Messages is chat between the office and your drivers and weighbridge staff, inside LoadSnap. The reason to use it rather than WhatsApp is that the conversation stays with the business. When a driver leaves, the history does not leave with their phone.
How to do it
In the sidebar, click Messages. Three tabs run across the top of the list: Direct, Groups and News.
Direct holds one thread per person. Click who you want and carry on where you left off.
To start a thread with somebody you have never messaged, open Team, click their row to open their record, and click Message. That brings you here with the thread open.
For a yard or a shift, go to Groups and click the plus button to make one.
Type your message and send it. The paperclip attaches a photo if it is easier to show than to tell.
The driver sees it in the app under Chat.
What the driver does
They tap Chat on the bottom bar, or More and then Chat.
They reply, and can send a photo back from the roadside.
Worth knowing
Team chat is part of the Business plan and above.
When a driver messages the office from a job in their app, LoadSnap puts the job reference at the front of the message, so the thread says which job it is about. The thread itself lives here in Messages rather than on the job, so anything that has to sit with a load belongs on the collection record.
A group per yard saves sending the same message eight times when a tip closes early. Owners and admins are the ones who can create groups.
Photos in chat are handy for access problems, but a photo that is evidence of a load belongs on the collection record rather than in a chat.
News is for announcements out to everybody, rather than a conversation.
Related: Messages, explained. How your driver works through a job.