Drivers request the journey and inspect the vehicle from their phone, by voice and photo. Fieldmaster.ai checks every licence, permit and vehicle document, plans the route with mandatory breaks, and sends the journey to the approvers its risk requires. Once the vehicle leaves, the same phone tracks the trip until the journey is closed. Deployed on Shell sites and built for OPAL-compliant oil and gas operations.
The problem
In many operations, journeys are approved without checking driver licences, permits or vehicle registration. Expired documents are only found after the journey has started, and vehicle inspections happen without a standard checklist, photo evidence or proof of which vehicle was inspected.
Higher-risk journeys aren’t consistently escalated, driving time limits and mandatory breaks aren’t enforced, and once a vehicle leaves there is little visibility of where it is or whether the plan is being followed. When an audit comes, the records are scattered across formats, or were never kept.
How it works
Each journey moves through defined stages, and the system checks every one before the next can begin.
The driver describes the journey by voice, photographs the number plate and completes the pre-trip checklist.
Licences, permits, vehicle documents and inspection answers are checked automatically on submission.
The route is planned with breaks added automatically, and no stretch runs longer than two hours.
Risk is assessed, including the weather along the route, and the journey goes to every approver it requires.
The driver’s phone tracks the trip, even offline, and flags short breaks, speeding and route deviations.
The Journey Manager reviews planned against actual in the close-out report and closes the journey.
Mobile app
Drivers raise the journey, inspect the vehicle and start the trip in the Fieldmaster Pocket app, by voice and photo. The same phone records the route while they drive, so no in-vehicle hardware is needed.
Journey Managers see each request, approval and live journey on the dashboard as soon as the driver saves it. The app keeps recording without signal and works in each driver’s own language.
Proof
Numbers from a contractor in the GCC that runs every journey through Fieldmaster.
600+
Each one validated, approved and tracked from departure to arrival.
79
In one project: 62 failed the driver and vehicle document check and 17 failed the pre-trip inspection, before anyone set off.
148
In the same project, 148 of 197 completed journeys needed extra approval, 50 of them for night driving.
Outcomes
Expired documents and failed checks stop the journey. An override needs the Journey Manager’s written reason, recorded under their name.
The plate photo must match the vehicle on the request, and every check comes with photos, a signature, time and location.
Night driving, border crossings, bad weather and security risks add approval levels automatically.
Managers see where every journey is and which ones broke a rule, without calling the driver.
Company and subcontractor drivers and vehicles are held to the same rules.
Every journey closes with a close-out report, and a Journey Movement Authorization can be printed at any time.
Why field focus matters
When the journey plan is a form in the office and the driver’s part is a phone call, you sign off on risks you can’t see.
You approve the journey on the driver’s word, and an expired licence or permit turns up at a checkpoint, or after an incident.
Pre-trip checks are ticked on paper with no photo, so you can’t prove which vehicle was checked, or that anyone looked.
The plan sets rest breaks, but nothing reminds drivers on the road, and you can’t tell whether they stopped until something goes wrong.
Once a vehicle leaves, you track it by calling the driver, and a late arrival is the first sign of trouble.
