrival at the time they actually got there. Depending on your setting, it only logs it, asks the tech to confirm with one tap, or moves the appointment to Working. The Arrivals page shows the day's arrivals and departures and lists the ones the office should look at.

Before you start#

• To see the Arrivals page you need Owner, Admin, Dispatcher or Customer service.

• To change arrival settings and geofences you need Owner or Admin.

• Positions must be coming in: a tracker on the truck (with the tech set as the truck's default tech), or the tech sharing their phone after accepting the monitoring notice.

• Job addresses need a map position (geocode). Addresses without one show as a "No geofence" exception.

Steps#

Choose what an arrival does#

1. Go to Settings › Integrations › GPS and find Arrival detection and customer ETA.

2. Pick When GPS detects an arrival:

   • Log only (no change to the appointment).

   • Ask the tech to confirm with one tap (the default).

   • Mark Working automatically.

3. Set the numbers:

   • Radius (m): the fence size around each job address, 50 to 1,000. Default 150.

   • Stay (sec): how long they must stay inside before it counts, 30 to 600. Default 60. This stops drive-bys counting.

   • Flag after (min): how far a status time can differ from GPS before a timesheet flag, 5 to 120. Default 15.

4. Tick Suggest finishing the job on departure if you want the app to ask "Finish the job?" when the tech leaves while still Working.

5. Click Save arrival settings.

What the technician sees#

1. With Ask the tech to confirm, the field app shows "You're at #1234" with the street and time.

2. The tech taps Yes, I'm here or Not yet.

   • Yes, I'm here moves the appointment to Working using the GPS arrival time, not the tap time.

3. When they leave a job that is still Working, the app can show "You left #1234" with Finish up or Not done yet. Finish up opens the job. Jobs are never closed automatically.

Review the day's arrivals#

1. Go to Dispatch › Tools › Arrivals (/fleet/arrivals), or click Arrivals on the Fleet map.

2. Use the arrow buttons to move to the previous or next day.

3. Read Needs a look at the top. Each line has a badge:

   • No geofence: the job address is not on the map, so GPS can't watch it. Click Add a fence to create one.

   • Not confirmed: the tech reached the site but hasn't tapped to confirm.

   • No GPS arrival: the job was marked arrived but GPS never reached the site.

   • Tech disagreed: the tech tapped Not yet while GPS put them on site.

   • Time mismatch: the status time and the GPS time differ by more than Flag after (min).

4. Read the Arrival log table: Job, Tech (with truck, tracker or phone, and distance from center), GPS arrived, Left, Marked arrived and What happened.

5. Click Playback on any row to replay that truck's or phone's day.

Add zones and fix job fences#

1. Go to Settings › Integrations › GPS › Geofences.

2. To add the shop or a supply house, fill Add a zone, pick a Kind (Shop, Supply house or Other zone), enter Latitude, Longitude and Radius (m), then click Add zone.

3. To fence a job address GPS can't watch, use Add a fence next to a No geofence exception on the Arrivals page. The form opens prefilled as "Fence for" that address. Adjust and click Add job fence.

4. Edit any row and click Save, or click Remove. Removing a job location fence sends that address back to its automatic fence.

Settings that change this#

• Settings › Integrations › GPS › Arrival detection and customer ETA: mode, radius, stay, flag threshold, departure prompt.

• Settings › Integrations › GPS › Geofences: overrides and extra zones.

• Settings › Integrations › GPS › Privacy and retention: arrivals are location history and are deleted with positions.

Tips#

• Mark Working automatically only applies after the tech tapped On my way. If they never did, they are asked instead.

• Timesheets are never changed silently. Status times that disagree with GPS appear as a GPS check on the person's timesheet. Someone with timesheet manage rights picks Use GPS time or Keep.

• Use a bigger fence for large lots, farms and gated communities.

• Add the shop as a zone so stops there are recognised.

Troubleshooting#

• "No arrivals recorded this day". Cause: no truck or phone stayed inside a job fence. Fix: check positions on the live map, and that jobs have a geocoded address.

• A truck parked at the job but no arrival. Cause: the truck has no default tech, so it can't be matched to appointments. Fix: set Default tech on the vehicle.

• A phone-only tech never triggers arrivals. Cause: phones without consent send nothing. Fix: the tech accepts the location notice in the field app.

• Arrivals at the wrong house. Cause: the address geocoded badly. Fix: an existing job fence can be edited in the Geofences table. The Add a fence button only appears for addresses listed as No geofence, so a badly placed address without an override has no one-click fix yet. As a workaround, raise the company Radius (m) or contact support.

• The tech never gets the prompt. Cause: the mode is Log only, or the phone has no signal. Fix: check the mode. The app checks for prompts every minute.

FAQ#

Does TradesWork ever close a job by itself? No. Departure only suggests finishing. Outcome, summary and required forms still apply.

What if the truck and the phone both see the arrival? They merge into one visit.

How quickly is an arrival recorded? With one-minute positions, usually within about two minutes of parking, stamped with the time they got there.

Does route playback draw the fences? Not yet. The live map and Arrivals page do.

Coming from ServiceTitan#

• In ServiceTitan, GPS-based arrival needed Fleet Pro or a third-party GPS integration.

• In TradesWork it is built in and works with trackers or phones.

• Different: you choose log, confirm or automatic, and GPS differences show up on timesheets for review before payroll.