A quick guide to everything in TransportHQ. Load demo data from Settings to try things safely.
🔑 Logging in
Everyone signs in with their own email and password — real, separate accounts. Managers use the company account. Drivers, passenger assistants and client contacts are invited from their Edit screens — they get an invite code, choose Activate on the sign-in screen, verify their email, and set their own private password (you never see it). Each person stays signed in on their own device. Access is enforced by the database itself: drivers and PAs can only ever read their own runs, client contacts only their own shared passengers, managers everything.
🗂 The Home filing tabs
Runs shows every journey for the chosen day (or week — use the Daily/Weekly switch). Staff shows who is working and exactly which runs each person has that day. Holidays is the calendar of school holidays, inset days and staff absences. Use ‹ Today › to change the date.
🚐 Managing runs
Each run row shows the time, passenger, destination, then driver, PA and vehicle. An amber border means it needs attention (no driver, or the driver is absent). Press Manage to: edit today only (the recurring schedule is untouched), edit the whole schedule, mark picked up / dropped off, cancel with a reason, or reinstate.
🧒 Passengers & schedules
A passenger's profile holds their address, school, wheelchair and PA needs, and their weekly journey pattern. For each day, switch the Pickup and Return journeys on or off — so a one-way trip on one day is fine. Times, driver, PA and vehicle can differ per day, and Copy to all days fills the week in one tap.
🧾 One-off jobs
Single journeys outside the school runs — airport trips, client jobs, hospital appointments. Turn on Add a return journey to book the way back, on the same or a different day, with its own driver, PA and vehicle.
📱 The driver's phone view
Drivers and passenger assistants sign in on their own phone and see today's runs in order, with any notes (gate codes, ramps). They can also see upcoming days — how many is up to you, in Settings → "Driver & PA schedule visibility". Two taps do the work: Picked up, then Dropped off — each is time-stamped. Cancel asks for a reason; "No answer at door" asks for a photo of the door as evidence, and "Other" needs a note. Drivers can also report vehicle faults.
✅ Manager review & audit trail
Every cancellation lands in Review with its reason, photo and note, where you decide Billable or Not billable — your evidence for client invoicing. Vehicle faults wait there too. Below is the full history: every important action, time-stamped with who did it.
🚗 Vehicles
Keep MOT, insurance and tax dates — countdowns turn amber at 14 days. Log faults and quirks, and give a vehicle a nickname (e.g. "Silver bus") to show on the runs page instead of the reg.
🏖 Holidays, inset days & absences
Click any calendar day to add a school holiday, an inset day, or a staff absence. Holidays can apply to all schools or just one — only the affected school's runs are paused. Below the calendar: this month's absences, each staff member's holiday totals, and a by-school breakdown of all dates.
📊 Reports
Pick a date range for totals and the cancellation list. The custom report builder lets you choose exactly which fields to include and which runs (all, cancellations, jobs…), then downloads a CSV that opens in Excel — ideal for client billing evidence.
📥 Imports & backups (Settings)
Paste passengers, staff, and school holidays straight from your spreadsheets — the ? button on each import box walks you through it step by step. Download a backup regularly; data lives on this device until the app moves to a shared online database.