A guide to every feature in the controller console. Tap a heading to open it. You're currently in the Dashboard view — the Map view has the same features in a different layout. Move between sections using the left-hand menu.
Getting started
Signing on as a controller
Click Sign On in the top bar, choose your name, and enter your password to begin your shift. Your name then shows at the top. Click it again to sign off at the end of your shift. Forgotten your password? Any admin can set you a new one in the Database → Controllers tab.
Locking the console
Lock console in the View menu locks the screen so nobody can use the console while you step away, without signing you off. Unlock it to carry on where you left off.
Switching between Dashboard and Map views
Use the Map / Dashboard switch in the top bar to swap layouts. Both have exactly the same features — the Dashboard shows cards and stats, the Map view centres on a live map. Pick whichever suits your screen.
Day / night theme
Light / dark theme in the View menu switches between a light and dark colour scheme — handy for night shifts.
Pop out, pin and move windows
Keep things open beside the board, where you want them.
- ⧉ Pop out along the top of a window (the SOS log, Hospital requests, Shift rota, Team, Job history and the rest) takes away the dark backdrop and leaves the window beside the board. Drag it by that bar and resize it from the bottom-right corner. All its own buttons still work. Put it back makes it an ordinary window again.
- Pin on a window you opened from Tools opens it again, in the same place, after a reload or the next time you sign in, on any computer.
- 📌 Pin on a job (open its card, in Job Details, or in the job panel beside the board) keeps that job in its own small box, live, with its buttons. Pin as many as you like; × takes one away.
- The button on the Job Board or Active Fleet pops it out into a box; Put it back here (where it was) or its × returns it.
On a phone windows open full screen instead.
Desktop layout on a phone
The console is made for a desk. On a phone or small tablet it switches to a simpler phone layout by itself. If you would rather have the full desktop console, choose View → Use the desktop layout and pinch to zoom; Use the phone layout switches back. It is remembered on that device only.
Voice alerts (spoken updates)
The speaker button turns spoken alerts on or off. When on, the console reads out events as they happen during your shift — a rider heading to collect, a pickup, a delivery. It only announces things happening live, so signing in won't read out old jobs.
Activity feed & text size
The scrolling feed at the top shows the current jobs and what's happening with them right now. Use the A− / A+ buttons to make that feed's text smaller or larger; your choice is remembered on that device.
Riders & the fleet
Signing riders on
Use Sign On Rider on the Dashboard, or go to the Fleet view, to bring an available volunteer on shift. They then appear in the fleet and are ready to be given jobs.
The rider menu (break, send home, locate)
Click a rider's card in the Fleet view to open their menu. From there you can put them on a break, send them back to base or another location, view their next-of-kin (NOK) details, or sign them off when their shift ends.
Send to base / location
In the rider menu, use Send to Base/Location to direct a rider to a chosen hospital or base. If the rider has a home location saved, you can also send them home at the end of their shift.
Fleet Vehicles & allocation
The Fleet view's Vehicle Allocation section lists your bikes and cars (managed on the Vehicles tab of the Database). Allocate a vehicle to a rider for their shift; the vehicle they used is recorded against every job they complete, and the allocation clears when they sign off.
Suggested rider
For an unassigned job, the console suggests the nearest free, suitable rider — taking distance and whether the load suits a bike or a car into account. Click Assign on the suggestion to accept it, or assign anyone you like manually. It's only a hint; you're always in control.
Rider status at a glance
Each rider shows a clear status chip — ✓ FREE, ● BUSY, ⏸ BREAK — using a symbol as well as colour so it's readable at a glance and for colour-blind users.
Jobs
Four ways to make a job
Every job gets a job number the same way, whichever of these it starts from:
New job: you fill in the form (New Job in the menu, the New Job button on the Dashboard, or the New Job tab on a phone).
Phone job: someone's on the phone. Take the next job number, read it to them and fill in the call sheet as they talk.
Hospital request: a ward sends one from its request page. It pops up for you to accept, then becomes a job.
Scheduled job: set up ahead of time (up to a month before) from Scheduled jobs in the New job form; it goes on the board on the day.
Allocate a job (pick a rider, then a job)
Press Allocate a job on the Dashboard (or on the Fleet page). On the left is everyone on shift, free riders first (anyone with an SOS open can't be picked). Someone free who hasn't accepted a job they've already been offered shows ⏳ Offered and comes after the truly free; pick them and you're told how long the offer has been waiting, so you can ring them first. On the right is every job still waiting for a rider, urgent and soonest-needed first. Pick a rider, pick a job, and press Offer … to …. It works exactly like Assign on the board: the rider is sent the job and asked to accept it in the portal. The window stays open so you can give them, or someone else, another job.
Making a new job
Open New Job, choose a Pickup and Destination, click the description box to pick the items, set the Priority if needed, add any Notes for the rider, then press Add to the board. The job appears in Active Jobs as pending. You can also type a ward/department into the optional box to add it to the location name. For a place that isn't on your locations list — a one-off job offered to the group, or a relay handover — tick Relay / one-off job at the top of the panel. That swaps the location dropdowns for free-text boxes, so you can type any pickup and dropoff and give a postcode to put it on the map. The job runs exactly like any other and is tagged RELAY / ONE-OFF on the board so it's clear it wasn't a regular run.
Phone job (someone's on the phone)
When someone rings in a job, press the 📞 button next to New Job (in the Dashboard: Phone Job in the left menu or on the home page; on a phone: the Phone tab). The call sheet opens with the next job number already on it — read it to the caller so they can quote it. Fill in what they tell you: the time of the call (already set to now), the caller's name, the hospital and ward, their phone number and extension, the item(s) — type them, or press 📦 Pick items for the same item list as the job form — and where it is to be delivered. If it isn't our standard response, tick VERY URGENT or give the time it's needed by. Press Add to the board and the job appears as pending, ready to assign. A hospital that isn't on the list: choose Not on the list and type it. Items not known yet: leave them empty and the rider confirms them at collection. If the call comes to nothing, press Close without a job — the change log notes the number wasn't used, so a gap in the numbers is always explained.
Job numbers
Every job gets its number from the server, from one sequence a day shared by every way a job is made, so two controllers can never be given the same number. The letter at the front says how the job came in, then the day and month, then a dash and that day's count: C0810-4 is the 4th job on 8 October, typed in by Control; P0810-5 was taken over the phone; H0810-6 came from a hospital request (it gets its number when you accept it); S0810-7 started from the schedule. Jobs made before v4.27 keep their old numbers (J08104, J08105P). When a ward sends a request it is given its own reference straight away, R08103 (R, then day, month and the 3rd request that day), shown on the request and in the request log; once you accept it, the ward's page shows the job number instead, and the job's notes say which request it came from — so search History for either. The letter stays with the job everywhere, including History and exports. If the server can't be reached the console uses its own count and warns you that the number is provisional.
Choosing items / description
Clicking the description box opens the item selector. Tick common items (e.g. bloods, samples, milk) or type a custom item in the "Other" box. If you don't yet know what's being carried, tick Items unknown and the rider confirms the actual items when they collect.
Job priority (Urgent)
Set a job's priority to 🔴 Urgent when it's time-critical. Urgent jobs jump to the top of the board, pulse red, show a red URGENT badge everywhere (including on the rider's phone), send the rider an unmissable "URGENT" alert when assigned, and are tagged Urgent in the reports. Routine is the default. Use Urgent sparingly so it keeps its meaning.
Notes & standing directions
Add free-text Notes when logging a job (access codes, "ring on arrival", etc.) — the rider sees them on their phone. If a location has standing directions saved (on its Database record), they fill the notes in automatically, and you can add to them.
what3words on a job
You can add a pickup and/or delivery ///what3words address to pinpoint the exact door. Choose one from a location's mapped points, or type one in. The rider gets a tap-to-open ///link.
Assigning a job to a rider
Click a free rider in the Fleet view, then choose a pending job to assign it to them. The rider sees it instantly in their Volunteer Portal (with a push notification). Assign several to one rider and they queue.
Rider confirm / decline (acceptance)
When you assign a job, the rider gets Confirm and Can't do it buttons on their phone. Until they accept, the job shows a bold amber ⏳ AWAITING ACCEPTANCE line so you know they haven't confirmed yet. The moment they tap Confirm you get an alert and a chime, and that line turns green: ✓ [rider] ACCEPTED (with the time). If they decline, you get an amber alert with their reason and the job goes back on the board to reassign.
Nobody accepts? The line counts the minutes. After 10 minutes without an answer the rider's phone is reminded and the duty controller is alerted (everyone, if nobody is on duty), and the line turns red: ⚠ NOT ACCEPTED — rider reminded. After 20 minutes every controller is alerted, plus the backup email for an urgent job. The server keeps the clock, so this happens even with every console closed. Ring the rider, or give the job to someone else. A job queued behind a rider's current run is not chased until they are free.
Tracking: pickup & delivery
As the rider progresses, confirm Pickup and then Delivery (normally the rider does this in their portal with a signature; an Admin can also close a job). Each step is time-stamped. When delivery is confirmed the job moves into the completed records. A job's time badge turns amber after 30 minutes and red after an hour, so a job that's waiting stands out.
Signatures (offline-safe)
Riders capture a signature at pickup and at delivery in their portal. If they're out of signal, the signature is saved on their phone and uploads automatically when they're back online — nothing is lost. View signatures by opening a job's details from the job list or Job History.
Unassign or Close a job
Unassign takes a rider off a job (it goes back to pending) and stands them down. Close records a job that won't be completed the normal way — e.g. "nothing to collect" or "stood down" — with a reason, so it still appears in the records. Cancel removes a job entirely; it asks why (e.g. cancelled by the hospital, a duplicate, entered in error), and the reason goes in the change log with who cancelled it.
Job timeline
Open any job (on the board, or in Job History) and the details end with its TIMELINE: when it was created, assigned, accepted, the rider arriving at the pickup, collected, each hand-over, delivered and the rider home safe — with who did each — plus any decline, reminder, running-late alert, extra time given or problem reported. Artery's server writes it as things happen, so a console can't change it. It is saved with the job's history record too. Jobs from before this version show what can be pieced together from their own record.
Edit a job (items, contacts, times, notes)
Open a job on the board and press ✏ Edit job to change its items (type them, or 📦 Pick items), priority, needed-by time (or Clear it), the caller (with extension), the pickup and delivery contacts, and the notes for the rider — no need to cancel and log it again. Press Save changes: the change log and the job's timeline record what changed, and if a rider has the job they get a notification to check it. To change where it goes, or who has it, use the job's own buttons. Once it has been collected and signed for, the items are locked — they are part of the signed record, and the rider records any difference with Something wrong?. If the rider updates the job while you are editing, Artery asks you to open it again rather than lose either change.
Item counts (📦)
Artery counts the items from the job's item list ("2x Blood Samples, 1x Urine Samples" = 📦 3; an item with no number counts as one). The count shows on the board, in the job details, in the volunteer's job, and on their signing screen at collection, hand-over and delivery as "Check the count" — so a missing or extra item is noticed before anyone signs, and recorded with Something wrong? → Wrong number of items.
Problems reported by a rider
When a rider signs at the pickup, a hand-over or the delivery they can open ⚠ Something wrong? and say what: the wrong number of items, damaged or leaking, a temperature or cooler problem, labels or paperwork wrong, or something else, with a note. The duty controller is alerted at once (everyone, if nobody is on duty), the job shows ⚠ Problem reported on the board, and the problem is written into the job's notes, its timeline and its history record. Decide what happens next — ring the rider or the contact at that end.
Scheduled Jobs
Use Scheduled Jobs to set up runs in advance. Pick the pickup, destination, items, an optional rider, and a time — for a single date, or across many days at once (pick weekdays and a "repeat until" date, or add individual dates). Each becomes a pending job automatically ahead of its time, and you can Start Now from the board. Artery itself starts each one 2 hours before its time — nobody needs to be signed in — with a job number, offered to the chosen rider (who gets a notification), and the list then shows Started as J…. Each one starts once: if you cancel that job, it does not come back. Change its date or time and it will start again at the new time.
Caller, contacts & needed-by time
On the job form, open
📞 Caller, contacts & needed-by time (all optional):
- Caller — who asked for the job, and a number to ring them back. For Control only; riders never see it.
- Contact at pickup and Contact at destination — who the rider should ask for. The rider gets a 📞 Call button for each at the right stage of the job. Only the rider doing the job sees the numbers.
- Needed by — when it must arrive. The board shows ⏰ by 14:30, turning amber (DUE) 30 minutes before and red (LATE) once the time has passed, and the rider sees the same countdown.
A job accepted from a hospital request fills in the caller (the requester and their number) and the needed-by time for you. Open a job's details to see all of it, and when it was assigned.
Running late (expected arrival)
Riders are no longer asked to check in every half hour — a phone going off at someone on a motorcycle is a distraction, not a safety check. Instead, the moment a job starts for a rider (they accept it, it comes off their queue, it is handed to them, or they collect and set off to deliver), Artery works out roughly when they should get there: the road time from where they are, plus a few minutes to get going. The job card shows
🕒 Expected at pickup ~14:20. Nothing happens unless they are late:
- 10 minutes late — the duty controller is alerted (everyone, if nobody is on duty) and the card turns amber. Your call: ring them (📞 Ring), give them more time (+15 min), or reassign.
- 20 minutes late — every controller is alerted and the alarm fills the screen. Please ring them.
- 30 minutes late — every controller is alerted and emailed, the card turns red, and only now is the rider asked to tap I'm OK. Find out why, and that they are OK.
When the rider taps
Arrived — all OK at the pickup, they get 30 minutes to collect (waiting for the samples is not being late); if it still is not collected after that, the same alerts follow, so a rider who arrives and then goes quiet is still looked for.
+15 min, or the rider tapping
I'm OK, sets a new expected time and the count starts again.
Ask them to check in sends the rider one notification asking them to tap I'm OK when it is safe to stop. The estimate is a free-flow road time with no live traffic — the 10-minute margin is there to absorb ordinary delays. While anyone is late, a
LATE line sits in the strip at the top of every page with the minutes kept up to date; tap a name to open the job.
Acknowledge on the alarm silences your screen only, but every other console then shows
Acknowledged by your name and the time, so they can see someone has it. Every alert and decision is in the change log.
Time on jobs (sharing the work out)
Each rider's card shows ⏱ Jobs: 1h 20m this shift (3 jobs) · 4h 10m in 7 days, and the Suggested rider on an unassigned job shows the same. It counts from the moment a rider accepts a job (or, if it was queued behind another job, from when they start it) until they deliver it, hand it over, or it is taken off them. Two jobs carried at once are not counted twice. Use it to share the work out evenly. The time is also written to the history record of every job (the Job Minutes column of the history spreadsheet). It starts counting from this version, so older jobs show no time.
Planning & records
Shift Rota
The Shift Rota view shows the 4-week rota. Click a 4-hour block to book a rider or driver, or use + add under Controllers to book a controller. Page through weeks with Previous / Next, and export to CSV. Controllers can book or remove anyone's shift; a volunteer can only add or remove their own in their portal.
Rota cover (gaps and "can't make it")
Cover needed: an admin presses ⚙ Cover needed on the rota and sets how many riders/drivers and controllers each 4-hour block needs, day by day — 0 where you don't run (a night group leaves the days at 0). From today on, each block then shows have/need (e.g. 1/2) and turns red when it is short, a red line under Controllers names blocks with no controller, and the week shows how many gaps it has. Volunteers see the same in their portal, so they can fill them. All 0 turns it off.
Can't make it: instead of deleting a shift, a volunteer (or a controller, for them) taps 🙋 Can't make it. The shift stays on the rota marked Needs cover and stops counting towards cover; another volunteer taps Take it in their portal, or a controller presses Cover… and chooses someone. The volunteer who asked is told who is covering, and a vehicle booked with the shift goes with it. Withdraw cancels the request. Volunteers can only add, remove or ask cover for their own shifts, and take cover for themselves; only controllers can book or give a shift to someone else.
Short notice: if a shift starting within 24 hours is removed, or put up for cover, the duty controller is alerted (everyone, if nobody is on duty). Every booking, removal, cover request and swap is in the change log with who did it.
Job History & reports
The History view shows all server-archived completed jobs. Filter by time range, or put in your own From and To dates and press Show these dates — jobs are filed by the day they were completed, and the report says which period it covers. Search by job reference, rider or location, and export as a printable report, CSV, or Excel (.xlsx). Each record includes the times created/collected/delivered, a job number, the vehicle used, the priority, and running-cost/savings figures. An Admin can correct a record or add a past job — the original archive is never overwritten, and every edit is logged.
Cost & savings (Rates)
Reports show what the runs cost to run versus what a commercial courier would have charged — i.e. the money volunteers saved. Set the per-mile and call-out rates on the Database's Rates tab; sensible UK defaults are used until you do.
Volunteer stats
A recognition report totalling each volunteer's completed jobs, miles and rostered hours, and how long since their last job (flagging anyone not active for 30+ days — worth a check-in). Exportable to Excel.
Vehicle checks in reports
Riders submit a pre-ride vehicle check (POWDER for bikes, a car list for cars) from their portal. The Dashboard home shows whether each in-use vehicle has been checked today, and any reported issue is flagged so you can act on it.
Snapshot
Shift snapshot in the Tools menu creates a plain-text summary of today's live situation (riders, active jobs, and jobs completed today) that you can copy and paste, e.g. into a handover message. Previous days aren't included — look those up in the History view.
If Artery is down (printed card)
Tools → If Artery is down (print) prints a two-page plan for carrying on with phones and paper: how to tell whether it really is down, who to ring (your controllers and their numbers, filled in from the database, with space to write more), running jobs on paper, keeping riders safe by hand while Artery's alerts aren't running, and how to put the paper jobs back in afterwards (Job history → Add past job). Page 2 is the paper docket log. Print it now, keep a copy by every control phone and in riders' kit, and print it again when your controllers change. Your group's data is also copied, encrypted, off the server every night.
Two-step login (admins)
An admin account can change everything, so a stolen password alone shouldn't be enough. Tools → Two-step login (admins) → Turn on: scan the code with an authenticator app on your phone (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy, 1Password…), type the 6-digit code it shows, and write down or print the 8 backup codes — each works once if the phone is lost. From then on, signing in as you asks for your password and the code in the app. It is for admin accounts only and each admin turns it on for themselves; ordinary controllers sign in as before. Lost your phone? Use a backup code, then New backup codes or turn it off and on again with the new phone. Another admin who has lost theirs: the main Admin account presses Reset (lost phone) next to their name. If the main Admin is locked out, whoever runs the server uses reset-admin.sh, which sets a new password and switches the Admin's two-step login off.
Shift handover notes
Handover note in the Tools menu leaves a note for the next controller (e.g. "the fridge at Ward 4 is broken"). It stays pinned on every console until a controller taps Acknowledge. Who left it and who acknowledged it is recorded in the change log.
Change log (Admins)
Admins can view a running log of who did what and when — jobs created, assigned, unassigned, cancelled and closed, riders signed on/off, rider confirmations and declines, handover notes, and database changes. It's your "what happened on that shift?" record.
Export CSV / Clear List
In the Fleet view, Export CSV downloads a copy of the current shift's completed jobs — a good end-of-shift backup. Clear List only clears the on-screen list; the data stays safely archived on the server.
Database
Volunteers (riders & drivers)
On the Volunteers tab you add and edit people: name, callsign, mobile, next of kin, an optional email (so you can email them their portal card), an optional home postcode (used for "Send Home"), optional compliance dates, and a small photo shown beside their name. Their portal password is issued automatically the moment you add them — you do not set it. Untick Active volunteer for someone who has left or is on a long break; their history is kept. Controller/Admin access is granted on the Controllers tab.
With a big team, type in the Find a volunteer box above the list to narrow it by name or callsign. Each row has Edit, Reset password, New code (see Portal passwords), Card (print that volunteer's card), Email (only when they have an email address), Remove access (see When a volunteer leaves the group) and Remove. Under each name you can see their issued password and whether they have changed it, whether their card has been emailed, any compliance or ID card date that is due, and their member number. To add a lot of people at once, use Import from spreadsheet at the top of the Database Manager.
Portal passwords
Volunteers sign in with one password and nothing else — it identifies them, so there is no name to pick and no list of volunteers on the sign-in screen. Everyone is issued a four-letter code automatically. Admins see it under the volunteer's name (🔑), marked not changed yet or set their own. Get it to them on a printed or emailed volunteer card.
The first time they sign in, the portal makes them choose their own password before they can carry on (the SOS button stays on that screen). From then on the issued code stops working — otherwise a printed card would be a key to their account. If they forget it, press Reset password: they go back to the code on their card, and choose a new one when they next sign in. PINs no longer sign anybody in.
Card lost, stolen or seen by someone else? Press New code instead (admins). It issues a brand-new four-letter code, so the old card no longer gets anyone in, and signs them out of every phone they are signed in on (their shift and jobs are not affected). Their card is then out of date: Artery offers to email or print them a new one. It goes in the change log.
Controllers, admins & passwords
On the Controllers tab you add controllers, grant admin rights, and set or reset passwords. Leaving the password blank when editing keeps the current one. The main Admin account is protected — it can't be deleted or have its password changed by other admins.
Locations, departments, directions & what3words
On the Locations tab you add hospitals, surgeries and bases with their coordinates and an optional ///what3words. For large sites add departments (e.g. Pathology, Maternity) that appear as sub-options when logging a job. You can also save standing directions for a site — access notes that auto-fill a job's Notes whenever that site is used. (The searchable ///what3words directory, with CSV import, is in the Map view.)
Vehicles & MOT/service reminders
On the Vehicles tab you manage the fleet of bikes and cars (name, type, registration, notes). Add MOT, service and insurance due dates to get amber "due soon" and red "overdue" reminders, and optionally record which volunteer a vehicle is kept with (its custodian). These are the vehicles you allocate to riders for their shifts.
Rates (cost & savings)
On the Rates tab (admin) set the per-mile running cost for bikes and cars, and the courier per-mile and call-out rates. Reports use these to show your running cost and the money saved versus a commercial courier.
Volunteer cards (print or email)
A card that gets a volunteer into the portal: their name, callsign, phone, next of kin, the portal address in large bold type, and their four-letter password with a reminder to change it the first time they sign in. Admins only.
- Print volunteer cards (under the list) prints a card for every active volunteer, eight to an A4 page.
- Card on a volunteer's row prints just theirs — use the Find a volunteer box to find them first.
- Email on a row emails that volunteer their portal address and password. Email cards to everyone not yet sent one does the whole team. The email carries only the address and password — never phone numbers or next of kin.
Once a volunteer has chosen their own password, their card says
chosen by the volunteer instead of a code and no email is sent, because the old code no longer works. Up to 80 emails go out a day; if there are more, press the button again the next day and it carries on. If it says email is not set up, ask whoever looks after your server.
Team: regular shifts, time away, noticeboard, documents, training
Open these from
Tools → Team & Rota (Reports and Their data are under
Records & Reports; Permissions and Trustees under
Admin & system).
- 🚚 Fleet vehicles & checks — who has which vehicle, today's daily checks, and anything out of service. It opens as a box: drag it by its title, resize it from the bottom-right corner, and press Pin to keep it open in that place the next time you sign in, on any computer. A vehicle not checked today also shows as ⚠ on that rider's line in Active Fleet.
- 🔁 Regular shifts — for shifts someone does every week or every other week. Choose who, the day, the times and when it starts. Artery puts the shifts on the rota eight weeks ahead and keeps it topped up. A single week can still be taken off the rota as normal and won't come back. Stop takes the future shifts off the rota; past ones stay in the record.
- 🗂 Their data (GDPR) — when a volunteer asks what information the group holds about them (a subject access request), choose them and press Gather their data. Download the readable page (it prints or saves as PDF) to send them, and the data file if they want it in that form. It covers their record and photo, shifts, swaps, time away, hours, jobs they carried, SOS records, messages with Control, training, documents they confirmed, stages and change-log lines that name them. Passwords and codes, and other people's information, are left out. Admins, and controllers given Volunteer records, can do this; each export is written in the change log. Send the files securely and delete your copies afterwards. Erase a volunteer (admins, same tab) is for someone who has left and asks for their data to be deleted: remove their access first, then choose them and type their name to confirm. Their record, login, future shifts and message text are deleted; past shifts, hours and training stay without their name ("Former volunteer #number"); job history, SOS records and the change log keep it. It can't be undone, and backups made before it expire within 30 days.
- 📊 Reports — four reports, each with a Download (CSV) for Excel: cover for the next two weeks (every block with fewer people than your group needs, and shifts asking for cover); how well shifts were filled over the last four weeks, week by week; training and checks running out in the next 30, 60 or 90 days, already run out, or needed and never recorded (including DBS, insurance and advanced test dates); and people joining, with how long each has been an applicant or trainee. The cover reports need the cover your group needs to be set (⚙ Cover needed on the rota).
- 🧭 Stages — where each volunteer is in joining: Applicant, Trainee or Active. Anyone not given a stage counts as active, so nothing changes until you use it. Add a new person in the Database, then set them as an applicant or trainee here. Applicants can't book themselves onto the rota. Sign off as active checks the training their role needs; if any is missing or out of date it says which, and you can still sign them off on purpose (it's written in the change log). Each person's history of stages is kept. Admins, and controllers given Volunteer records, can change stages. Applicants and trainees get a badge in the volunteer list and a welcome note in their portal. Someone leaving is still Remove access.
- 🔄 Swaps — volunteers swap shifts with each other from the portal (Find a shift → Swap one of my shifts): one offers, the other accepts or says no, and the rota only changes when it's accepted. Here you see the ones waiting for an answer and the recent ones, and can cancel one that's waiting. A swap starting within 24 hours is flagged to the duty controller. Swaps need a controller's approval (a tick box here, off unless you turn it on; admins and rota managers): once both volunteers agree, the swap waits under Waiting for your approval and the duty controller is told. Nothing on the rota moves until someone presses Approve; Don't approve leaves both shifts as they were. Both volunteers are told either way. In the portal, Find a shift also lists shifts that need cover and the gaps on the rota.
- ⏰ Reminders (admins, in the Team window) — people get a reminder before each shift by phone notification and, if we have their address, by email. Back-to-back blocks get one reminder. Volunteers are also reminded 30 days before their training runs out.
- 🏖 Time away — planned leave. Volunteers add their own in the portal, or you can add it for them. Their regular shifts are left off the rota for those dates, and one-off shifts in that time are marked as needing cover (the duty controller is told if it's within a week).
- 📌 Noticeboard — post notices for everyone, volunteers only or controllers only. Pin important ones, set a date to take them down, and tick the box to send a notification to people's phones.
- 📄 Documents — upload policies, forms and guides (PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, text or pictures, up to 8 MB). Choose whether everyone can see each one, or controllers only. Tick Everyone must confirm they've read it for a policy people have to read: volunteers see it as Please read in the portal and tap I've read it. The list then shows Read by 12 of 30; click it to see who hasn't. When the document changes, Ask everyone again starts a fresh round (the earlier confirmations stay on record). Remind the ones who haven't sends a phone nudge to just those people. Artery also reminds them on its own, every week by default, up to 3 times; change or turn this off under Reminders.
- 🎓 Training — an admin adds the training your group uses, how long it lasts and who needs it. Then click a volunteer's box to record when they did it. Green is in date, amber runs out within 30 days, red has run out or is needed and missing. DBS, insurance and advanced test dates from the volunteer's record show alongside.
Permissions: extra jobs for a controller
An admin can give an ordinary controller one or more extra jobs without making them an admin. Open
Tools → Permissions, tick the boxes against the controller and press
Save. It works straight away, and taking a tick off works straight away too.
- Rota manager — how many people each shift needs, and the shift reminders.
- Training officer — the list of training your group uses. (Every controller can already record training.)
- Volunteer records — adding volunteers and editing their details in the Database Manager (contact, next of kin, home, compliance dates, photo; Update Volunteer saves that one person straight away, and if someone else changed the same thing meanwhile nothing is saved and they're told), Reset password and New code, Remove access and Give access back, printing and emailing portal cards, and ID cards (photos, member numbers, printing). Not an admin's own record.
- Reports and audit log — the change log, and the setup spreadsheet export.
Saving the Database Manager, controller logins, ward codes, wiping history and the card design stay with admins. Every change of permission is written in the change log.
Trustees: a read-only view of the figures
Give your trustees their own login to a page of the group's figures: runs and miles month by month, money saved against a courier, volunteer hours, whether the rota is covered, training that has run out or is due, how many volunteers you have at each stage, and SOS and hospital request counts. Pick a period, print it or download it as a spreadsheet.
It shows totals and counts only. No names, phone numbers, places or job details, and nothing can be changed. A trustee login can't open the console, the portal or anything else in Artery.
Tools → Trustees (admins): type their name and press Make their login. Artery makes the password and shows it once; give it to them with the address shown (your address + /trustees). New password or Remove signs them out straight away. See what trustees see opens the page as it looks to them. Every sign-in and change is in the change log.
"Still with us?" (the controller check)
When there's live work (a job on the road, one waiting to be accepted, a hospital request waiting, a rider running late or an open SOS) and nobody has clicked, tapped or typed on any console for 20 minutes, every open console asks "Still with us?" with a chime. Press I'm here, or just use the console, and it goes away.
If nobody answers within 5 minutes, every controller gets a notification and your control email address gets an email, so someone can check the desk. It's aimed at the desk, not the riders: on a long, quiet shift it's easy to lose track of time. Each check, answer and alert goes in the change log.
Proof of delivery (chain-of-custody PDF)
Open any job (on the board or in Job history) and press Proof of delivery (PDF). Artery makes a one- or two-page record of that job: how it came in, what was carried, from and to, the rider (and every hand-over on a relay), when it was collected and delivered, both signatures, any problems reported, and the full timeline. For a job still on the road the button says Chain of custody so far.
It holds only what the job record holds, so it never contains patient details. Each PDF made is noted in the change log.
Needed-by countdown
A job with a needed-by time shows a countdown on the board: grey while there's plenty of time, amber from 30 minutes before, red from 10 minutes before and once it's late (it then counts how late). It moves on by itself every 20 seconds. Set the time under Caller, contacts & needed-by time on the job form; a hospital request brings its own.
Artery health (checks, test alert, restart, ask for help)
Tools → Artery health shows whether your group's copy of Artery is well, with a green, amber or red light for each thing: that it's running, that the safety checks (SOS escalation, running-late alerts, chasing unaccepted jobs) are ticking, last night's backup, storage, memory, and whether email alerts and phone notifications are set up. Each light says what it means and what to do. Nothing here affects any other group.
Check for problems also opens each of your group's data files to make sure they read properly. Send a test alert sends a notification to the device you're on and a test email to your control address, so you can prove alerts actually arrive. Ask for help emails Artery support with your message and the checks attached; it never includes anything about volunteers, patients or jobs.
Restart Artery (admins only) fixes most "it's gone strange" problems in about 10 seconds. It restarts your group's copy only. Everyone is signed out and signs back in; nothing is lost. If there are jobs on the board or an open SOS it warns you first, as riders on those jobs are signed out too. You give a short reason, it goes in the change log, Artery support is emailed, and it can be used once every 10 minutes.
Install Artery on your phone or computer
Tools → Install the app puts the console on your home screen (or desktop) with its own icon, opening full-screen like any other app. It shows the right steps for the device you're on: one tap on Android, Chrome and Edge; on an iPhone, Share → Add to Home Screen.
On an iPhone this matters: Apple only sends notifications to web apps added to the home screen, so without it you won't get SOS, running-late or hospital request alerts unless Artery is open in front of you. Once installed, open it from the icon, sign in, then go back to Tools → Install the app and tap Turn on alerts. Prove it with Tools → Artery health → Send a test alert.
Whichever view you install from is the one the icon opens. On a phone, the Dashboard view fits the screen better. Installed apps update themselves like the web page does.
About Artery (and the chip-in link)
Tools → About Artery explains how Artery came about, that it's free for every group, and who pays for running it. Volunteers can open the same page from their portal.
It includes a Chip in to Artery link for anyone who'd like to help with the running costs. It's never expected, and it isn't a donation to your group. If your group would rather it wasn't shown, an admin can untick Show the "Chip in to Artery" link to this group at the bottom of that page. That hides it for everyone in your group, in the consoles and the portal.
Photo ID cards
Artery makes photo ID cards ready for a card printer: a PDF at real card size (85.6 × 54 mm, with 3 mm bleed), front and back for each volunteer. Admins only.
One volunteer. Press
Edit on their row. The
🪪 ID card box in their record has:
- Member number — type the number they already have, or press Next number for the next free one. Numbers are never reused, even after someone leaves. Press Save/Update after typing a number.
- Issued / Expires — Issue card (or Renew (+1 year)) dates the card from today, valid for a year.
- 📷 Add photo — choose a passport-style photo, then drag and zoom it to fit the frame.
- ⬇ ID card PDF — downloads their card.
Photos sent by volunteers. A volunteer with no photo is asked to take one in their portal. It shows as
📷 PHOTO TO APPROVE on the list; open them and press
Approve, or
Reject to ask for another.
Lots at once. Press
ID cards under the list to download cards that are new or expiring within 30 days (issued or renewed from today first), cards issued in the last 14 days, or everyone with a photo; to give member numbers to everyone without one; and to set the group name and the “If found, please return to” line printed on the cards. Anyone without an approved photo is left out of the PDF.
Your group's own card design. In
ID cards, press
Use our own card design. Upload a picture of your card (PNG or JPEG, at least 1000 px across) with blank spaces left for the details, and a back if you want one. Add each detail (photo, name, member number, dates, callsign, role, group name, QR) and drag its box onto its space; drag the corner to resize. Text is sized to fill its box. Press
Preview PDF to check it, then
Save design. From then on every card PDF uses your design.
Go back to Artery's standard design undoes it.
Import & export (spreadsheets)
Import from spreadsheet (top of the Database Manager, admins only) loads volunteers, controllers, vehicles or locations from an Excel or CSV file. Choose what the sheet holds, pick the file, check how Artery has matched your columns and the row-by-row preview, then press Import. Nothing is saved until you press Import, and nothing already there is overwritten — a name that already exists is skipped. Volunteers get portal passwords automatically. Controllers get a temporary password that is shown once, so copy the list before you close it.
Export to spreadsheet downloads volunteers, controllers, vehicles and locations as one Excel file in the same layout, so it can be imported straight back. It contains personal details (phone numbers, next of kin, home postcodes), so keep it safe. It never contains passwords, job history, signatures or messages.
When a volunteer leaves the group
Press Remove access on their row (admins only) — when someone has left the group, or must not use Artery for now. Their portal password stops working straight away, any phone they are signed in on is signed out, and they show as ACCESS REMOVED · NO PORTAL. Their record and every job, hour, signature and SOS stay exactly as they were — nothing is deleted.
Use this rather than unticking Active volunteer, which only hides someone from shifts: an inactive volunteer can still sign in, because inactive also means stepped back for a while. You can't remove someone's access while they are on shift or holding a job. Changed your mind? Give access back lets them sign in again. Remove deletes the record itself.
Other
Messages (💬)
The 💬 button opens Messages. Volunteers can message Control from their portal, with photos, and any controller can read and answer any conversation — whoever is on the desk. A red number on the button shows unread messages. Conversations between two volunteers are listed too, marked 👁: controllers can read them but not post in them. Everything is logged. Volunteers are told to use SOS, not messages, in an emergency. An admin can Wipe messages… (all of them, or everything before a date) from the bottom of the list; this cannot be undone.
Incoming hospital requests
Hospitals can submit a delivery request themselves on your group's request page — this site's address with /r on the end (the longer /request.html still works) — using an access code: either your group's shared code, or a ward's own code printed on its poster. There is no login. New requests pop up on the console with an alert and a repeating chime, and a 📥 Requests button appears bottom-right while any are unanswered. Accept turns one into a job on the board ready to assign; Decline asks for a reason the requester sees. Either way the ward's own page follows the run (accepted → collected → delivered) while they keep it open. Only pass the access code to clinical staff, and tell them it is for requests, never for emergencies — those still come by phone.
Volunteer Portal
Volunteer Portal in the Tools menu opens the phone view volunteers use. Each job is a simple card with one big button for the next step (collect, hand over, deliver), so a rider carrying several jobs never mixes them up. It also has navigation, signatures, relay steps and handovers, SOS and welfare check-ins, vehicle checks, their shifts, messages to Control, events, and the photo for their ID card. There's a separate Help button inside the portal too. Before a volunteer's first sign-on it shows a notice explaining how their location is used; their position goes to Control only, never to other volunteers. If you sign in to the portal on a console computer, log out of it afterwards.
Version number
The small version (e.g. v2.27) shown in the corner confirms which release you're running. If you ever report a problem, mention this number.
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