Help & FAQ

A group chat is great for "are we still on for Wednesday?" — it's terrible for "who actually has a free seat in their car at 6pm?". Promises drift up the screen, two people offer to drive the same kid, and the parent who joined the chat late has no idea what was decided.

SquadCars replaces all that with one shared picture every parent sees the same way. Bookings are confirmed seats. Drivers see their passenger list. Plans don't live in 200 messages — they live on a card you can glance at in five seconds.

That's exactly when SquadCars is most useful. The trust is there; what's missing is the coordination. Knowing the other parents doesn't stop the chaos when six families are trying to work out who's driving and who's riding for Wednesday's training.

Your squad keeps being your squad. SquadCars just gives it a shared plan so nobody has to play air-traffic-controller in the group chat.

Yes — that's the whole point. Several parents can each offer a car to the same event. Free seats are pooled across all of them, so when you book your child in, you see every spare seat going.

If your car is full, another parent's car probably has room. If both cars are needed, both cars run. Nobody's left guessing whether to bother offering.

A booking is a confirmed seat. Once you've tapped to book your child in, that seat is yours — drivers see your child on their passenger list and the seat shows as taken to everyone else.

If something changes (a car drops out, a driver swaps), the app notifies the affected parents directly. No quiet bumps, no chasing in the chat.

Only the parents in the same carpool as you. Carpools are private — joining one needs an invite from a parent already in it.

Within a carpool, your contact details are shared with the parents who actually need to coordinate with you (the driver of your child's car, or any parents whose child is in your car). Nobody outside the squad sees anything.

Tap "Sign Up" or "Get Started" on the homepage. You can sign in with Google or use the email option, which sends a 6-digit code to your inbox — no password needed.

After signing in, fill in your name, phone number and home address on the Profile screen. All three are required before you can join a carpool.

Other parents in your carpools can see your phone number so they can reach you on the day of an event, and your address is used for door-to-door pickups and routing in maps. They are only visible to other parents in carpools you have joined.

Tap your avatar in the top-right of the app, then choose "Logout" at the bottom of the menu.

Open the avatar menu → Settings → Family. The first time you visit you will be asked for a family name (visible to your carpools, e.g. "The Roxburgh Family") and at least one child.

On the Family screen, use the "Add" button to enter a child's name. Each child also has a notes field for allergies or medical info — anything you write there is visible to drivers picking them up. Tap the X next to a child to remove them.

On the Family screen tap "+ Invite to your family" and pick "Parent / Guardian". Enter their email — they will get an email link, and once they sign in with that email they will be added as a parent. Only the primary parent can send invites.

If they sign in with a different email address than the invite was sent to, the invite will not match — make sure they use the right one.

Yes. On the Family screen tap "+ Invite to your family", pick "Child", choose one of your existing kids (or add a new one), and enter their email. They will get an email link the same way an adult invite works.

A logged-in child sees only their own dashboard: upcoming rides they are booked into, who is driving them, pickup time, a map link to the driver's address (when pickup is at the driver's place), the driver's phone with a one-tap Call button, and the first names of the other kids in the car. They cannot book themselves, change cars, or see anyone else's family.

You can revoke a child login at any time by deleting the child or removing the link from the Family screen.

Each family has one primary parent who can invite or remove other parents and accept join requests. To transfer the role, tap the menu icon next to a parent on the Family screen and choose "Make primary".

A non-primary parent can leave at any time using the "Leave family" button. The primary parent can remove another parent via the menu next to their name. Cars and bookings made by that parent will stay on the events they created.

Open the avatar menu → "Manage Carpools" → "Create Carpool". Give it a name and optionally a home venue (used as the default location for new events), an icon, a colour, and how many weeks of upcoming events to show.

Open the avatar menu → "Manage Carpools", then tap "Invite" on the carpool card and enter the parent's email. They will receive a link that lets them join after signing in with that email address.

If you received an email invite, tap the link and sign in with the email address the invite was sent to (Google or 6-digit code).

Once signed in, the invite will appear as a card on your Home screen with Accept and Decline buttons. Tap Accept to join the carpool, or Decline to dismiss the invite.

Open the avatar menu → "Manage Carpools", then tap the "Children" button on the carpool card and tick the children who are part of that carpool. Only ticked children will show up on event ride lists.

Tap "Members" on the carpool card to see current members and any pending invites.

Tap "Drivers" on a carpool card to see a summary of driving contributions. It's a great way to appreciate the parents who've been helping out and to spot opportunities to offer a ride yourself.

Open the avatar menu → "Manage Carpools", then tap "Edit" on the carpool card to change its name, venue, icon, colour or how many weeks ahead are shown. Tap "Leave" to remove yourself — your cars and bookings in that carpool will be removed.

Tap a carpool from the Home screen, or open the avatar menu → "Manage Carpools" and choose one. The Events list shows everything for that carpool, grouped by date.

On the Events list use the filters to narrow by Upcoming, Booked, or Unbooked, and use the search box to find an event by name. There is also a "Show past events" toggle if you want to look back.

On the Events list tap "Create new event". Set a name, location, date, start time, duration, optional notes, and direction (To, From, or Both — round trip).

When creating an event, tick "Repeat weekly" and pick an end date. SquadCars will create one event per week through that date. Each event in the series can still be edited or deleted individually.

Open the event and use the menu (⋮) at the top to choose "Edit event" or "Delete event". For recurring events you will be asked whether the change applies to just this event or to all future events in the series.

Once an event has finished it becomes a read-only archive — useful for seeing who drove and who rode, but bookings and cars are locked.

Open the event and tap "Offer your car". Choose which adult in your family is driving, how many seats are available (excluding the driver), the direction (round trip, to-only, or from-only), the pickup time, and whether you will "Meet at mine" or do "Door to door" pickups. You can add notes too.

Yes. When you offer your car you can pick one of the vehicles from your family's garage — a short description like "White Audi Q4 RND772J". It then shows on each passenger's ride card so kids know exactly which car to look for at the kerb.

Add and edit your vehicles under Settings → Profile → "Your cars". Picking one when you drive is optional — if your garage is empty the app nudges you to add a car, but you can still offer to drive without it.

When you're the driver, open the event and tap the megaphone on your ride status card. Pick a ready-made message like "On my way", "Running a few minutes late" or "I've arrived", or type your own, then choose who should get it — the passengers' parents, the riding kids, or both.

The message is sent as a notification and also shows in a highlighted box on each recipient's ride card, so it won't be missed even if they don't catch the push. It's for the small day-of updates that used to clog the group chat.

Tap the megaphone on your ride status card again and choose "Clear current broadcast" — it disappears from everyone's ride cards. Sending a new message also replaces the previous one. You can also pick how long a broadcast lasts (30 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, or never) and it clears itself automatically when the time is up.

Yes. Open the megaphone on your ride status card and expand "Where I'm parked", then tap "Use my current location" (or search and drop a pin on the map) to share your spot. Everyone on your ride gets a "Navigate to the car" button that opens directions straight to you — so kids aren't hunting around the car park after an event.

Sharing a pin is optional, and you can send it with or without a message. Remove it anytime from the same place; it also clears itself a while after you set it.

"Meet at mine" means passengers come to your home address to be picked up. "Door to door" means you will drive to each passenger's home address — the app gives you a navigation link for each one.

On the event page, open your ride status card or the menu and choose "Edit my car" — you can change seats, pickup time, location style, direction and notes. Passengers will see the change.

Tap your car on the event page to see each passenger, their parent's name and phone, address, and any allergy/medical notes. Tap the phone icon to call the parent, the map icon to navigate to their address, or the remove button to drop them from your car.

Open the event, tap your ride status card and choose "Stop driving". Anyone booked in your car will be unbooked automatically and can pick a different car — message the carpool so they know to rebook.

Yes — any parent in the carpool can take over your car. They open the event, tap "Swap drivers" from the menu, and select your car. All passengers and details transfer to the new driver automatically, and everyone is notified.

This is handy when plans change last minute — another parent can step in without having to rebook all the passengers.

Open the event and tap your child's ride status card. You'll see every car with seats available — tap one to select it, then confirm. Your child's status changes to "Booked with [Driver]".

If the driver has picked a vehicle from their garage, its description (for example "White Audi Q4 RND772J") shows on your child's ride status card — and on the child's own login screen if they have one. No more scanning the car park guessing.

Drivers can send the families on their ride a quick update — "On my way", "Running a few minutes late", "I've arrived" and so on. The latest one shows in a highlighted box on your child's ride card and also arrives as a notification. It shows who sent it and when, and clears when the driver removes it (or after a timeout they set).

If the driver has shared where they're parked, a "Navigate to the car" button appears on your child's ride card — and on the child's own login screen if they have one. Tap it to open directions straight to the car, which is handy in a busy car park after an event.

Tap the ride status card again and select a different car — you'll be moved automatically.

Tap the ride status card and use "Cancel booking". The seat is freed up immediately for someone else.

Tap the ride status card and choose "No ride needed" (use this whether they're skipping the event or just travelling another way). Any active booking or waitlist entry is released so the seat is available for another child. Tap it again later to switch back to needing a ride.

Open the avatar menu → Settings → Preferences → Notifications. Pick Email, Push (browser/device), or None. Choosing Push the first time will ask your browser for permission — if you decline, the app falls back to email.

Yes. When the driver of your child's ride sends a broadcast — like "Running a few minutes late" — it arrives through your chosen notification method (Email or Push) and also appears on the ride card. If the app is already open you'll see a toast pop up.

Under Preferences → Event Reminders pick from "Both" (24 hours and 1 hour before), "24h", "1h", or "None". Reminders go via your chosen notification method (Email or Push).

Check that you have given the browser/site permission to send notifications, and that Notifications are set to Push under Preferences. If permission was previously denied, you'll need to re-enable it in your browser or device settings before SquadCars can register your device.

On the event page open the menu (⋮) and tap "Add to calendar". This downloads an .ics file you can open with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook or any standard calendar app.

On the Events list, open the menu and turn on "Show past events". Past events are read-only and show the final state — who drove, who rode, and any history of changes.

On the event page open the menu (⋮) and tap "History". You'll see a full chronological log of everything that happened — bookings, cancellations, car offers, driver swaps, and any edits to the event details like location, time, or notes.

Open the avatar menu → Settings → Profile. Make your changes and save — they update immediately for everyone in your carpools.

Open the avatar menu → Settings → Profile and find the "Your cars" section. Add a short description for each vehicle — for example "White Audi Q4 RND772J" or "Silver VW Touran". You can keep several in the garage and edit or remove them anytime.

Your cars are shared across the drivers in your family, so either parent can pick one when they offer to drive. The description is only visible to the parents and kids in carpools you've joined, and choosing a car when you drive is always optional.

Yes. The Display section has a Font Size slider with five steps — XS, S, M, L, XL — that scales the whole application. You can find it under Avatar menu → Settings → Preferences → Display, or from the cog icon in the top-right of the public pages.

Your choice is remembered on this device, so each member of the household can pick what suits them.

Yes. Toggle "24-hour time" under Display — either Avatar menu → Settings → Preferences → Display, or the cog icon on the public top bar. All times in the app will switch between "11:00 PM" and "23:00".

Yes. Under Display you can choose Google, Apple or Waze as your Maps provider. Apple Maps only appears as an option on Apple devices; Google and Waze are available everywhere. Pickup and event navigation links will use whichever you pick.

Note: Waze always navigates in driving mode and doesn't support multi-stop routes, so door-to-door pickup chains may open one leg at a time.

Yes. Display has an "Allow pinch to zoom" toggle that lets two-finger gestures zoom the page like a normal webpage. By default SquadCars locks zoom so the layout stays consistent — turn this on if you'd prefer to zoom in by hand.

Changing this setting reloads the app so the zoom behaviour can re-apply.

Preferences has two Home screen toggles: "Preview next event" (show a preview of the next event for each carpool) and "Hide empty carpools" (collapse carpools with no upcoming events).

Every family starts with a 90-day free trial — every feature, no card needed.

After that it's a single subscription for your whole family, monthly or yearly. You're billed once, for the family, not per parent.

No. One subscription covers the whole family. Add your partner as a member of your family and they share the same plan and the same access to every carpool you've joined.

Each parent can drive, offer cars and book seats independently — but you're only billed once, for the family.

Nothing disappears. If you haven't subscribed, your account becomes read-only: you can still see every carpool, event and booking, and you can still leave a carpool or edit your profile — you just can't make changes that affect other families, like offering a car or booking a seat.

Subscribing restores everything immediately, for your whole family.

Avatar menu → Settings → Plan. You'll see your current plan, how long is left on a trial, and the monthly and yearly options.

Subscriptions are billed through the App Store or Google Play, so changes and cancellations happen in your store account. Settings → Plan → "Manage subscription" takes you straight there.

"Restore purchases" on the same screen re-links an existing subscription after reinstalling or switching device.

Yes — when your browser or device supports it, an "Install App" option appears in the avatar menu. Tap it and the app will be installed to your home screen for faster access and offline launching.

A new version of SquadCars is downloading in the background. The pulse is a heads-up — you don't need to do anything, and you can keep using the app while it finishes.

Once the download is complete, an "Update Available" prompt appears so you can apply it at a moment that suits you. Updates are usually small and arrive automatically whenever we ship improvements.