1. Getting Started

Student Carpool helps schools, parents and drivers organize safe, shared rides for students. Parents book seats on carpool routes, drivers run the daily trips, and everyone can follow the car live on a map.

User roles

Creating an account

1. Open the app and tap Create an account on the sign-in screen.
2. Choose Parent or Driver, then enter your name, email, mobile number and a password (at least 8 characters).
3. Parents can use the app right away. Drivers must enter their driver's license number and wait for an administrator to approve the account. You get a notification when it's approved.

Finding your way around

• Phones and tablets: use the bottom bar for the main screens and More (or the button) for everything else.
• Computers: the menu is always on the left. Click at the top of the menu to shrink it to icons only (click again to expand). The app remembers your choice.
• The bell shows unread notifications. Tap your initials to open My Profile, where you can update your details or change your password.

2. Guide for Parents

Step 1 – Add your children

1. Go to My Children → Add Student, or tap Add Child on the dashboard.
2. Enter the name, school, grade level, pickup address, emergency contact, and any medical notes or allergies. The driver can see the medical notes.
3. Pin the pickup spot on the map. Search the address, tap My location when you're at home, or tap the map, then drag the pin to your gate or door. The pin gives the driver the exact spot and makes arrival times accurate.
4. Tap Save.

Step 2 – Find a route and request a seat

1. Open Find Routes and filter by your child's school.
2. Each route card shows the direction (To School in the morning, From School in the afternoon), departure time, days, driver, and seats left.
3. Tap View & Join, choose your child, add a pickup point if needed, and tap Send Request.
4. The driver approves or declines the request, and you get a notification either way. Once approved, you can see the driver's phone number.

Step 3 – Report absences

1. Go to Absences (or Report Absence on the dashboard).
2. Choose the child and the date. To cover several days, fill in both From and To. Add a reason if you like, then tap Save Absence.
3. The driver is told automatically, and your child is marked Absent on those days' trips.
4. For a trip that has already been prepared today, you can also open it and tap Not riding today.

Step 4 – Track your child live on the GPS map

1. Make sure your child's pickup pin is set (My Children → Edit). The map uses it for arrival times.
2. When the driver taps Start Trip, you get a “Trip started” notification, and a purple “ride is on the way” banner appears on your dashboard.
3. Tap the banner, the notification, or the Map tab in the bottom bar, then Track live.
4. On the map you'll see:
   • the car moving live and the road route it's taking;
   • where it's heading next: “Driver is on the way to pick up Sofia · 6 min”, then “Sofia is on board · heading to school”;
   • the arrival time and distance, and how many stops come before yours;
   • the driver's name, the car and plate number, and a Call button.
5. You're notified the moment your child is picked up and when they arrive. After that, the map shows the trip as completed.

• The Dashboard shows each child's trips for today and their status.
• When the driver starts the trip you get a notification. Tap it, or tap Open Live Map, to watch the car on the map with the arrival time, how many stops come before yours, and a Call button for the driver.
• You're also notified when your child is picked up, arrives at school, boards at school and is dropped off home.

Step 5 – Give your child a tracking link (optional)

1. Go to My Children and tap Link next to your child.
2. Tap Create tracking link, then Copy or Share it to your child's phone or tablet.
3. Your child opens the link to see their ride live. No password is needed, and it only shows your child's own stop, the school and the car.
4. If the link is shared with the wrong person, tap New link (the old one stops working) or Turn off.

3. Guide for Drivers

Step 1 – Get approved and add your vehicle

1. Register as a Driver with your license number. You can sign in once an administrator approves your account.
2. Go to My Vehicles → Add Vehicle. Enter the make, model, plate number, color and the number of passenger seats for students, not counting the driver. The seat count limits how many riders you can approve.

Step 2 – Create your routes

1. Go to My Routes → New Route.
2. Enter a name, the school, the direction (To School for the morning or From School for the afternoon), your vehicle, departure time, days, meeting point, and any notes for parents (rules, fees, what to bring).
3. Tap Save Route. Parents can now find the route and request seats.

Step 3 – Approve riders

1. New requests appear under Join Requests on your dashboard, and you also get a notification.
2. Tap Approve or Decline. You can't approve more riders than your vehicle has seats.
3. On the route page, set the pickup order numbers and tap Save pickup order. Trips list riders in this order. Afternoon trips drop off in reverse order.

Step 4 – Run a daily trip

1. Prepare: on the dashboard under Today's Trips, tap Prepare next to the route. This builds today's rider list, and children with a reported absence are already marked absent.
2. Start: open the trip and tap Start Trip. Parents are notified, and your phone starts sharing its GPS location. Allow location access when the browser asks.
3. Open the live map: tap Open Live Map. It shows your next stop with the road route and distance. Tap Navigate for turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps.
4. Mark each rider:
   • Morning: Picked up at home → Arrived at school (everyone on board) at the gate.
   • Afternoon: Everyone boarded at school → Dropped off at each home.
   • Absent if the child doesn't show up. Undo fixes a mistake.
5. Finish: tap Complete Trip. Anyone still on board is marked dropped off, and anyone still waiting is marked absent.

• Refresh riders adds children who were approved after the trip was prepared.
• Cancel Trip asks for a reason and notifies every parent right away.
• Pause on the GPS bar stops location sharing temporarily.

4. Guide for Administrators

System Administrator and Administrators

• The account created during installation is the System Administrator. It is protected and can never be deleted, disabled or demoted.
• The System Administrator adds Administrators for day-to-day work under Users → Add User → Role Administrator.
• Only the System Administrator sees Backups and System Updates, and only a System Administrator can create another System Administrator.

First-time setup

1. Schools: Schools → Add School. Pin the school gate on the map. The live map uses it for routes and arrival times.
2. Drivers: approve new drivers under Users (filter by status Pending) or from Pending Drivers on the dashboard. Check each driver's license first.
3. Accounts: Users → Add User creates parent, driver or admin accounts directly.

Daily operations

• Dashboard → Today's Trips lists every route scheduled today. Generate all prepares them all at once, and Live opens any trip in progress on the map.
• Trips shows any day (use ‹ › or the date picker). Prepare trips for this day works for future dates too.
• Admins can do everything a driver can on any trip, and can Reopen a completed or cancelled trip.
• Students, Vehicles, Routes, Absences: view and edit all records. When adding a student, choose the parent account it belongs to.

Managing users

• Approve activates a pending account. Disable blocks sign-in without deleting data. Delete permanently removes the user and their children, vehicles and notifications.
• Forgotten passwords: open the user with Edit and enter a new password. Users can change it later in My Profile.

Reports (Excel & PDF)

1. Open Reports and choose a report:
   • Trip Summary by Route: trips, completion rate, rides and attendance per route.
   • Trip Log: every trip with scheduled, start and finish times, duration and riders.
   • Driver Performance: trips, on-time starts (within 10 minutes of departure), average delay and rides per driver.
   • Student Attendance: trips, rides taken, absences and attendance rate per student.
   • Ride History: the pickup and drop-off time of every student on every trip.
   • Absence Report: reported absences with reasons and who reported them.
2. Set the dates (or tap a quick range such as This month), optionally filter by school, route, driver or student, then tap Generate.
3. Check the preview, then download it:
   • Excel: a formatted .xlsx workbook with a title, summary figures, filters and totals, ready to print.
   • PDF: a branded A4 report with page numbers and signature lines. View PDF opens it in the browser.
   • CSV: plain data for other systems.

Drivers can run the same reports for their own routes, and parents get Student Attendance, Ride History and Absence Report for their own children.

System settings

Technical settings are in config/config.php:

• Database connection, time zone, and support contact details.
• Map tiles, road routing and address search services.
• How often GPS is sent and refreshed.

Set APP_DEBUG to false in production.

5. Live GPS Map

The live map works like a ride-hailing app. The car moves on the map in real time, a blue line shows the road route to the next stop, and the panel shows the arrival time and status.

Map legend

Using the map

• Drag or zoom the map freely. Tap the button on the right to follow the car again.
• On phones, tap the small bar at the top of the panel to expand or shrink it. Tap a name in the list to jump to that stop.
• The top-left badge shows Live (updating), Waiting for GPS, or GPS lost with the time of the last update.
• Arrival times are estimates based on the road route and the car's current speed.

Student App & Messages

Carpool Student is a separate app for your child's own phone or tablet. There's no password: the parent connects the device once with a code.

Connect your child's phone (parents)

1. Go to My Children → App next to your child, then tap Connect … phone.
2. A QR code and an 8-letter code appear. They work once and expire after 24 hours.
3. On your child's phone, scan the QR code with the camera, or open student.php and type the code.
4. On the child's phone, open the Me tab and install the app (Android: Install App; iPhone: Share → Add to Home Screen).
5. To remove a phone (lost or replaced), tap Disconnect next to it under Connected devices. It stops working immediately.

What the student sees

• Map: the driver's car live during their trip, with the arrival time (“Your driver is on the way · 2 stops before yours”). It also shows the parent's location when the parent shares it, and the student's own position.
• Messages: the Ride Group (student, parent and driver) and a Private chat with the parent.
• Me: share their own location with the parent, call the parent or driver, install the app, or disconnect the device.

Messages (parents and drivers)

• Open Messages in the menu. Each child has a Ride Group (child + parent + that child's driver) and, for parents, a Private chat with the child.
• Drivers see the Ride Groups of the students on their routes. They cannot read Private chats, and administrators can't read family messages either.
• Unread messages show as a red number on Messages. New messages appear within a few seconds.

Sharing locations

• Parents: on Live Map, switch on Share my location with my children. Only your own children can see it, and it updates while the app is open.
• Students: switch on Share my location in the Me tab. Only their parent sees it, on the parent's Family Locations map.
• Drivers are only visible while a trip is in progress, through the trip's GPS.
• Turning sharing off deletes the last saved position immediately.

6. Install on Phone / Tablet

You can install Student Carpool like a normal app. It gets its own icon, opens full screen, and loads faster.

If you lose your connection, the app shows an offline screen and reconnects on its own when you're back online.

7. Status Reference

8. Security & Privacy

• Passwords are stored encrypted (hashed). After 5 wrong attempts, sign-in is locked for 5 minutes.
• Parents only see their own children. Other families' names, addresses and stops are never shown to them.
• The vehicle's location is only shared while a trip is in progress. Location history is deleted automatically after 60 days.
• Student tracking links show only that student's ride, and a parent can reset or turn them off at any time.
• Sign out on shared devices (My Profile → Sign Out). Signing out also clears pages saved for offline use.