Operator guide

How to run SelectDrive

Every screen in this admin, what it does, and the order to do things in. Written for Dan.

What is switched on right now

The hired-driver side of SelectDrive is built but deliberately switched off. Until it is enabled, the driver application returns a not-found response, the Drivers and Payouts screens report the feature as unavailable, and nothing about driver hiring appears on the public site or in search engines.

This is on purpose. It means you can look at every screen, learn the workflow, and decide when to open the doors, without a stranger being able to apply in the meantime.

What still works normally

Everything you already use is unaffected: prospects, pipeline, bookings, quotes, emails, the knowledge base, live tracking, and customer payments. Owner-operated jobs where you drive continue exactly as before.

What each screen is for

Dashboard
The overview. Recent activity and the health of the pipeline.
Prospects
Leads and companies you are chasing. This is your CRM.
Pipeline
Where each prospect sits in the sales process, and the outreach that has gone out.
Bookings
Actual jobs. Quote, deposit, in transit, delivered, complete. Conflicts between overlapping jobs are flagged here.
Drivers
Your driver bench. Applications waiting for review, approved drivers, what documents each one has on file, what is expiring, and who is eligible to be assigned work.
Payouts
What each driver has earned, payout batches waiting for your approval, payment history, and the year-end tax totals per driver.
Fleet Quotes
The pricing calculator for commercial work. Use it live while you are on the phone.
Emails
Every message the system has sent, and whether it was delivered.
Knowledge
The question and answer pairs that Pilot, the site chatbot, draws its answers from. If Pilot is telling customers something wrong, fix it here.
Live Tracking
Where vehicles are right now, and the tracking links customers have been sent.

Hiring a driver, start to finish

A driver moves through six states. The system will not let you skip ahead, which is the point.

  1. Applied

    Someone submitted the application at /drive-for-us. They get an automatic receipt, and you get a notification. Nothing has been checked yet.

  2. Reviewed

    Open the applicant on the Drivers screen. Read the license class, the experience, the availability, and the states they will work. If they are obviously not a fit, reject them now, before you spend money on a screening report.

  3. Screening ordered

    Order the motor vehicle record and the background check. Record the result when it comes back. See the screening section below, because the order of steps here is a legal requirement, not a preference.

  4. Documents collected

    The driver uploads what their job type requires through their own portal, or you upload it for them. The screen shows exactly what is still missing.

  5. Approved

    You can only approve a driver once the motor vehicle record and background check are both marked clear and every required document is on file and unexpired. If the button will not let you approve, the screen tells you what is blocking it.

  6. Active

    They can now be offered work. They will appear in driver matching and can be assigned to a booking.

Requirement profiles

Different work needs different paperwork, so the checklist is configurable rather than one fixed list. There are three profiles: driveaway in a customer's car, fleet work under 26,001 pounds, and fleet work at or above 26,001 pounds where a commercial license is required. Pick the profile that matches the actual job. The heavy profile adds the medical certificate, the drug test, and the federal Clearinghouse query.

Documents and expiry

Documents are stored privately. They are never on a public web address. When you or a driver opens one, the system hands out a link that stops working shortly afterward.

Each document can carry an expiry date. The driver's overall compliance is then one of four states:

  • Complete. Everything required is on file and current. Assignable.
  • Incomplete. Something required has never been provided. Not assignable.
  • Expiring soon. Something lapses within thirty days. Still assignable, but chase it.
  • Expired. Something required has lapsed. Not assignable.

A daily job emails you a digest of what is expiring and reminds the driver directly. You do not have to remember any of this.

Why this matters commercially

When a customer asks whether your drivers are screened and insured, this screen is your answer. Being able to show that an out-of-compliance driver is mechanically blocked from being dispatched is far more convincing than promising you keep an eye on it.

Screening, and the order you must follow

There is no background-check vendor connected yet, so screening runs in manual mode. You order the check yourself, then record the provider, the date, and the result. If a vendor is connected later, the same screens work without retraining.

If you are going to turn someone down because of something in a report, federal law sets the order of operations. The system enforces it, so you cannot get it wrong by accident:

  1. Give the applicant a standalone disclosure and get their written authorization before you pull anything. This happens in the application itself.
  2. If the report is bad, send a pre-adverse-action notice first, with a copy of the report and the summary of rights.
  3. Wait. The applicant gets time to dispute an error.
  4. Only then send the final adverse-action notice.

Do not shortcut this

Skipping the pre-adverse notice is one of the most common and most expensive mistakes small employers make. The Drivers screen will refuse to let you record a report-based rejection until the earlier steps are recorded. If you are rejecting someone for a reason that has nothing to do with a report, such as no availability, that is a plain rejection and none of this applies.

Assigning a driver to a job

From a booking, you can either let the system suggest a driver or pick one yourself. Matching scores drivers on location, availability, and history, and it silently skips anyone who is not compliant.

If you try to assign someone who is not eligible, you get a refusal that names the problem, either that the driver is not approved or which documents are missing or expired. Compliance is re-checked when the assignment is accepted and again when the trip starts, so a document that lapses between assignment and departure still catches it.

Once a driver is on a job, their location flows into Live Tracking and the customer's tracking link, and they capture condition photos at pickup and delivery.

Paying drivers

Paying reliably is a recruiting tool. A driver in Miami has no reason to trust a company from Iowa, so the thing that earns the second job is being paid exactly when you said.

  1. Earnings appear

    When an assignment is completed, the driver's pay is recorded against it. Amounts are stored in whole cents so nothing drifts by a penny.

  2. You review

    Look at the pending earnings. Add mileage, per diem, return travel, a bonus, or a reimbursement. Reimbursements are tracked separately from pay because they are not taxable income to the driver.

  3. Build a batch

    Group approved earnings into a payout per driver for the period.

  4. You approve, then pay

    Approval and payment are two separate actions. Nothing ever pays automatically. Approving a batch does not move money.

  5. Record or send the payment

    You can record a payment you made by check, ACH, Zelle, or anything else, and the ledger stays correct. Card-network payouts are supported but stay switched off until you decide to use them.

The driver sees their own statement in their portal: what they earned per job, what is paid, what is pending, and when the next payout runs. They get an email when a payout goes out.

Year-end tax

The system tracks each driver's taxable total per year and flags who crosses the reporting threshold, with the details needed to file. It does not file for you. Give the report to whoever does your taxes.

Quoting commercial fleet work

The Fleet Quotes screen is built to be used live, while a customer is talking. Change an input and the total updates immediately.

You set the engagement type, the vehicle class, how many drivers, the dates, and any premiums. It gives you the customer price, the driver cost, and your margin side by side, so you can see instantly whether you are about to quote below cost.

  • It enforces a four-hour minimum per driver per assignment.
  • It bills waiting time, deadhead, and the driver's return travel, which is where this kind of work usually loses money.
  • It refuses to price a loaded move using the empty-truck mileage rate, because those are not the same job.
  • It stops and asks for custom pricing above a large committed-hours threshold rather than quietly extending a rate that was never meant for that volume.
  • It produces a clean summary you can copy straight into an email.

The existing car driveaway calculator is untouched and still prices your normal work.

The rates are planning numbers

The rates loaded in are built from current Miami wage data and a target margin. They are a defensible starting point, not a tariff. Replace them with your real costs once you know your actual insurance, payroll burden, and screening costs. Do not offer a flat per-move rate on a lane until you have run it at least three times and measured how long it really takes.

Turning the driver network on

Flipping the switch is the last step, not the first. Before it makes sense to accept a real application, these need to be settled, and most of them are not software:

  • Whether SelectDrive is the carrier, or the customer is the carrier and you supply drivers. This decides everything else.
  • Insurance confirmed in writing, including whose policy is primary for a driver you supplied.
  • A contractor or employment agreement drafted by an attorney.
  • Which background-check vendor you are using, and at what price.
  • What you actually pay drivers.
  • Whether you accept applications from Florida only or nationwide.

Once those are answered, enabling the feature is a single configuration change. Ask Mike to make it.

Things that will trip you up

  • A driver cannot be approved just because you like them. Both checks clear and every document current, or the button refuses. That is deliberate.
  • Approving a payout does not pay it. Two separate steps, on purpose.
  • The quote tool shows your margin. Look at it. The most common way to lose money here is quoting an hourly rate and then absorbing waiting time and the driver's trip home.
  • Get the weight rating off the door label. Not the customer's description. Twenty-six thousand pounds and twenty-six thousand and one pounds are different businesses.
  • If Pilot is telling customers something wrong, fix the Knowledge screen. Pilot answers from there.
  • Reimbursements are not pay. Record them as reimbursements or the driver's tax total will be overstated.

Questions

Anything in here that does not match what you see on screen, or anything that needs a decision from an attorney, an insurance agent, or an accountant, goes to Mike.