Add Your Vehicles and Drivers

Booking a job means giving it a driver and a vehicle, and Paperwork will only offer vehicles you have added and drivers you have marked. This page adds both, so the first job you raise can be booked onto the scheduling board.

Before you start

• You are an organisation Owner. Vehicles live in References, which is open to organisation Owners only. See Set up your organisation and team.
• Your team and seats are in place. Drivers who will also use Paperwork need their own seats. See Set up your organisation and team. Drivers who only appear on the board are just contacts and need no seat.
• You can add contacts. Drivers are contacts, so your Paperwork role needs to allow creating them. The Paperwork Owner role has every permission.

You do not need a vehicle or a driver to raise a sale or a job. You need them the first time you book a job onto the board, which is the step that moves it from Planning to Scheduled.

Add your vehicle types

A vehicle type is a category such as "7.5 tonne lorry" or "Skip loader". It carries default CO₂ emissions and cost per mile, which are copied onto each vehicle you add.

Open Vehicle Types and click Add vehicle type

In References, open Vehicle Types and click Add vehicle type.

Enter a Name and the optional figures

Enter a Name. CO₂ emissions (g/km) and Cost per mile (£) are both optional. Click Add.

Add your vehicles

Open Vehicles and click Add vehicle

In References, open Vehicles and click Add vehicle.

Enter the Registration

Registration is the only required field, up to 20 characters. Paperwork refuses a second vehicle with the same registration: "A vehicle with this registration already exists".

Choose the vehicle type and owner if they apply

Pick a Vehicle type if you made one. Choosing it fills in CO₂ emissions (g/km) and Cost per mile (£) for you, but only if you have not typed them already. Owner is None for your own fleet. Choose Customer or Supplier for a vehicle that belongs to someone else, such as a subcontractor's lorry. Description, Make, Colour, Fuel type and the MOT and tax fields are optional. Click Add.

Repeat for every vehicle you will book. An archived vehicle cannot be booked, so archive a vehicle you no longer use.

Mark your drivers

A driver is not a separate list. It is a contact with two switches on. Only people can be drivers, not businesses.

Open the contact

Click Contacts under Relationships, then New contact for a new driver. For someone you have already added, open them from the list instead. If the person is a Person, you will see the Driver switch. A Business contact does not show it.

Switch on Driver

Switch on Driver: "Mark this contact as one of your drivers so they can be assigned to jobs and collection routes." On a contact that already exists, the switch saves as soon as you click it.

Switch on Show in scheduling

Show in scheduling appears once Driver is on, and it starts off. Switch it on. Without it the driver exists but is not on the scheduling board.

Create the contact

On a new contact, click Create contact, or Create & add another if you are adding several drivers.

References also lists Drivers, but it is only a signpost. It says Moved, and clicking it opens Contacts filtered to drivers.

For a subcontractor's driver, link the contact to their haulier once you have added that supplier in the next step. The scheduling board shows the first supplier a driver is linked to under their name. See Contacts for the internal and external split.

Let booking set the status

You will meet this on your first job, so it is worth knowing now. When you book a job on the scheduling board, Paperwork gives it a driver, a vehicle, a date and a time, and moves it from Planning to Scheduled.

The documents have a limit worth knowing too. The Waste Transfer Note and Consignment Note do not fill in the driver's name, the vehicle registration or the signatures from the booking, even when the job has them. Those fields print blank so they can be completed by hand on the day. The carrier's name and registration do print, from the carrier on the job. See Suppliers and transport for how the carrier is set.

If you skip this

• No vehicles — you cannot book a job. The booking form says "Vehicle is required".
• No drivers, or drivers without Show in scheduling — the board says No drivers to schedule, with a Go to Contacts button, and a driver whose Show in scheduling is off is missing from the board.
• A contact without Driver switched on, or an archived one — Paperwork refuses the booking with "Contact is not an active driver".
• Setting Scheduled by hand — the job has no driver or vehicle and is off the board.
• Vehicle types — nothing breaks. You type the CO₂ and cost per mile yourself, or leave them blank.

Check it worked

• In References, open Vehicles. Each vehicle shows its Registration and a Status of Active.
• In Contacts, click Drivers only. Every person you meant to book is listed with a Driver badge.
• Open Scheduling under Workspace. Each driver you marked has a row on the board. If the board says No drivers to schedule, check Show in scheduling on those contacts.

What to do next

Step 8, Add your suppliers and transport, adds the carriers and disposal sites every job needs, including your own company if you carry or tip your own waste.

• Contacts — drivers, linking contacts and internal versus external drivers
• Scheduling — booking, moving and unscheduling jobs
• Reference Data — vehicles and every other list