App builder

Put every call in a dispatch app
and every driver on one board.

Describe how your desk takes calls and Netiva’s AI builds a web app for job intake, driver and vehicle assignment, reassignments and a daily summary — shaped in a live preview, with code you own.

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Starter prompt

Build a dispatch web app for a same-day courier with 18 drivers running cars, cargo vans and box trucks. Dispatchers sign in and log each job with the customer, job type, what’s being moved, pickup and drop-off addresses, the vehicle it needs and a promised-by time. Show a board with unassigned jobs beside a row for every driver on shift. When assigning, list only available drivers cleared for that vehicle type and hide units marked out of service. Reassigning a job must record the reason and the dispatcher who changed it. Email the driver when a job is assigned and send the owner an end-of-day summary at 7 p.m.

Build it in Netiva Paste the prompt into a new workspace and adjust it to your business.
Overview

Who this dispatch app is for

At many courier, towing and service companies, dispatch still runs on a whiteboard, a phone and one person’s memory. The dispatcher knows who is on a job, which truck is in the shop and why the 2 p.m. pickup went to someone else, but little of it is written down. When the shift changes or a customer asks why the tow arrived late, nobody can say. A dispatch app keeps jobs, drivers, vehicles and every assignment in one place: calls are logged as they arrive, the board shows who is free and each reassignment keeps its reason.

Key features

What your dispatch app can do

  • Job intake from the first call

    Call takers log each job in one form while the customer is still on the line: who called, what’s being moved, where to pick up and drop off, which unit it takes and the time you promised.

    • Required fields, so no job is saved without a location or a promised time
    • Web requests from account customers land in the same unassigned column, stamped with their account
    • Load details on the same form: the vehicle to be towed, or pieces, weight and lift-gate
    • Gate codes, cross streets or mile markers kept with the pickup

  • A board of drivers and open jobs

    Unassigned jobs sit in one column, soonest promise first, next to a row for every driver on shift with the job they’re on and what’s queued behind it. The board refreshes every minute.

    • Jobs close to their promised time with nobody on site flagged in amber
    • Filter and sort jobs by zone, job type or vehicle type and save those views
    • Driver status shown as Available, On a job, On break or Off duty
    • One click from any card to the full job and its history

  • Assignments and reassignments

    Pair each job with a driver and a unit from a shortlist of people who are free, still on shift and cleared for the vehicle it needs. When plans change, the first assignment closes with a reason and a new one opens.

    • Out-of-service units left off the shortlist and units past their service date flagged
    • Reasons such as a breakdown, a driver running late or a closer unit
    • Every change stamped with the signed-in dispatcher who made it
    • An email to the driver with the job details on assignment

  • An end-of-day summary

    At the time you choose, the app emails the owner a summary of the day: jobs completed, canceled and still open, arrivals against the promised time and where the reassignments came from.

    • Share of jobs reached by the promised time
    • Reassignments counted by reason and by driver
    • Jobs handled per driver and per vehicle
    • Open jobs listed for the next shift to pick up
Data model

The collections behind it

Netiva keeps your records in built-in collections. Here’s a starting structure — the agent adapts it to your prompt, and you can change it any time.

Jobs

Every call or order the desk takes, from intake to completion.

  • Customer (required) Account or caller name with a callback; web requests stamp the signed-in account Text
  • Job type (required) Rush delivery, scheduled pickup, tow, lockout, jump start, service call… Text
  • Load or vehicle details Tow: year, make, model and drive type. Run: pieces, weight and lift-gate. Any client PO Paragraph
  • Vehicle needed (required) Car, cargo van, box truck, flatbed, wheel-lift, heavy wrecker… Text
  • Pickup location (required) Address plus gate code, cross street or mile marker Text
  • Drop-off location Blank for roadside or on-site work Text
  • Promised by (required) The ETA given to a roadside caller or a delivery deadline Date & time
  • Status (required) New, Assigned, En route, On site, In transit, Completed or Canceled Text

Drivers

Everyone the desk can send, with what they’re cleared to run and when their shift ends.

  • Name (required) Text
  • Mobile number (required) Text
  • Email (required) Where assignment emails go Text
  • Status (required) Available, On a job, On break or Off duty Text
  • Cleared for (required) Vehicle types the driver is licensed and trained to operate Text
  • Zone Home area, used to sort the shortlist Text
  • Usual vehicle Relation to Vehicles
  • Shift ends So jobs that would run past it stay off the shortlist Date & time

Vehicles

The units you dispatch, and whether each one can take a job today.

  • Unit number (required) Text
  • Vehicle type (required) Uses the same list as Vehicle needed on jobs Text
  • Plate Text
  • Service status (required) In service or Out of service Text
  • Out-of-service note What’s wrong and when it should be back Paragraph
  • Next service due Date

Assignments

Each time a job is given to a driver and vehicle, including every reassignment.

  • Job (required) Relation to Jobs
  • Driver (required) Relation to Drivers
  • Vehicle (required) Relation to Vehicles
  • Assigned at (required) Date & time
  • Assigned by (required) Filled in from the signed-in dispatcher Text
  • Arrived at On scene, or at the drop-off for a delivery Date & time
  • Outcome (required) Open, Completed, Reassigned or Canceled Text
  • Reason Why it was reassigned or canceled Text

Required field. Types are Netiva collection field types.

Screens

Pages and screens to start with

A typical first version. Ask the agent for more, or annotate the preview to change any of them.

  • Dispatch board

    Unassigned jobs by promised time beside a row for each driver on shift, with amber flags on jobs at risk of running late.

    Your team

  • New job

    The intake form for call takers: customer and callback, job type, what’s being moved, pickup and drop-off, the unit it needs and the promised-by time.

    Your team

  • Assign

    Available drivers cleared for the vehicle needed, with their current job and shift end, beside the in-service units to pair them with.

    Your team

  • Job detail

    One job with every assignment in order: who was sent, in which unit, when they arrived and why the job moved to someone else.

    Your team

  • Account requests

    Business customers sign in to request a pickup. Each job is stamped with their account, so they see only their own open and past jobs and the status of each.

    Signed-in users

  • End-of-day summary

    The day’s jobs by status, on-time arrivals, reassignments by reason and work per driver and vehicle, matching the evening email.

    Your team
How it works

From prompt to a live dispatch app

  1. Describe your dispatch desk

    Tell Netiva what kinds of jobs you take, which vehicles you run, the statuses a job moves through and how shifts work. The agent drafts collections for jobs, drivers, vehicles and assignments.

  2. Load drivers and units

    Enter your roster and fleet in the collection grid or have the collection assistant draft the records, then note which vehicle types each driver is cleared to run.

  3. Run a practice shift

    Take a few made-up calls in the live preview, assign them, reassign one and close the rest. Annotate the board wherever a column, flag or label should change and the agent updates it.

  4. Go live at shift change

    Publish in one click, have dispatchers and drivers sign in and set the time for the end-of-day email. Every edit is checkpointed, so a rule that slows the desk down can be rolled back.

Why Netiva

Netiva vs a traditional build

Building a dispatch app with Netiva compared with a traditional build
Criterion With Netiva Traditional build
Who’s on which job A board built from assignment records that every dispatcher on shift can open A whiteboard of magnets and names that only the person at the desk can see
Reassigned jobs Each reassignment saved with the time, the dispatcher and the reason A name crossed out and a radio call that nobody wrote down
Getting started Describe what you need in chat and watch it take shape in a live preview Hire developers, or stitch together templates, plugins and a hosting plan
Content and data Built-in collections with nine field types, bound straight to your pages Set up and connect a separate database or CMS
Making changes Ask the agent; every change is checkpointed and reversible File a ticket, wait for a sprint, redeploy
Hosting and domain Global hosting and automatic SSL; connect a custom domain from the Starter plan Buy hosting, then install and renew SSL certificates yourself
Code ownership Clean production code you own and can export Locked into a template, plugin or agency setup
Examples

Ways teams use it

  • A parts courier with 20 drivers

    Repair shops request runs from the account page and two dispatchers split rush and scheduled work. A saved view for each vehicle type keeps box-truck jobs out of the car queue, and the owner reads the on-time share each evening.

  • A towing and roadside company on night shift

    One dispatcher covers motor club and police rotation calls overnight. Heavy-duty tows only list operators cleared for the heavy wrecker, and every reassignment after a breakdown is on record for the morning manager.

  • A plumbing and HVAC service company

    Six technicians work from vans with arrival windows. When a repair runs long, the dispatcher moves the next call to whoever is free, and the job page shows the visit was reassigned and why.

Good to know

Before you build

  • Vehicle locations need a tracking provider

    The board only knows where drivers are from the statuses they or your dispatchers enter. To show positions, connect a GPS or telematics provider that offers a REST API, using your own key.

  • Urgent changes still go by phone

    The app emails drivers and managers; it doesn’t send SMS or push alerts. Keep urgent changes on the phone or radio, and treat the assignment email as the written record of who was sent.

  • Driver hours stay in your own records

    The shortlist leaves out drivers past their shift end, but the app doesn’t count driving or on-duty hours. If your trucks are commercial motor vehicles under FMCSA rules, check hours left in your ELD or time records before a late call.

  • Start with today’s roster

    Netiva doesn’t import records from your current dispatch software. Enter active drivers, vehicles and open jobs in the grid or draft them with the collection assistant, and keep old call history where it is.

FAQ

Questions about building a dispatch app

Can the dispatch app suggest which driver to send?

It can shortlist them. Ask the agent to list drivers whose status is Available, whose shift runs past the promised time and who are cleared for the vehicle the job needs, sorted by zone. The dispatcher still makes the call. Netiva doesn’t include route optimization, so if you want drive times in the ranking, connect a maps or routing provider’s REST API with your own key.

What happens to the record when a job is reassigned?

The first assignment isn’t overwritten. Its outcome changes to Reassigned with a reason — a breakdown, a driver running late or a closer unit — and a new assignment opens for the next driver and vehicle. Both carry the time and the signed-in dispatcher who made the change, so the job page shows the full sequence when a customer or manager asks what happened.

How do drivers’ status changes reach the dispatch board?

Dispatchers can update a job’s status as drivers call or radio in. If you’d rather drivers do it themselves, ask for a status screen that opens in the phone’s browser with nothing to install. Each signed-in driver sees only their own assignments, and buttons for En route, On site and Completed stamp the arrival time and move the card at the board’s next refresh.

Can account customers send us jobs without calling?

Yes. Business customers can sign in to a request page, enter the pickup, drop-off, what’s being moved, the unit needed and the time they need it by, and the job lands in the unassigned column as New. Each request is stamped with the signed-in account, so a customer sees only their own jobs and their current status. If a client already sends orders through a system with a REST API, the agent can connect it with your key instead.

How is the end-of-day summary put together?

A scheduled job runs at the time you set, such as 7 p.m., and reads the day’s jobs and assignments. It counts jobs by status, compares each arrival with the promised-by time for an on-time share, totals reassignments by reason and lists work per driver and per vehicle. The summary screen shows the same figures, and anything still open is listed for the next shift.

Can we change the dispatch app after it goes live?

Yes, and no coding is needed. Keep chatting with the agent or annotate the preview to add a status, a job type or a new flag on the board, then publish again. Each change is checkpointed, so you can compare versions and roll back one the dispatchers don’t like. The code is clean and framework-standard, and you can export it whenever you want, with no proprietary runtime.

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Drafted with AI assistance from Netiva’s product pages and reviewed by the Netiva team. Example data models, screens and prompts are illustrative starting points, not customer projects.

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