Vehicle status and the automatic "In Use"
A vehicle in Assets → Vehicles has a status — Available, In Use, Maintenance, or Out of Service. Most of these you set yourself, but "In Use" can happen automatically, and that surprises people the first time they see it. Here's how it works. (The Status column header carries an "i" tooltip that summarises this.)
The automatic rule
A vehicle shows "In Use" whenever its assigned technician is currently on shift (clocked in on the mobile app). The moment that tech ends their shift, the vehicle goes back to showing its stored status (usually Available).
The logic is: if the person the truck is assigned to is out working, the truck is in use. You don't have to flip the status by hand every morning and evening.
The shift flow wins
While the assigned tech is on shift, the live shift state prevails over the stored status. So:
- You set a vehicle to Available, its tech clocks in → the list shows In Use.
- The tech clocks out → it shows Available again.
The stored value isn't lost — it's just overridden for display while the shift is active. This keeps the fleet view honest in real time without fighting your manual settings.
When you set it manually
Manual statuses are for the cases the shift rule can't know about:
- Maintenance — the truck is in the shop. Set this yourself; it's meaningful regardless of shifts.
- Out of Service — off the road entirely.
- Available — the default resting state when no one's on shift with it.
Set the status from the vehicle's row or its detail page as usual. If the assigned tech happens to be on shift, you'll still see In Use until they clock out — that's expected.
Assigning a vehicle to a technician
The automatic behaviour depends on the vehicle having an assigned technician. Set that on the vehicle's detail page. With no assignee, the vehicle simply shows its stored status.