The driver app

The Bottle driver app works on iPhone and Android. It shows your assigned rounds and lets you record deliveries, returns and cash, including when the signal drops.

The app follows your phone’s appearance and accessibility settings. See Accessibility and appearance.

Getting the app

The app is included with your Bottle subscription. There is no extra charge per driver.

• On iPhone, get Bottle from the App Store.
• On Android, get Bottle from Google Play.

Signing in

Use the same Bottle email and password as on the web. Accept your office invitation first.

1. Enter your email and password.
2. Complete two-step sign-in if enabled.
3. Choose your business if you belong to more than one.

Use Forgot your password? to reset your password on the web. First sign-in requires an internet connection.

Your round

The app shows rounds the office has sent to you. Pull down to refresh.

The Load, Out and Back indicator shows your progress. The main action changes from loading to setting off, then returning to the yard.

Each stop shows the customer, address, products, arrival estimate, payment status and delivery instructions. Open it for details.

Navigate opens your chosen maps app. A saved stopping-point pin takes priority over the address. The Next drop card advances as you finish stops.

On Android, navigation uses the default maps app or asks you to choose. On iPhone, you can choose among supported installed map apps and change this in your account.

If you have several rounds, use the round selector. Actions apply to the selected round.

Select Change stop order to put the remaining stops in the order you intend to visit them, using Earlier and Later. Finished visits stay in place. The change appears immediately and is kept on the phone if there is no signal.

Your cash summary shows today’s receipts and everything still to hand in. Hand in cash starts a handover requiring office confirmation. If the office starts it, confirm or dispute the amount. Cash handovers require signal.

Loading up

1. Select Load the van.
2. Needed for this round, at the top, says how many of each product the orders need. Fetch those from the yard first. This list stays the same while you load.
3. Tick stops as their products are loaded.
4. Add spare stock under Extras. If there is room for door sales, Extras says how many cylinders. What you take is up to you.
5. Check Stock on the van, the per-product totals including extras, and save.

If the load is over the vehicle’s payload, a warning at the top of the screen says by how many kilos. It doesn’t stop you saving or leaving, so check with the office first.

The confirmed quantities, not just the plan, update yard stock. You can correct them before departure.

After departure, use More stock for a top-up. Enter only the additional quantities. Loading and top-ups can be recorded offline.

Roadside checks

If the police or DVSA stop you, open Van stock and select Show for a roadside check. It lists the cylinders on the vehicle, full and empty, with the UN number, proper shipping name and hazard class of each. Empties are counted from the drops on this round. If a product shows No UN number set, ring the office before you set off. The office sets UN numbers on each gas type; see UN numbers.

Your location

The app shares location while the round is out, so the office and eligible customers can see its latest reported position. With a connection, Bottle recalculates all remaining arrival estimates from that position and the current time roughly every five minutes. Traffic and time spent at earlier stops therefore move the later estimates too.

Bottle also uses your location to work out when you arrived at and left each stop. It keeps those times and how close the van was on arrival, and not the positions. They are there so that planned stop times can be more accurate.

Each night, Bottle works out from those times how long you usually spend at a delivery, for each business you drive for. It gives a time once it has 30 deliveries, and Bottle then uses it to plan your rounds and estimate your arrival times. Nobody sees it on a screen as a figure about you. It stays until none of those stop times are left, or for 90 days if it stops being worked out. You can see your stop times and this figure in the file from Download my data, on the Bottle website under Login and security → Your data. It isn’t in the app. Close my account on the app’s account screen opens that website page. Closing your account deletes the figure.

Bottle also works out each night which customers you usually deliver to, from your deliveries on finished rounds in the last 12 months. Plan rounds uses this to give those customers’ orders to you when your round has room. It names you for a customer once you have delivered there on at least three days and on at least two thirds of that customer’s delivery days, as long as someone else didn’t make the last two deliveries. It stays until none of those deliveries count any more, or for 90 days if it stops being worked out. This is in the file from Download my data too, and closing your account deletes it.

Each night Bottle also works out the order you usually serve your repeat customers, from when you finished each stop on finished rounds in the last 12 months. Plan rounds uses it as a preference when it arranges your stops. Two customers have a usual order once you have served them in that order on at least three days. Those must be at least two thirds of the days you served both on one round. If the last two of those days went the other way, they have no usual order. Stops you finish less than two minutes apart don’t count against each other. It stays until none of those stops count any more, or for 90 days if it stops being worked out. This is in the file from Download my data too, and closing your account deletes it. If a customer’s details are erased, they come out of it.

Each night Bottle also works out the door sales you usually make on a round, from your finished rounds in the last three months: how many sales, how many cylinders of each kind, and how long a sale takes. It gives a figure once it has 10 rounds. Plan rounds uses it to keep room on your round, and Load the van tells you how many cylinders there is room for. It stays until none of those rounds count any more, or for 90 days if it stops being worked out. This is in the file from Download my data too, and closing your account deletes it.

Location sharing starts after I have set off and stops on return or sign-out. It continues while using navigation. Precise location is required for the active round; the app explains how to enable it.

Signing in and viewing an assigned round do not require location permission.

Doing the round

Press I have set off when leaving. At each stop, record delivery or select Not delivered and a reason.

The departure button records when you actually left, even if the phone has to send it after the signal returns. Customers first receive an estimated delivery window, two hours unless the office has set another length. If a live delay or your changed stop order later moves a customer’s estimate more than 15 minutes outside the window they were last sent, Bottle sends them a revised window.

Use Take payment or Wants more when relevant. When the stop is complete, the next-stop card provides directions.

Use Undo to correct a recorded outcome. If the office has marked the order delivered, it stays delivered after the undo. If the office marked it delivered first, the drop shows as Delivered whatever you record. See Out on the round. Finish with Back at the yard once all stops are resolved.

Delivering

Check the delivered quantities and empties returned before saving.

For a partial delivery, select why the rest was not delivered. The reason decides what happens to it:

• Not on the vehicle or Damaged cylinder: the order stays open. The rest goes on a later round.
• Customer refused items: the customer does not want the rest. Bottle cancels it, and the order is complete with only what was delivered. Nothing is planned again. The customer pays only for what they received, and a refund due is recorded if they had already paid for the rest.
• Other: the office decides whether the rest is delivered or cancelled.

Only choose Customer refused items when the customer does not want the rest at all. If they want it another day, choose Other and add a note.

An item marked Replaces a faulty cylinder is a free replacement. Hand it over and take the faulty cylinder back. Don’t count the faulty one as an empty.

For cash orders, record full payment, partial payment or no payment. Pay-later and already-paid orders do not ask for cash.

Add proof:

• Signature: obtain the signature and signer’s name. Type the name or use dictation with permission.
• Left safe: where allowed by the customer’s instructions, take a photograph and add any useful note.

Optional issue notes go to the office. The save button explains the outcome and stays unavailable until required information is complete.

Collecting and dropping off stock

Some stops are a yard, not a customer: Collect for a yard means picking cylinders up, Drop off from a yard means leaving them. Do them like any delivery. Get it signed for, or take a photo, and say if any are short. There is nothing to take payment for.

Taking payment

Select Take payment:

• Cash: record the amount received, including partial or no payment. Works offline.
• Card: show the QR code or share the payment link. The customer pays on their own phone. Requires signal.

Use Change cash to correct a recorded cash amount.

A stop marked Paid outside Bottle: nothing to collect was paid for another way. Deliver it as normal. There is nothing to take.

Customer wants more

For an unpaid order, Wants more lets you increase quantities or add products. Review the updated total before saving. Customer-specific prices apply.

This requires signal. For fewer items, adjust the delivered quantities instead. If the original order is already paid, add a new stop.

Adding an unplanned stop

After departure, select New stop, then choose Delivery or sale or Collection only.

For a delivery, search for an existing customer or enter a new buyer, choose the products and quantities, then select payment.

For a collection, choose who you are collecting from and the cylinders to bring back. The stop is added to the round and the collected cylinders are added to the vehicle when the driver confirms the pickup.

Pay later is available only where the customer’s account permits it. Add to my round creates a stop to complete with normal delivery proof.

Adding a stop requires signal.

Your account

Open the person icon to manage time off, notifications, maps, business selection and sign-out.

Check for unsent changes before signing out.

Notifications

Allow notifications to receive round assignments, changes and time-off decisions.

Manage push preferences under Notifications in the app. If the phone blocks notifications, the app links to device settings.

Time off

Open Time off to review leave and submit a request with dates, optional half days and a note.

The business’s approval settings determine whether it is booked immediately or waits for approval.

Before time off starts, swipe its card to the left or use the button on it:

• Withdraw it takes back a request still waiting for approval, straight away.
• Ask to cancel asks the office to cancel time off that is booked. It stays booked, and you stay off the rota for those days, until the office says yes. The card shows Cancellation asked for, waiting for a yes until they answer, and you are told either way.

Submitting or cancelling requests requires signal.

Staying signed in

The app stores your session securely on the phone, so daily sign-in is not required.

Signing out ends the phone’s session. Removal from a business or account-wide sign-out takes effect when the app next connects.

No signal

Today’s saved round remains available offline, with its last-update time shown.

Loading, departure, delivery proof, cash recording, failed stops, undo and top-ups can be queued offline. Changes appear locally and sync in order when the connection returns, using their recorded times.

If a change conflicts with an office update, the app identifies it for review. Do not sign out while changes are waiting unless you have resolved them.

Background syncing depends on the phone. Opening the app triggers a sync when connected.

The app keeps a week of completed days locally, but does not remove unsent changes. Card payments, new stops and other actions that require current server data still need signal.

For an overview of the driver apps in Bottle, see The driver apps on the Bottle website.