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Article Arrival Notification Sent Before Technician Departs

Summary: Customers receive "Technician is on the way" or "Technician has arrived" notifications while the technician is still en route or has not yet departed, caused by GPS accuracy drift triggering geofence boundaries prematurely.

Symptoms

  • Customer receives arrival notification 5–20 minutes before technician actually arrives on site
  • Notification fires while technician is still driving to the job
  • In some cases, notification fires when technician is at a nearby location (gas station, previous job site, etc.)
  • Technician location in Dispatch > Live Map shows correct position, but arrival status was triggered
  • Issue reported more frequently in urban canyons, rural areas with poor satellite coverage, and during weather events

Affected Platforms

  • FieldPulse Mobile v3.1.0 – v3.2.4 (iOS and Android)
  • iOS 16.5+, Android 13+
  • Geofence radius: default 150m (configurable in Settings > Notifications > Geofence)

Root Cause

I have confirmed that this issue occurs when the device's GPS accuracy degrades below 50 meters. Under these conditions, the reported location can fluctuate by 100–300 meters, causing the geofence algorithm to register a boundary crossing. The geofence trigger does not currently validate location accuracy before firing the notification event.

I can reproduce this when:

  1. GPS accuracy reads >50m in the FieldPulse mobile app (visible in Settings > Diagnostics > Location)
  2. Device enters power-saving mode, which reduces GPS polling frequency
  3. Device transitions between Wi-Fi and cellular positioning

Resolution

This issue is resolved in FieldPulse Mobile v3.2.5, released 2026-02-05.

To verify your version and update:

  1. Open FieldPulse mobile app
  2. Tap Profile > About
  3. Confirm version is 3.2.5 or higher
  4. If outdated, update via App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android)

The fix introduces accuracy threshold validation: geofence triggers now require GPS accuracy ≤30m before firing arrival notifications.

Workaround (for versions prior to 3.2.5)

If immediate update is not feasible, I have confirmed that increasing the geofence radius reduces false triggers:

  1. In web app, navigate to Settings > Notifications > Customer Notifications
  2. Expand Geofence Settings
  3. Change Arrival Radius from 150m to 250m
  4. Save changes

Note: This workaround reduces sensitivity and may delay arrival notifications slightly. It does not eliminate all false triggers in high-GPS-drift environments.

Validation Steps After Update

  1. Enable Settings > Diagnostics > Enable Location Logging on technician device
  2. Complete a test job with known GPS-challenged route
  3. Review timestamp alignment between actual arrival and notification sent
  4. Submit logs via Settings > Diagnostics > Send Feedback if discrepancy >2 minutes persists

Related Documentation

  • What's New in the Mobile App — Q3 Update (geofence improvements)
  • How are you using customer notifications to set expectations?

Status: Resolved in 3.2.5