The driver app

Drivers have an app of their own, for iPhone and for Android. It is where a driver sees their round, delivers, and takes payment, and it keeps working when the signal drops out. Both apps work the same way, and everything on this page applies to iPhone and Android alike.

The apps follow the phone’s own settings for dark mode, text size, VoiceOver or TalkBack, and reduced motion. Accessibility and appearance says what each supports.

Signing in

A driver signs in with the same email and password they use for Bottle on the web. There is no separate account: the office invites them from People, and the invitation sets up the account for both.

Open the app and type your email and password.
If your account uses two-step sign-in, the app asks for your code next:
- With an authenticator app, type the 6-digit code it shows for Bottle.
- With emailed codes, press Email me a code and type the code from the email.
If you work for more than one business, pick the one you are driving for today. The app remembers it; Change business switches.

Forgotten your password? Forgot your password? opens the page on the web to reset it, and the new one works in the app straight away.

Your round

Once signed in, the app opens on today’s round, once the office has sent it. At the top: the vehicle, when you leave (or how many drops are done once you have), and when the round was last updated.

Under the heading, a strip of three steps shows where the day is: Load, Out and Back. The step you are on is marked, the ones behind you are ticked, and a screen reader reads each as done, now or to come.

Below the strip is the one big button for what comes next: Load the van until the load is saved, then I have set off, then Back at the yard once every drop is done. Under it, the things you can do right now as tiles, each with an icon and its name: Load up (or More stock once you are out), New sale and Hand in cash. A tile only shows when it applies.

Then every drop in order, each with:

who it is for, and the address;
what is going;
roughly when you will get there;
what to take: the amount to pay at the door, Pay later for customers on account, or Paid if it is already settled;
what to do if nobody is in, as the customer asked.

Tap a drop to see it in full. Pull the list down to check for changes from the office.

Navigate opens your maps app with directions to the drop. If the office dropped a pin for the address (the side gate, the cellar door), directions go to the pin. Otherwise the maps app is given the full address to find, which lands on the right building far more often than the rough point a postcode gives.

Once you are out, a Next drop card sits at the top of the round: who it is for, the address, and Navigate, so the next address is one press away. It moves on by itself each time a drop is done.

Android uses the maps app you have set as the default, or asks which to use if you have more than one and none is set.
iPhone uses Apple Maps. If Google Maps or Waze is installed too, the app asks which one you want the first time and remembers it. Change maps app in your account asks again.

No round yet? The app says so. The office sends it once it is planned; pull down to check again.

More than one round today. A driver with a morning and an afternoon round gets a switch at the top, one button per round, named by the vehicle and when it leaves. The app opens on the round that matters now: the one out on the road, or else the next one to go, or else the last. Press the other to see it. Setting off, loading up and every drop go with the round on screen.

Cash in the cab. Once you have taken cash, a line under the heading says how much you took today and how much you are carrying to hand in, with how many days the oldest of it has been out. It goes when the office has taken it off you.

Handing in cash. The Hand in cash tile says you have given the office what you are carrying, with a note if you want. It shows as waiting until the office confirms it. If the office counts you in first, the app asks whether the figure is what you gave them: Yes, that is right, or No, it is wrong with what is wrong, which puts it back with you until it is sorted. Until the other side answers, Take it back cancels a hand-in you started. Handing in needs signal.

Loading up

Loading comes first: until the load is saved, the big button is Load the van, with a line above it saying to say what is on the van and then set off. I have set off only takes its place once the load is saved.

Load the van (or the Load up tile) lists the drops in the order they come off, with what each one needs. Tick each drop as its bottles go on the van. The first drop is marked Deliver first and the last Deliver last, so the last one can go on first and out of the way.

Extras are anything going on that no order asked for: spares for the doors that ask while you are there, or a bottle nobody ordered.

What is on the van adds it all up per bottle, against what the drops need. Press That is everything on to save it. That count is what comes off the yard’s stock, not the plan. You can change a tick or an extra and save again until you set off.

More stock, the tile that takes the place of Load up once you are out, is for going back to the yard for more, or picking some up elsewhere. Count only what you have just put on; what is already aboard is shown beside each bottle, so nothing is counted twice.

Loading and adding stock both work without signal, like everything else on the round.

Your location

While your round is out, the app shares where you are, so the office sees the van on its map and customers see it coming on their tracking page. It is only shared while you are out: not before you press I have set off, and not once you press Back at the yard or sign out.

It carries on while you navigate in your maps app. An iPhone shows its location indicator; Android shows a notification saying your location is being shared.
Location has to be on, and set to precise, to do the round. I have set off asks for it the first time. If it is off, the app says so and shows Turn it on in Settings.
If location is turned off while you are out, the round is covered until it is back on. Nothing is lost: anything waiting to send still goes.
Signing in and looking at your round work with location off.

While you are out, each drop still to do also says roughly when you would get there from where you are, and warns you when a door will be shut, as the web driver screen does.

Doing the round

Press I have set off when you leave the yard. The office sees the round is under way, and each drop shows when you expect to get there.

At each drop, open it and press one of:

Delivered, once it is handed over (see below).
Not delivered, with the reason: nobody in, no way in, the customer refused it, wrong address, nothing left on the vehicle, or something else in your own words.

On an open drop, the things you can do there are tiles too: Take payment for a drop that owes money, Wants more for a customer who wants more than they ordered, and Not delivered. As with the round, a tile only shows when it applies.

Once a drop is done, the app shows the Next drop card with Navigate, so you can be on your way without going back to the list.

Made a mistake? Undo on the drop puts it back as it was. When every drop is done, press Back at the yard.

Delivering

Delivered opens the delivery, which is saved in one go. It starts filled in the way nearly every door goes, so most of the time you only sign and save.

What is going. Every item still owed on the order, with − and + to change how many. If less is going than the order asks for, say why:

Not on the vehicle or Damaged cylinder: the rest is delivered another day.
Customer refused it: the rest is cancelled and the customer gets a refund.
Something else: the office decides what happens to the rest.

The drop then shows how much went, such as 1 of 3 delivered. If nothing is going at all, use Not delivered instead.

Empties to take back. Starts at the empties the order expects back, or says No empties to take back from this drop. Change the count to what you were actually handed. Collect an empty counts one the order did not expect, a different gas included; the app points out a different gas type, which is fine to take.

Money at the door. For a customer who pays in cash and has not paid yet, say what you took:

Paid, with the full amount;
Paid some, and type how much: the rest stays owed on their account;
Not paid, when nothing was handed over.

Customers on account, or who have already paid, skip this part.

Proof. Either:

Signature: the customer signs on the screen with a finger, and you add Who signed. Type the name, or press the microphone and say it: the app listens, writes the name in, and stops when you do. The first time, the phone asks whether Bottle may use the microphone (and, on an iPhone, speech recognition). If you say no, the app says so and shows Open Settings; typing always works. Clear starts the signature again.
Left safe: only when the customer asked for it to be left. Take a photo of where you put it, and add a note if it helps (“Behind the side gate”).

Anything wrong? Optional: a wrong product on the vehicle, difficult access, a complaint, or something else, with a line for the office. It shows on the drop, and the office sees it.

Anything you have to fill in is marked Required, such as the signature and Who signed.

The button says what is about to be saved, such as Delivered, £54.00 cash taken or Delivered, not paid, and only works once everything is filled in. While it is greyed out, the lines just above it say what is still needed, in the order the screen asks for it: Get a signature, Add who signed, Say what they paid and so on. The same goes for every button in the app that waits on something, from signing in to a new sale. Cancel before saving and the app asks before throwing away what you entered.

Taking payment

On a drop that owes money, Take payment asks one question: Cash or Card. You can take payment before or after delivering.

Cash: say whether they paid it all, some (type how much) or nothing. This works without signal, like everything else.
Card: the app shows a code for the customer to scan and pay on their own phone, for what the drop owes. Card details never pass through your phone. Send the link instead shares it another way. The app says when the payment has gone through. Card needs signal.

Typed the cash wrong after delivering? Change cash on the drop puts it right.

Customer wants more

Wants more on a drop that has not been paid for is for a customer who wants more than they ordered. Raise a line with +, or Add a product not on the order. The app works out the new total at their own price before you save, so the money and any card link are for what they are actually taking. This needs signal.

Less than they ordered is said when you mark the drop delivered, not here.

Selling from the vehicle

New sale, under the round’s heading once you have set off, is for somebody who flags you down, or a door that wants more after already paying. Say who is buying (search customers by name, or Someone new with their name and where you are), what they are having, and how they are paying: cash, card, or on account for a customer who has an account. Add to my round puts it on the end of your round as a drop like any other, to deliver and prove. Paying by card opens the new drop, where Take payment shows the code. Selling needs signal, to find the customer and price the sale.

Your account

The person button at the top right of the round opens your account: who you are signed in as and for which business, then Time off, Notifications, Change maps app, Change business (for somebody in more than one) and Sign out. If there are changes still waiting to send, it says so there too, before you sign out. Done puts it away.

Notifications

Once you are on your round, the app asks once whether it may show notifications. It tells you when your round is sent, when the office changes it (a drop added or taken off, a different van or time), and when a time-off request is answered. A notification arriving fetches your round again.

Notifications, in your account, says “These are your push notification settings.” and has a switch for each of those. If your phone has notifications turned off for Bottle, the screen says so and shows the way to turn them on.

Time off

Time off, in your account, lists your holiday, sickness and other time off from the last month on, with whether it is booked, waiting for a yes, declined or cancelled, and how many working days it takes (with any that are unpaid).

Ask for time off takes what it is for, the first and last day, whether either is a half day, and a note if you want one. Whether it is booked straight away or waits for the office depends on how your business has it set up, and the app says which once it is sent. Time off that has not started yet can be cancelled with Cancel it. Asking and cancelling need signal. The office sees it on the rota at once, and you get a notification when a request is answered.

Staying signed in

The app stays signed in, so a driver signs in once, not every morning. It keeps the sign-in securely on the phone, in the phone’s own protected storage, and never in a backup or on another device.

Sign out, in your account, signs the phone out. Somebody removed from the business, or signed out everywhere from the web, is signed out of the app the next time it has signal.

No signal

The app is built for places with poor signal. It keeps today’s round on the phone, so losing signal changes nothing on screen: the round is still there, and the app says how old its copy is (“No signal. This is your round as it was at 07:05.”). As soon as there is signal again, it fetches the latest.

Everything you do on the round works without signal too: loading up, setting off, delivering with a signature or photo, cash taken, not delivered, undo, and adding more stock. The drop changes on your screen straight away, and a bar at the bottom says how many changes are waiting to send. They send by themselves, in the order you made them, as soon as there is signal, with the time you actually did each one. Nothing is sent twice, however patchy the signal.

If the office has already changed something the app was about to send (the round moved to another driver, say), the bar says which change could not be saved, so you can tell the office. Sign out warns you first if anything is still waiting to send.

Close the app with changes still waiting and they are still sent when signal comes back: straight away on Android, and when the iPhone next lets the app run in the background, which is usually within minutes. Opening the app sends them at once.

The app keeps a week of past days on the phone, then clears them out, so it does not fill up the phone over time. It never clears anything that has not been sent yet.

Once signed in, the app opens without signal as the last person who used it. Signing in for the first time does need signal: the app says so if there is none.