Texting customers you're on the way

Early access

On my way texts are being rolled out gradually. If you don't see the On my way template on your jobs yet, it hasn't been turned on for your account.

An On my way text tells the customer you’re heading to them and roughly when you’ll arrive. SortScape works out the drive time with live traffic and puts it in the message, so the customer gets something like:

Hi Priya, Sam from Green Lawns is on the way and should be there in about 18 minutes.

You can send it from any job, from the prompt that appears when you complete a job, or by tapping Go in Apple CarPlay. Each text uses your SMS text message credits, like any other text.

Sending it from a job

1. Open the job you’re driving to.
2. Tap Text and choose On my way.
3. SortScape gets the drive time (the Text button shows a spinner for a few seconds), then opens Send text message to your customer with the message filled in.
4. Check the message, change it if you like, and tap Send text message.

Texting the next customer after you complete a job

When you complete a job on your phone, SortScape looks for the next job on the same run today. If it finds one, a card appears at the bottom of the job: Next on your run, with the address and customer name.

• Tap Text I’m on my way to get the drive time and open Send text message to your customer for that customer. Check the message and tap Send text message.
• Tap Not now (or swipe the card away) if you don’t want to send it.

After the text goes out, the card changes to Texted with the customer’s name. Tap Directions to start driving to that job in your maps app, or Done to close the card. If you close the send window without sending, the card stays so you can try again.

The card only appears in the phone layout (the SortScape app, or a browser on a phone). It does not appear on a computer.

When the card doesn’t appear

SortScape only suggests the text when it’s likely to be useful. The card does not appear when:

• The job you completed isn’t on today’s schedule, or it’s the last job on the run.
• The next customer has no mobile number that can receive texts.
• It’s outside your schedule’s working hours (6 am to 7 pm), so completing jobs from home in the evening doesn’t prompt you.
• The next job has a set start time more than 90 minutes away. If its start time has already passed, the card still appears, since that’s when a heads-up helps most.
• The next job already has time logged on it, which usually means the crew is already there.
• Someone has already sent that job’s On my way text today.

Skipped jobs are left out when SortScape looks for the next job. Completing several jobs at once on the schedule, or completing a job from CarPlay, doesn’t show the card.

You can still send the text any time from the job itself (see Sending it from a job).

How the drive time is worked out

The drive time starts from where your phone is, as long as SortScape can get your location accurately. Otherwise it starts from the address of the job you just completed (or, when you send from the Text menu, the job before this one on the run).

• SortScape iPhone app (version 1.30.0 or later): the first time, your iPhone asks to use your location while the app is open. If you say no, or the app is older than 1.30.0, the drive time starts from the previous job’s address instead.
• Browser: your browser asks for your location the first time.
• SortScape Android app: the drive time starts from the previous job’s address for now.

The drive time is given in minutes up to an hour (“in about 18 minutes”), and to the nearest quarter hour after that (“in about 1 hour 15 minutes”). If SortScape can’t work out a drive time, for example because it’s the first job on the run and there’s no location, the message says the crew “should be there shortly” instead.

Your location is only used to work out the drive time. SortScape doesn’t store it.

Apple CarPlay

In CarPlay, tapping Go on a stop asks Text Priya you’re on the way? This needs the SortScape iPhone app, version 1.30.0 or later.

• Text and go starts directions and sends your On my way text in the background. The drive time starts from where your phone is if the SortScape app is already allowed to use your location, otherwise from the stop before on the run.
• Just go starts directions without texting.

The text is sent as your template reads, without a chance to edit it. Once it’s sent, the stop shows Texted and the time (for example Texted 9:42 am) on the car screen. Texts another crew member sent show there too. On iOS 18.4 and later, a CarPlay notification also tells you whether the text was sent.

CarPlay only asks when the customer can receive texts and no one has sent that job’s On my way text today. Each job gets one On my way text from CarPlay per day, so if two crew members tap Go, the customer only hears once.

To skip the question, open the Settings tab in CarPlay and under On my way texts choose Text without asking. Go then sends the text every time. Choose Ask each time to go back.

Changing the message

SortScape adds an On my way text template to your job templates the first time it’s used. You can reword it like any other template in Settings → Messaging → Job messages. You can rename it, but you can’t delete it.

The drive time comes from the arrival_eta tag. It turns into a phrase like “in about 18 minutes”, so write it where that reads naturally, for example “should be there arrival_eta.” If you take the tag out of the template, SortScape stops looking up the drive time and sends the message as written.

If your account already had a job template called “On my way”, SortScape uses that one instead of adding a new one. Add arrival_eta to it if you want the drive time included.

You can use arrival_eta in other job templates too. Anywhere SortScape has no drive time to fill in (for example in an automatic reminder) it becomes “shortly”.