How workers locations are sent

When geolocation is sent

Worker's geolocation gets sent:

1. When a worker presses the En route, Start, Pause, or Finish button, in other words, when a job changes its status. 
2. When a photo is taken from the app.
3. In the background mode when a worker is moving.

⚠️ A field worker needs at least one job with Unfinished, En route or Started status for a location to be sent.

Possible job statuses for locations to get sent

⚠️ It often happens that device settings prevent geolocations to get sent. Possible problems are described in the instructions for Android and iOS devices.

How a phone get locations

Location can be gotten from different sources:

• Network — from cellular base stations;
• Wi-Fi — from Wi-Fi connection spots;
• GPS — from GPS satellites

GPS is the most energy-consuming but the most effective method. It can work outside or from a car. It does not work inside buildings or underground because it needs to catch a satellite signal and therefore nothing should be blocking this signal. A roof, a ceiling can work as a barrier for a signal in this case.

Wi-Fi works well inside buildings, for example, in business centers, where can be multiple Wi-Fi sources.

A network method gets locations via multiple cellular base stations. If there is only one base station in the reach, the accuracy will be low, about a kilometer. If there are two base stations, a worker's location will be spotted down to the area between these two stations, an accuracy of about 300 – 500 meters. Three base stations allow pin-pointing worker's location with an accuracy of 30 – 40 meters.

For a location to get spotted, it is advised for a worker's phone to have turned on Wi-Fi and to have a GPS chip.

Planado app uses all three methods of location spotting. If less energy-consuming methods, such as Network and Wi-Fi, are not available, it uses GPS.

⚠️ It is important for workers to "en route" their jobs in the app before going to a site. It allows the Planado app to catch more information from Network and GPS when moving to the location and therefore accuracy will be higher.

Working with the Map

A dispatcher with web application access can see worker's coordinates on the Map page.

The map shows the last known worker's location.

You can view a worker's location history by clicking on a worker's name. Locations for a day will be presented as points on the map.

To view locations for passed dates, click on the worker's name, open the calendar and select a date.

In the Settings → General, you can choose between Google Maps and Yandex.Maps.

If you need help regarding location settings or other Planado features, contact us on the support portal or write us a letter to support@planado.app