GPS Trails: See Where Your Delivery Van Actually Drove

When the plan and the road don't match

You sorted the run this morning. The stops were in a sensible order, the driver left on time, and you told the customer their delivery would arrive between 2 and 4pm. Then 3pm comes and goes. The customer calls. The driver says traffic was bad. You're left wondering: did the driver take a wrong turn, get stuck, or just go the long way?

Without a record of where the van actually drove, you're stuck guessing. That's where GPS trails come in. This article shows you how to see the real path a driver took, compare it to the sorted route, and answer those questions with evidence instead of assumptions.

How GPS trails work

While a phone is on a run with location turned on, the StopSorted driver app samples GPS along the way. Those points build a trail — a gold line on the route map that shows exactly where the phone went. It's not just the planned road route; it's the actual path driven, including detours, U-turns, and unexpected stops.

You'll see two lines on the map:

• The blue or planned road line (if shown) is the sorted route — the sequence of stops StopSorted calculated.
• The gold line is where the phone actually went. It follows the driver's real movements.

The gold trail sits behind the live red marker while the run is active, then remains along the completed path afterwards.

Trails require the driver app to ping while the run is open, so location must be allowed on the phone. History is kept for about 14 days, which is plenty for most delivery operations. The Overview map shows live pins only; to see a trail, you need to open a specific route for that phone.

Step-by-step: Viewing a GPS trail

1. Open Routes in your fleet login.
2. Pick a phone from the list.
3. Open today's run or a recent one by tapping map.
4. Look for the gold GPS trail behind the live red marker (or along the completed path).
5. If a blue planned line appears, that's the sorted route. The gold line is where the phone actually went.

That's it. No extra hardware, no complicated setup. If the driver app was running with location on, the trail will be there.

What the driver sees vs. what the office sees

Drivers see their stop list and the next destination. They don't need to think about GPS trails — the app handles it in the background. Their focus stays on the road and the delivery.

The office sees the bigger picture. On the route map, you get the live red marker showing where the van is right now, plus the gold trail showing the path it took to get there. This is useful for delivery driver tracking when you need to answer a customer query or review a run after the fact.

If you're a fleet controller, you can also use the trail to spot patterns. Maybe a driver consistently takes a particular detour, or a certain route has recurring delays. The gold line gives you the facts to have a constructive conversation.

A realistic scenario: The missing delivery

Imagine you run a small fleet of three vans. One afternoon, a customer calls saying their parcel never arrived. The driver insists they delivered it. You open the route map for that phone and look at the gold trail.

The trail shows the van did stop near the customer's address, but it was two streets over. The driver had marked the stop as complete, but the GPS trail reveals they were not at the exact location. You call the driver, who realises they went to the wrong street — similar name, easy mistake. The parcel is still in the van. You arrange a redelivery for the same day, and the customer is happy.

Before GPS trails, you might have spent hours on the phone, checking with the driver, checking with the customer, and possibly losing the customer's trust. Now you have a clear record.

Why this matters for your delivery operation

Knowing where the van actually drove helps you:

• Resolve customer disputes quickly with factual evidence.
• Coach drivers on route choices without guesswork.
• Improve future sorted routes by seeing where time is lost.
• Provide better arrival time estimates when you understand typical detours.

If you're searching for the best GPS app for delivery drivers, look for one that shows both the planned and actual routes. StopSorted's gold trail gives you that clarity without extra hardware.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to install anything special to get GPS trails? No. If your drivers use the StopSorted app on their phones and location is enabled, trails are recorded automatically. There's no additional device to buy or configure.

How long are trails kept? About 14 days. That's enough to review recent runs, but if you need longer history, you might want to export or save screenshots for your records.

Can I see trails for all phones at once? The Overview map shows live pins for all active phones, but to see a specific trail you need to open that phone's route. This keeps the map clean and lets you focus on one run at a time.

What if the trail is missing? Check that the driver app was running and location was allowed during the run. If the app was closed or location was off, no trail will be recorded. Also note that trails only appear for runs that have been started in the app.

Try it on your next run

GPS trails turn guesswork into knowledge. Next time a customer asks where the van was, or a driver's story doesn't quite add up, you'll have the answer at your fingertips.

To learn more about how StopSorted handles GPS trails, visit our guide: /help/fleet/gps-trail. For pricing and plans, see /pricing.