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Administration

Messaging

Direct and group conversations between the office and the road, in the dashboard and in the driver app.

Updated

Messaging is the conversation channel between the office and the road. It is the same set of threads everywhere: what you send from Messages in the dashboard arrives in the driver’s app and in the driver portal, and their reply comes back to the same thread. It is deliberately not a notification system — notifications are generated by rules, while messages are written by people.

Who can do this

Role
Any signed-in user
Permission
messaging:readmessaging:write

Admins and drivers both hold messaging permissions. Beyond that, access is decided per thread: you must be a participant to read or post, and a group admin to change who is in a group.

Direct messages and groups

Direct messageGroup chat
ParticipantsExactly two peopleTwo or more, with a name
Who can start oneAdmins and driversAdmins only
Must containAt most one driverAt least one admin
Membership changesFixed for the life of the threadGroup admins add and remove
Starting it twiceReopens the existing threadCreates a second group
The two conversation types, and the rules each one enforces.

Two of those rules exist for the same reason and are worth stating plainly. A driver cannot open a direct message with another driver, and a group must always contain at least one admin — including after you remove someone. Coordination between drivers is meant to run through dispatch, so there is always somebody in the room who can act on what is said.

Starting a conversation from the dashboard.

  1. 1

    Open Messages

    Messages

    The left pane lists your threads and filters to All, Direct or Groups. Search matches across the list.

  2. 2

    Choose direct message or group chat

    A group needs a name and at least two other participants. A direct message needs one person. You can type an opening message in the same dialog rather than creating an empty thread and coming back to it.

  3. 3

    Send

    The thread appears for everyone in it immediately over the live connection. Typing indicators travel the same way and clear themselves after a few seconds if someone stops mid-sentence.

Group membership

Inside a group, participants are either group admins or ordinary members. Only a group admin may add participants, remove them or delete the thread; renaming the group is open to any participant. Adding several people at once is all-or-nothing: if one of them cannot be added, none are, so you never end up with half a team in the room.

The last group admin is protected in both directions. They cannot be removed by anyone, and they cannot leave on their own — promote or add another admin first. A thread with no admin left would be a group nobody could manage.

Editing, deleting and read state

The rules here are short.

  • Only the sender may edit or delete a message. Being a group admin does not extend to other people’s messages.
  • Only participants may read a thread or post to it. A conversation you are not in is not visible to you, whatever your role.
  • Unread counts are per person and per thread, and clear when you open the thread.

Common questions

A driver says they cannot message another driver
Cause

Direct messages between two drivers are refused by design.

Put both of them in a group with a dispatcher instead. That satisfies the at-least-one-admin rule and keeps the office in the loop.

I started a direct message and an old thread opened instead
Cause

Direct threads are unique per pair of people.

Starting one with somebody you have messaged before reopens the existing thread rather than creating a second one, so history stays in one place. This is also what makes the link from the live map safe to click repeatedly.

I cannot remove someone from a group
Cause

They are the only remaining group admin, or you are not a group admin yourself.

Add or promote a second group admin, then remove the first. If the button is refused for an ordinary member, check your own role in that thread — being a tenant admin does not automatically make you an admin of every group.

I want to correct a message somebody else sent
Cause

Editing is restricted to the sender.

Reply in the thread instead. The record of who said what is deliberately not rewritable by a third party, including an admin.

Terminology

Your organisation can rename these. If your screens say something else, this is what they mean here.

Driver
The person carrying out a trip. Conversation labels and filters use your term for them.Rename it in Customization → Terminology