iTurns: user manual

iTurns shows your shift as a deck of cards: one card per turn, in the order you drive them, with the bus's destination sign on top. It can follow you on GPS and show the next turn as you go.

iTurns is an unofficial, personal tool. Your run sheet, the bus's on-board computer and depot instructions always come first. Don't operate the phone while driving: set it up before you move off.

1. Getting started

Open it: go to https://iturns-app.pages.dev in Safari (iPhone) or Chrome (Android).

Log in: enter your email address. You'll get a 6-digit code by email (valid for 10 minutes). Only email addresses the owner has added can log in. A personal email works best: some work mail systems use up the code before you see it.

Add it to your home screen (so it opens full-screen, works offline and GPS works properly):

• iPhone: Share button → Add to Home Screen. You'll get the yellow-arrow iTurns icon.
• Android: Chrome menu (⋮) → Add to Home screen or Install app.

From then on, open iTurns from the home-screen icon. The home-screen app keeps its own login, separate from the browser, so you may be asked to log in once more there.

2. The run list

The first screen shows the iTurns logo and a list of drive pages, one per run and date. Today's run is outlined in yellow. Each entry shows the run number, day and date, shift times and the routes.

Tap a run to open its drive page. ? Help below the list opens this manual (it works offline too).

Updates: when a new version is available, a yellow bar says "New version available. Tap to update." Tap it: it downloads every run for offline use, then reloads. If it says "Can't check for updates. Tap to log in again.", your login has expired: tap it, log in, then update.

Offline: once loaded, the app and all runs work without signal. You only need to be online (and logged in) to get new runs or updates.

3. The drive page

One card fills the screen. At the bottom is a bar with:

• ◀ Back and Next ▶: step through the cards.
• the middle button (clock and status): tap it, or swipe up on it, to open the controls drawer. Tap the card or swipe down to close it.

On a tablet in landscape the controls sit in a panel on the right instead, always open.

The screen stays awake while Live GPS or Simulate is running.

The cards, in shift order

• Shift overview (first card): run number, day, shift times, work/paid/spread, bus, and every piece of the shift.
• Trip card (start of each trip): the destination sign as you set it, the DESTO code in a yellow box, direction (INBOUND / OUTBOUND), departure, timing points with times, any notes (A, B…) and the layover to the next trip.
• Turn cards, one per turn:
  • Sign at the top: the bus's destination sign and route number, then direction and DESTO.
  • Big yellow arrow: the turn. Roundabouts show the exit as a number: you enter at the bottom, and the number counts the exits clockwise. A U-turn has its own sign.
  • Distance: see "Distances" below.
  • Street name: the street you turn into, and "Then …" when another turn follows straight after.
  • Lanes: shown when known, numbered from the kerb (lane 1 = kerbside). The yellow lane is the one to use; red lanes are bus lanes; "straddle" means use both lanes shown.
  • Stops: only shown when a stop is just before the turn or within 250 m after it ("STOP BEFORE TURN", "STOP JUST AFTER TURN"), with the timing-point time if it is one. Other stops are on the on-board computer.
  • Notes: driver notes for that junction.
• Not in service (dead runs): a "Sorry... Not in Service" sign, DESTO 9091, where to go, the time to arrive by, the time allowed and rough distance. The route is your choice.
• Meal break, sign-on, sign-off, training: times and what's next.

Distances: stepping by hand, a turn card shows the distance from the previous turn (as on paper). With Live GPS or Simulate it counts down to the turn.

4. The controls drawer

5. Live GPS

1. Open the run's drive page and tap Live GPS. Allow location when asked.
2. Near the first stop of a trip, iTurns picks up that trip and shows the trip card, then the next turn card as you go, with a live countdown.
3. Between trips (dead run, layover) it shows that card and picks up the next trip at its first stop, or once you're driving along it.

Good to know:

• If you switch GPS on part-way along a trip, it finds the trip after a few seconds of driving.
• Off route shows when you're away from the route. It recovers by itself once you're back on it, or finds the right trip if you're on a different one.
• After the screen has been locked or you've used another app, it catches up within a few seconds.
• Tapping Back/Next while GPS is on shows that card, but the next GPS fix brings it back to where you are.
• Normally GPS only switches to a trip timetabled within 30 minutes of now. To test a route at another time (for example driving it in your own car), turn on Ignore time: it then follows any trip in the run, and timing points show the time without early/late.
• A car can't legally follow busways or bus-only sections; GPS will show Off route there.

Manual (neither GPS nor Simulate on): the cards only move when you tap Back/Next or use Go to.

6. Problems

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Timetable data: Translink, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (CC BY 4.0).