TradeSender in the car with CarPlay
Today's visits on your car's screen, with directions, a call to the customer, On my way, Start visit and Finish visit, and what the car does not show.
If your car or van has Apple CarPlay, the iPhone app puts the day's visits on its screen. You get to the next garden, tell the customer you are coming and mark the visit started or finished, all without picking up the phone.
There is nothing to switch on. Connect your iPhone to the car as you do for Maps or music, and TradeSender is among the apps on the car's screen. You need to be signed in on the phone first.
Today
Tap TradeSender on the car's screen. It opens on Today: the visits for the day, in the order they are booked.
- To do comes first, then Finished.
- Each row is the start time and the customer, over the address.
- A visit you have started says In progress.
A technician sees the visits they are on. An owner or an office member sees the visits they are on and any that nobody has been put on. This is narrower than Today on the phone, which shows an owner everyone's visits: the car is one van.
A visit
Tap a visit. Its screen has the customer at the top, then the booked time, the job and the property's access notes, such as a gate code. Below are the things you can do.
| Row | What it does |
|---|---|
| Directions | Opens Maps on the car's screen with the property's address as the destination |
| On my way | Emails the customer that you are coming. The car asks How long until you arrive?: 15 min, 30 min, 45 min or 1 hour |
| Call | Rings the customer's own number through the car |
| Start visit | Starts the visit and your timer, as it does on the phone |
| Finish visit | Finishes the visit and stops the timer for everyone on it |
What you see depends on the visit. A visit still to do has Directions, On my way, Call and Start visit. Once you have started it, it has Finish visit, Directions and Call. A finished visit keeps Directions and Call, in case you need to go back. Call is missing when the customer has no phone number.
On my way
The customer gets your On my way email with the wait you picked. The car sends your workspace's usual note; to reword one, send it from the phone before you set off. Afterwards the row reads Sent with the time.
On my way is missing when the customer has no email address, and reads Needs a connection when the phone has no signal. It is never sent later.
Finish visit
The car always asks before it finishes a visit, because finishing cannot be undone from the car.
- On the last visit of a one-off job it asks Is the job finished? Choose Job done, or Coming back to keep the job open for another visit.
- Otherwise it asks Finish visit?
The car then goes back to Today, with the next visit at the top. To add completion notes or photos, or to change the time a visit finished, open the visit on the phone when you have stopped.
Without signal
Start visit and Finish visit work without signal. The visit reads Waiting to sync until the phone is back in range, and the change is sent then. Directions and Call do not need TradeSender's server at all. Only On my way needs a connection.
The list is the one your phone already holds, so it opens straight away. See Working without signal.
Good to know
- The car shows no prices and no notes other than a property's access notes.
- Nothing is set up in the car. If the car says Not signed in, sign in on the phone before you drive.
- Nobody is tracked. TradeSender does not ask where the phone is. Maps works out your route.
- Cars limit how long a list can be. On a very full day the car shows the first visits to do, and finished ones drop off first.
- The day is the one on your phone. A visit booked for tomorrow shows tomorrow.
- CarPlay is Apple's, so this is on the iPhone only. There is nothing for Android Auto.
Checked against the app on 22 October 2026. Still stuck? Ask usAsk us.