Frequently asked questions
111 answers across 14 topics, each linked to the guide that covers it in depth. If yours is not here, email support@drivedesk.in and we will reply within one business day.
Getting started
Signing up, setting up your dealership, and what you need before you start.
How do we get started with DriveDesk?
Two ways. You can sign yourself up at drivedesk.in and create your dealership in a couple of minutes — name, password, an email address or a mobile number, then your dealership's details — or the DriveDesk team can provision the account for you and send a welcome email with a temporary password. Both routes end up identical.
More in “Your first week” →What do we need to sign up?
An email address or a mobile number (either is enough), a password, your dealership's name and GSTIN, and a contact address. That is it — you can add vehicles and staff once you are inside.
More in “Your first week” →Is there a free trial?
Yes — 30 days, no card required. The trial is not a restricted sandbox: real vehicles, real bookings, real gate scans, real customers.
More in “Billing & plans” →How long does setup take?
Under an hour of hands-on work. Most dealerships run their first real test drive on DriveDesk the same day; fleet, team and driver verification are usually complete within one working day.
More in “Your first week” →Do we have to install anything?
No. The dashboard runs in any modern browser. Your drivers, sales reps and gatekeepers download the free DriveDesk app on Android or iOS.
More in “The mobile app” →Do we need to buy any hardware?
No. GPS tracking runs on your staff member's own phone, and gate scanning works on any smartphone or tablet with a camera. There are no trackers to fit, no SIMs to manage and no gate hardware to buy.
More in “Tracking & monitoring” →Can we bring our existing leads across?
Yes. Paste the rows into the enquiry importer. It checks every line before writing anything — flagging rows without a name and phone numbers duplicated within the file — and then creates the rest with the channel and preferred slot preserved.
More in “Leads & enquiries” →What is the web address we choose at sign-up for?
It becomes your public storefront address — yourdealership.drivedesk.in. DriveDesk suggests one from your dealership name as you type and tells you straight away whether it is available, so pick something you are happy to print.
More in “Your website” →Roles & permissions
Roles, individual permissions and how access is controlled.
What roles are available?
Six starting roles: Owner, Manager, Staff, Driver, Sales rep and Gatekeeper. But a role is only a preset — it ticks a set of permissions when you invite somebody, and from then on you add or remove permissions one at a time.
More in “Roles & permissions” →Why permissions instead of just roles?
Because job titles do not map cleanly onto what people actually do. A manager who never drives should not need driving verification; a driver who never meets customers should not be able to complete a handover. Permissions let you say exactly that, per person.
More in “Roles & permissions” →Can we change what somebody can do later?
Yes. Change their role preset and permissions re-seed, or tick and untick individual permissions. Changes take effect on their next page load.
More in “Roles & permissions” →Can an owner accidentally lock themselves out?
No. Ownership is not a permission that can be revoked — the owner always has full access. If you want somebody else to be owner, use the ownership transfer, which moves it in one step.
More in “Roles & permissions” →Do permissions depend on each other?
Some do. Being allowed to drive implies working in the field, so ticking the child automatically ticks and locks the parent. You cannot end up with an inconsistent set.
More in “Roles & permissions” →Can we send a driver and a salesperson together?
Yes. DriveDesk supports one person per drive or two — a driver who holds the vehicle and the gate pass, plus a sales rep who handles the customer. Both see the same job in the app, but each phone shows only their own controls, and the gatekeeper's screen names both.
More in “Roles & permissions” →How do we add staff who have no email address?
Invite them by email, or use Quick add for staff without a work email — that provisions the account immediately and gives you a setup link to hand over in person. Either way they set their own password before they can do anything.
More in “Roles & permissions” →Identity verification & KYC
Verifying your drivers, and checking your customers' driving licences.
Who has to complete identity verification?
Only the people who actually drive your vehicles. DriveDesk keys it off the Drive vehicle permission — so drivers and combined staff need it, while sales reps, gatekeepers, managers and owners do not.
More in “Staff verification” →How does DigiLocker verification work?
They sign in to DigiLocker on their own phone and their Aadhaar and driving licence come back signed by the issuing authority. Nothing is typed by hand and nothing is photocopied. It takes a few minutes and is done once.
More in “Staff verification” →What if a staff member's documents are not in DigiLocker?
There are two fallbacks. DriveDesk can check the licence directly against the national transport database, or the staff member submits documents and an owner or manager approves them. Whichever route was used is recorded, so a manual approval never looks like a government verification.
More in “Staff verification” →Can a manager approve a licence that has expired?
No. A licence with no expiry date on record cannot be approved, and an expired one cannot be approved either — the reviewer is stopped, not warned. That closes the obvious hole where a rushed approval puts an unlicensed driver on the road.
More in “Staff verification” →What happens when a driver's licence expires?
DriveDesk warns before the expiry date so you can prompt them to refresh. Once it lapses they stop meeting the driving requirement and cannot be assigned vehicles until they re-verify.
More in “Staff verification” →Do you store our staff's Aadhaar numbers?
No. Verification records what was confirmed and when — not the underlying document number. Access to KYC records is restricted by permission.
More in “Security & data” →How do we check a customer's licence before the drive?
Send them their personal licence link when you confirm the booking. They submit through DigiLocker in advance, and by the time your staff arrive it is already verified — the handover takes seconds.
More in “Customer licences” →What if the automated licence check is unavailable?
Your staff member photographs the licence and types the printed details, which saves it for a manager's review. The drive can go ahead on a manager's decision — your staff are never left stuck at a customer's door with no way forward.
More in “Customer licences” →Can a manager override a blocked customer licence?
Yes, with a manager's written override, which is recorded permanently against the trip. The one exception is a valid licence whose holder does not match the customer — that has to be reconciled properly rather than cleared in a hurry at the door.
More in “Customer licences” →Why does DriveDesk separate licence validity from identity?
Because they are different questions. A completely genuine, unexpired licence can still belong to somebody else. DriveDesk tracks validity and identity separately so a real licence in the wrong hands is caught.
More in “Customer licences” →If a customer's licence was approved at another dealership, does it carry over?
It is shown to your reviewer as context, but it is never automatically trusted. Every dealership makes its own decision about who it hands a car to.
More in “Customer licences” →Bookings
Creating, approving and managing test-drive bookings.
What kinds of booking are there?
Three. A showroom visit where the customer comes to you, a home visit where you take the car to them (with as many stops as you need), and an event where the car goes to a venue and attendees are added on site.
More in “Bookings & approvals” →Can each customer on a multi-stop booking have their own time?
Yes. Each stop on a home visit and each attendee at an event can have its own planned time inside the booking window.
More in “Bookings & approvals” →How does booking approval work?
Bookings made by somebody who can approve are live immediately. Everyone else's wait for a decision. Until a booking is approved its gate pass is not armed, the staff assignment is not live, and no confirmation reaches the customer.
More in “Bookings & approvals” →Can we turn approval off?
Yes. Give everyone who creates bookings the Approve tasks permission and nothing ever waits. Many smaller dealerships run this way; larger ones keep approval with managers for the audit trail.
More in “Bookings & approvals” →What happens when a booking is rejected?
Rejection requires a comment, so the person who submitted it knows why. They can fix the booking and resubmit it. Every submission, decision and comment is kept on a thread nobody can edit or delete.
More in “Bookings & approvals” →What if the customer never turns up?
It is marked a no-show automatically about two hours after the slot passes with no gate scan, and the staff assignment retires so it stops cluttering the active work list. The record stays for reporting.
More in “Bookings & approvals” →Do customers get reminded?
Exactly one, about two hours before the slot. It never sends twice.
More in “Bookings & approvals” →Can customers reschedule themselves?
They can request one through their personal link. Asking does not move the slot — a manager approves or declines, and only an approval changes it. Cancelling, by contrast, is immediate.
More in “Customer communications” →Which vehicles can be picked for a booking?
Only vehicles flagged as available for test drives. A vehicle under maintenance still appears but with the reason shown, so nobody wonders where it went.
More in “Bookings & approvals” →Can one booking satisfy more than one enquiry?
Yes. One booking can be linked to several enquiries — exactly what you want for a multi-stop home visit or an event that covers a group of leads.
More in “Bookings & approvals” →Gate passes & gate control
The gate, QR passes, and what happens when something is off.
When is a gate pass created?
Automatically, when the booking is approved. That is why a pending booking cannot be scanned out — approval is the control point.
More in “Gate passes” →What stops someone forging a gate pass?
Every pass carries a cryptographic signature. Editing the QR payload invalidates it and the gate refuses the pass, so a screenshot of somebody else's pass is worthless.
More in “Gate passes” →What if the QR will not scan?
Every pass has a short reference code. The gatekeeper taps Enter reference and types it — same lookup, and it is not case-sensitive.
More in “Gate passes” →Can a gate pass be used twice?
It is refused. Passes cannot be replayed, and an unused pass expires on its own.
More in “Gate passes” →Can the gatekeeper skip recording the vehicle's condition?
No. A booking scan without a condition record is refused. Recording fuel, odometer and the inspection checklist is the evidence the whole process rests on.
More in “Condition & issues” →What if a car is scanned out outside its booked window?
It still goes through, and a notification goes to managers. Blocking your gate over a timing discrepancy only teaches people to work around the system — so DriveDesk records it instead.
More in “Gate passes” →Does DriveDesk notice if a scan was taken away from the dealership?
Yes — it is flagged as off-site on the scan's detail page. Your gate is at a fixed place, so a scan taken somewhere else is worth knowing about.
More in “Gate passes” →Can a manager scan at the gate?
No. Managers hold plenty of permissions, but gate scanning is not one of them by default. Grant Scan gate pass explicitly to anyone who covers the gate.
More in “Roles & permissions” →What about vehicles that only go one way?
Three modes. Round trip for test drives, transfers and service runs. Checkout-only for deliveries, where the car leaves and does not return. Check-in-only for pickups, where a vehicle arrives with no prior checkout.
More in “Gate passes” →GPS tracking & monitoring
Tracking live trips, geofencing, and the trail left behind afterwards.
Do we need GPS units in the cars?
Tracking runs on the staff member's own phone through the DriveDesk app. No trackers to fit and no SIMs to manage.
More in “Tracking & monitoring” →What does the monitoring board show?
Every active trip and transfer on one map with its route trail, plus a card per trip showing the vehicle, staff member, customer and status. It updates live and can be refreshed on demand.
More in “Tracking & monitoring” →Can we be alerted if a car leaves our area?
Set a centre point and a radius, and DriveDesk raises a serious issue the first time a live trip leaves it — once per trip, not continuously while the car is away.
More in “Tracking & monitoring” →Why are showroom test 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 vehicle out of your operating area. Home visits and deliveries are tracked; showroom drives are not.
More in “Tracking & monitoring” →What if a car leaves and tracking was never started?
The scan goes through after a caution, you are notified, and it is written into the trip's audit log. Nothing is silently ignored, and the gate is not blocked.
More in “Gate passes” →Can the customer see the car coming?
Yes. On a home visit or delivery, starting the drive sends them a cab-style link showing the vehicle approaching. They see position and progress only — never your staff member's details or anything internal.
More in “Tracking & monitoring” →What happens to the GPS trail after the trip?
It measures the distance actually driven, which is compared against the distance your staff reported at check-in. A mismatch is flagged. It also feeds per-vehicle kilometre reporting and is available if you ever need it for an insurance claim or a dispute.
More in “Tracking & monitoring” →Field tasks & transfers
Deliveries, pickups, service runs, errands and inter-branch transfers.
Can we dispatch work other than test drives?
Yes. Deliveries, pickups, service runs, inter-branch transfers and car-less errands all dispatch through the same system, with the same approval, tracking and proof of handover.
More in “Field tasks” →Can we dispatch a job with no vehicle at all?
Yes. Choose the Errand purpose and leave the vehicle empty. There is no gate pass — the staff member acknowledges, works and marks it complete.
More in “Field tasks” →Can we dispatch a vehicle we do not own?
Yes. A delivery of a sold car or the pickup of a customer's trade-in can be recorded as free text, so you get the tracking and the proof without adding it to your fleet.
More in “Field tasks” →How do we prove a delivery actually happened?
A delivery cannot be completed until the recipient's one-time code has been verified, and then a signature and their name are captured. A service run captures a signature with no code, because there is no customer to verify.
More in “Field tasks” →Where do we see all this work together?
In one Schedule view, tagged by kind, with filters for type and date that are reflected in the address bar — so you can bookmark or share exactly the view you are looking at.
More in “Field tasks” →Can we move a vehicle to another branch?
Yes, temporarily or permanently. The transfer moves through requested, approved, in transit, received and back, with a handover QR at each end. Temporary transfers past their return date are brought back automatically.
More in “Fleet & vehicles” →Fleet & vehicles
Your demo fleet, inventory and how customers see it.
How do we add a vehicle?
Type the registration number and DriveDesk fetches the make, model, variant, year, colour and fuel type — or fill everything in by hand, in which case the registration number is optional.
More in “Fleet & vehicles” →Does DriveDesk handle motorcycles?
Yes. Every vehicle carries its kind, and the marketplace runs a dedicated two-wheeler storefront alongside the cars one.
More in “Fleet & vehicles” →How do we keep a car in our records but never demo it?
Turn off its available-for-test-drives flag. It keeps its record, chassis number and history but stops appearing on your public site and stops being bookable.
More in “Fleet & vehicles” →We sold a demo car — what do we do?
Retire it. That takes it out of the fleet and frees the registration number, so you can list the replacement carrying the same plate.
More in “Fleet & vehicles” →What is the difference between archiving and retiring?
Archiving hides it from the active list without losing anything, and it can be restored at any time. Retiring takes it out of the fleet permanently and frees its registration.
More in “Fleet & vehicles” →What if another dealership lists a registration we already have?
Neither add is blocked. The contest is raised for the DriveDesk team to adjudicate using each side's ownership evidence, so a genuine transfer between dealers is not treated as fraud.
More in “Fleet & vehicles” →How are several units of the same model shown to customers?
They collapse into one card showing the lowest price and how many trims you have. The customer picks the exact trim on the detail page.
More in “Fleet & vehicles” →Leads & the marketplace
Where leads come from, how the marketplace prices them, and how you track outcomes.
Where do leads come from?
Your own website, the shared marketplace, or logged by your team from a phone call, walk-in, WhatsApp or referral. They all sit in one list with the same follow-up tracking.
More in “Leads & enquiries” →What is the DriveDesk marketplace?
A public site where buyers across India browse cars and bikes from every dealership on the platform. When somebody requests a test drive on a vehicle you stock, the lead comes to you.
More in “Marketplace leads” →Does listing on the marketplace cost extra?
No. Listing is part of your subscription. You only pay to unlock the contact details of a lead you decide to pursue — and an unverified lead is free to reveal.
More in “Marketplace leads” →How are marketplace leads priced?
By how much of the customer has actually been verified: free if nothing is verified, ₹49 for a verified phone, ₹99 for phone and email, ₹199 for phone, email and driving licence. A lead you would not chase costs you nothing.
More in “Marketplace leads” →How do we know a lead really is verified?
It is stamped by DriveDesk's servers from the customer's verified session — a browser cannot claim to be verified. That is what makes the tier meaningful rather than a checkbox.
More in “Marketplace leads” →Will we be competing with other dealerships for the same lead?
No. A home-visit lead is offered to every dealership in range, but the first to claim it wins it exclusively — every other offer is closed and can no longer be unlocked.
More in “Marketplace leads” →What does a masked lead look like?
Until you unlock it, the customer's name and contact details are withheld on the server — they are genuinely not present in your browser, not merely hidden from view. Your own website leads and your own logged leads are never masked.
More in “Marketplace leads” →Should we log leads that came in by phone?
Yes, and you should. It is recorded honestly as an unverified lead — there is no verified phone session behind a phone call — but it carries the same follow-up tracking and counts in your conversion reporting.
More in “Leads & enquiries” →How often does DriveDesk chase us about a stale lead?
Once. Repeated nudges get ignored; a single one at the moment your follow-up window is breached does not.
More in “Leads & enquiries” →How do we measure whether leads convert?
Mark the lead Won or Lost when the deal closes. That one field is what turns your reporting from a guess into a number — conversion rate, cost per sale and whether marketplace leads pay for themselves all come from it.
More in “Analytics & ROI” →Your website
Your public storefront and your own domain.
Do we have to build the website ourselves?
No. It exists from the moment your account does, at yourdealership.drivedesk.in, and lists your demo fleet automatically. Adding your vehicles is all it takes to make it useful.
More in “Your website” →Can we use our own domain?
Yes. Add it in Website settings, create the DNS record DriveDesk shows you, and press Verify. Once it is live it becomes your public address everywhere, with a certificate issued automatically. Your DriveDesk address keeps working alongside it.
More in “Your website” →Do all our vehicles appear publicly?
Only the ones you have flagged as available for test drives. Plain inventory stays private.
More in “Your website” →Can we add our own pages, like About or Finance?
Write them yourself in a normal formatting editor — headings, bold, lists, links — and publish. What you see while writing is what your customer sees.
More in “Your website” →What happens on holidays or when we close?
Visitors see a clear closed notice instead of a booking form, so you are not collecting requests you cannot honour. Clear your hours entirely and the site is always open.
More in “Your website” →Is the site good for search engines?
Your site is submitted to search engines automatically, so new vehicles and pages get indexed without anybody remembering to do it.
More in “Your website” →Billing & pricing
Plans, payment, GST and changing your subscription.
What do the plans cost?
Three: Starter at ₹299 a month (10 active vehicles, 100 bookings), Professional at ₹599 (40 vehicles, 500 bookings) and Enterprise at ₹1,499 (unlimited). Higher plans also unlock features such as live monitoring, analytics, lead management and the website builder.
More in “Billing & plans” →Is GST included in the price?
No. All listed prices are exclusive of GST; 18% is added at checkout and shown as a separate line on a compliant tax invoice.
More in “Billing & plans” →How do we pay?
Card, net banking and UPI, processed securely by Razorpay. DriveDesk never sees your card details.
More in “Billing & plans” →Can we change plan?
Yes, at any time. Upgrades take effect immediately and are prorated for the rest of the period; downgrades take effect from your next billing period.
More in “Billing & plans” →How do we cancel?
From billing settings, at any time. Your subscription stays active until the end of the period you have already paid for, and there is no cancellation fee.
More in “Billing & plans” →What happens if we exceed a plan limit?
The billing page meters active vehicles and bookings this month against your plan limits, so you can see a limit approaching rather than hitting it.
More in “Billing & plans” →What happens if our subscription lapses?
Your data is not deleted. Access is restricted and your storefront stops serving on a custom domain. Restoring the subscription restores everything.
More in “Billing & plans” →How are marketplace lead unlocks billed?
Separately, per lead, by verification tier — they are not part of the subscription. Unverified leads are always free to reveal.
More in “Marketplace leads” →Security & data
Data protection, access control and what we can and cannot see.
Do you store Aadhaar numbers?
No. Verification records what was confirmed and when, not the underlying document number, and access is restricted by permission.
More in “Security & data” →Can a manager change what staff recorded in the field?
No. Photos, GPS trails, licence scans and signatures captured in the field cannot be edited by anybody, including owners. Decisions about that evidence — an override, a resolution, a correction — are appended separately with an author and a timestamp. That separation is what makes the record worth having in a dispute.
More in “Security & data” →Can DriveDesk staff see our data?
Only platform super-admins, only for support, always recorded, and always with a visible banner for the whole session saying whose account is being viewed. There is no invisible access.
More in “Security & data” →How safe are the links we send customers?
Each one is single-use and expires, and only a hash of the token is stored — the link cannot be reconstructed from the database.
More in “Security & data” →How do one-time codes work?
They are randomly generated per use, scoped to one customer and one stop, and cannot be reused for a different customer. Your staff never see the code — the customer has to read it out.
More in “Security & data” →What can somebody with a customer tracking link see?
Position and progress towards them. Nothing else — no staff phone numbers, no personal details, no internal identifiers, no other bookings.
More in “Tracking & monitoring” →What happens if we delete our dealership?
Deletion is reversible on our side — your records are retained rather than destroyed — so a mistake or a change of mind does not cost you your history. Contact us for a permanent export or erasure.
More in “Security & data” →The mobile app
The DriveDesk app for drivers, sales reps and gatekeepers.
Is there a mobile app?
Yes — free on Google Play for Android, with iOS available on request while the App Store listing is in progress. It is one app with three home screens — field, gate and manager — and which one you get depends on your permissions, not on a setting anyone has to choose.
More in “The mobile app” →Does everyone using the app need to be KYC-verified?
No — only the people who drive. Sales reps and gatekeepers use the app without Aadhaar or licence verification, because they never take the wheel of a fleet car.
More in “The mobile app” →Do staff have to sign in every day?
You stay signed in between shifts — the app refreshes your session in the background rather than logging you out mid-day.
More in “The mobile app” →Can one person work at more than one branch?
Yes. You pick which dealership at sign-in and can switch inside the app.
More in “The mobile app” →Why can the sales rep not see the gate-pass QR?
Because the gate pass belongs to whoever has custody of the vehicle. On a two-person job the driver holds the car and the pass while the sales rep handles the customer, so each phone shows only its own half.
More in “The mobile app” →What can staff record about a vehicle's condition?
Fuel on a quarter-tank gauge, the odometer reading, an inspection checklist, and optional photos of the odometer, fuel gauge and a walkaround. Records are append-only — a later one never overwrites an earlier one.
More in “Condition & issues” →Can staff report a problem from the field?
Yes, with a severity and a kind. A serious issue reaches owners and managers immediately; a routine note is recorded without interrupting anybody.
More in “Condition & issues” →Can staff jump from the app to the full dashboard?
Yes — one tap hands the session over to the browser, signed in, on the page you need.
More in “The mobile app” →Troubleshooting
When things do not go to plan.
A car has not come back. What happens?
The trip is flagged as an issue rather than quietly closed — a car that should be back and is not is an exception, not housekeeping. A manager then marks it either recovered, which completes the trip and frees the car, or missing, which cancels the trip and keeps the vehicle out of the fleet.
More in “Condition & issues” →The reported distance does not match the GPS. What now?
The trip is flagged so somebody reviews it at the time rather than at month end. It may be innocent — poor signal on the trail — but you find out while you can still ask.
More in “Condition & issues” →A customer lost their link.
Re-send it from the customer communications panel on the booking. A fresh link is minted and the old one stops working.
More in “Customer communications” →The customer never received their one-time code.
Then they cannot hand over — the code is the proof that the person collecting the car is the person you booked. Codes go by WhatsApp and SMS together, so a failure on one channel is unlikely to stop you. If the customer genuinely cannot receive it, a manager can resolve it from the dashboard.
More in “Customer communications” →A staff member cannot see something they should.
Check their permissions first — access is per person, not per role, and it takes effect on the next page load. If the permission is there, check your plan: a permission your subscription does not include is not effective.
More in “Roles & permissions” →A driver cannot open the field app.
Check they hold the Drive vehicle permission and have completed Aadhaar and a valid licence. The permission alone does not open the field app — verification has to be complete too.
More in “Staff verification” →How do we check whether a message actually went out?
Every message DriveDesk sends is written to a communications ledger with its channel and delivery status, so you can check rather than guess.
More in “Notifications” →Want the full picture?
The documentation walks through every part of DriveDesk, from your first day to your gate, your fleet and your leads.