Live tracking and monitoring
The live operations map, the customer's tracking link, geofence alerts, and what happens to the GPS trail after the trip.
While a demo car is out, you should not have to ring anybody to find out where it is. DriveDesk tracks the trip on the staff member's phone and puts it on a live map for you — and, when you want, gives your customer a link to watch their car arrive.
The monitoring board
- Every active trip and transfer on one map with its route trail.
- A card per trip with the vehicle, the staff member, the customer and the current status.
- Live updates as pings arrive, plus a manual refresh when you want to force it.
- The same board is on the manager home in the mobile app.
A trip counts as active from the moment the staff member goes en route until the vehicle is checked back in. On a two-person job the driver and the sales rep each have their own tracking session.
The customer's tracking link
On a home visit, tapping 'Start drive · send tracking link' begins the GPS session and sends the customer a link. They see the vehicle approaching, cab-style, with no login. The link shows position and progress only — never your staff member's personal details or anything internal. Staff can re-send it if the customer loses it, and the same link is available for deliveries and pickups.
Geofencing
Set a centre point and a radius in settings and DriveDesk will tell you when a live trip leaves it. The alert is raised as a major issue on the trip, once — it does not keep firing while the car is away.
- Showroom drives are not fenced. The customer is driving, unaccompanied and untracked; alerting on them would be noise.
- An individual home visit can be marked exempt when you know it is going out of area, and the exemption is recorded.
- The same geofence separately flags gate scans taken away from the dealership — your gate is at a fixed place, so a scan from somewhere else is worth knowing about.
What happens to the trail afterwards
The recorded trail becomes evidence. It measures the actual distance driven, which is compared against the distance your staff member reported at check-in — a mismatch is flagged on the trip. It also feeds the per-vehicle kilometre figures in analytics, and it is available if you ever need it for an insurance claim or a dispute.
Common questions
- Do we need to install GPS units in the cars?
- No. Tracking runs on the staff member's own phone through the app. There are no trackers to fit and no SIMs to manage.
- Why are showroom drives not geofenced?
- Because the customer is driving alone. Tracking a customer's private movement is not what the fence is for — it exists to tell you when *your staff* take a car out of your operating area.
- What can the customer see on their tracking link?
- They see the vehicle's live position and progress toward them. Nothing else — no staff phone number, no internal identifiers, no other bookings.
- How often does a geofence breach alert?
- Once. DriveDesk raises the issue a single time per trip rather than alerting continuously while the vehicle is away.
Related guides
- Vehicle condition and issue reportingFuel, odometer, inspection checklists and photos at every handover point — plus issue reporting and the vehicle-not-returned flow.
- The DriveDesk mobile appOne app, three home screens — how drivers, sales reps, gatekeepers and managers use DriveDesk on the phone.
- Analytics and ROIThe dashboard overview, fleet utilisation, lead-to-sale ROI, the weekly digest and how exceptions surface.
Still stuck?
Check the FAQ for a quick answer, or ask us — we reply within one business day.