A driver's location went quiet mid-load: what to check and who to contact

Published 2026-11-09 · facts checked 2026-11-09

First read what the load shows: a "sharing paused" mark means the driver paused it in the app, while a No signal exception with no pause mark means positions are simply not arriving (dead zone, phone off, app closed, or location turned off). In every case the next move is the same: contact the driver or the dispatcher yourself. PingPoint shows you the last known position and time, and it does not call anyone.

Who needs this and when

A broker with a load in transit whose map has stopped moving, or who just received a No signal e-mail. Most of the time the cause is ordinary (a mountain pass, a dead battery), so the goal is to sort it out in a few minutes without assuming the worst.

What to do

Open the load and check the sharing state. The loads list and the tracking page show when sharing is paused. If it is paused, the driver did it in the app.
Look at the time of the last update. The tracking page shows it and marks the position as possibly outdated after 15 minutes. Note where the truck was and which stop it was heading to.
Check whether it is a coverage gap. If the last position was in a rural stretch, the app keeps positions on the phone and uploads them when the signal returns, so the route fills in afterwards. A short gap there needs no action.
Wait for the alert on a longer gap. After 20 minutes without a position on an active load, the load gets a No signal exception on the Exceptions page and you get an e-mail (unless you turned load e-mails off in Settings). You get another e-mail when positions arrive again.
Contact the driver or the dispatcher the usual way. One short text is often enough: "Your location stopped updating. Is the PingPoint app open and location allowed?" If the driver paused sharing on purpose (for example at a rest stop), ask them to resume.
Wrong phone? If the driver says the app is running but you never saw a position, check the phone number on the load. Re-send / change phone is free.
Write down the gap. Last position, its time, who you contacted and what they said. It is the record you will want if the load is late.

Example

Demo: load DEMO-1001 for Demo Freight LLC, driver phone 555-0100. The last position arrived at 14:05 near the pickup, and nothing since. At 14:25 the load gets a No signal exception and a demo e-mail arrives. The broker sees that sharing is not marked as paused, texts the driver, and learns the phone battery died. After charging, positions resume and the route fills in from the stored points; a second e-mail confirms positions are back.

Where PingPoint helps

PingPoint helps with the noticing and the evidence: the paused mark, the last update time, the No signal exception and e-mail after 20 minutes, and the e-mail when positions return. It also keeps the stored positions from a dead zone once the phone is back online. The contact step is yours.

Requirements and limits

PingPoint does not call or text drivers and does not tell you why positions stopped.
A paused app, a switched-off phone, a force-closed app and disabled location all look the same from your side: no new positions.
It tracks the phone whose number you entered, not the trailer. A quiet phone does not tell you where the freight is.
Tracking ends after delivery, on cancel, or when the driver pauses sharing.
If e-mail alerts are off in Settings, check the Exceptions page instead.

Next step

Sign up, create your first load with the driver's phone number and the driver gets the tracking invite by SMS. How it works · Pricing

$0.65 per load · SMS invite, map and customer tracking link included · ETA $0.02 per click · no subscription · pricing

Start tracking a load

Facts checked 2026-11-09.