Shared truck devices
The truck is the account.
The PIN is the person.
One iPad per truck, signed in once and left alone. Drivers tap their name, enter a PIN, and clock in with the same gesture. Every stop, photo, inspection and punch is recorded under the driver who did it, and dispatch sees who is on which truck. The way a restaurant point-of-sale terminal has worked for decades, on the tablet already riding in your cab.
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Why the truck is the account
A shared tablet should know who is holding it.
Plenty of operators keep one iPad in each truck instead of a company phone per driver. Every field product treats that iPad as one person: it is signed in as somebody, and that somebody gets credit for every stop, photo, inspection, unit placement and time punch made on it, whoever is actually driving. The records look complete. They are just about the wrong person.
Restaurants and in-cab fleet computers solved this a long time ago: one shared screen, everyone identified by their own code. PortaPro does the same thing. Dispatch creates a login for the truck, signs the iPad in once, and drivers never learn the password. The iPad opens on a roster, a driver taps their name and enters a short PIN, and from that moment everything they do is theirs.
The part that matters: nothing is inferred. A stop completed on the tablet is attributed to the person whose PIN opened it, the way a restaurant ticket is attributed to the server whose code rang it. The truck login secures the device; the PIN only picks the person. Phones keep working exactly as before, and a driver can be on both at once without a double punch.
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On the iPad
A driver's whole day, in five taps.
Pick up the tablet at the start of the shift and put it down at the end. Everything in between is recorded under the right name.
The iPad opens on the roster: Who's driving today? Every driver and mechanic has a tile. No email, no password, nothing to remember but a short code.
Four to six digits, set by dispatch and changeable from the driver's own profile. Five wrong tries in fifteen minutes locks the tile for a while; dispatch clears it by setting a new PIN.
If the company uses the time clock, Clock in now is on by default. One tap signs on and punches in. A driver who already clocked in on their own phone sees that they are on the clock; there is never a second punch.
Completed stops, photos, signatures, inspections, unit pin moves, time-off requests and preferences all land under the driver's name. The header shows the truck and the driver, so nobody has to guess who the tablet thinks it is.
Clocking out signs the driver off. Switch driver hands the tablet to a co-worker without clocking out. A forgotten clock-out is closed at the company's maximum shift length and the tablet returns to the roster on its own.
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What the office sees
Who is on which truck, and since when.
Dispatch sees the truck under the driver
Open a driver in the Jobs & Dispatch cockpit and the card reads on Truck 32 since 6:42 AM when they are signed on to a shared device. No radio call to find out who took which truck.
Setup is a settings page and a PIN per person
Settings, Shared Devices: switch it on. Then invite the truck from Team Management like any driver, choosing Shared truck device as the role, with a name like Truck 32, a login email you control, and optionally the truck it rides in. Open the invite on the iPad, choose a password once, and leave it signed in. Then set a Device PIN for each driver and mechanic in Team Management. Drivers can change their own afterwards.
Every session is bounded and recorded
Sessions end at clock-out, at your maximum shift length, or when the office sends a device back to its roster. An optional idle lock re-asks the same driver for their PIN after a quiet spell. Every session records who, which device, when it started, and how it ended. Retiring a device locks the login and keeps every punch it ever recorded.
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Old way vs PortaPro
The old way vs. PortaPro
What happens when three drivers share one iPad.
One iPad shared by three drivers
Signed in as whoever set it up. Every stop for a year is credited to that person
PortaPro:Invited and signed in as the truck. Each driver PINs in, and every stop is credited to the person who did it
Driver swap at lunch
Sign out, sign in with another email and password, or just keep going under the wrong name
PortaPro:Tap Switch driver, tap your name, enter your PIN
Clocking in
A separate app, a paper sheet, or nothing at all
PortaPro:The same gesture as signing on. Clock-out hands the tablet back to the roster
Who is on which truck right now
Radio and ask
PortaPro:Dispatch sees on Truck 32 since 6:42 AM under the driver's name
Someone walks away without clocking out
The next driver inherits their session
PortaPro:The shift auto-closes at your maximum shift length, the office can send the device back to its roster, and an optional idle lock re-asks for a PIN
Cost of a device account
Another seat
PortaPro:Free. Plans include unlimited users, and a truck account is never counted as a person
FAQ
Questions operators ask
Do I need special hardware?
Does a truck account cost a seat?
Can drivers still use their own phones?
Who sets the PIN?
What if a driver walks away without clocking out?
Do push alerts reach the iPad?
Does it work for mechanics?
Why not Face ID on the shared iPad?
Get Started
Watch a driver PIN in and clock in with one tap.
Book a walkthrough: sign an iPad in as a truck, tap a name, enter a PIN, and see the stop land under the right driver in dispatch.
Get started in under 2 minutes.
