Most yachts have at least one chase tender, courtesy car, scooter, jet ski, or shore-side vehicle that crew need to check out, drive, and return. The Vehicles board is the iPad's tool for managing that — every vehicle currently in service is listed, every check-out is logged with the driver's name and a signed agreement, and every check-in records fuel level, mileage, and any new damage.
The whole point is accountability. When the chief stewardess hands the keys to the courtesy car to the second mate at 1400, the iPad records who took it, when, with how much fuel, and that they signed the standard driver's agreement. When the second mate brings it back at 1700 with a scratch on the bumper, that's also on the record — with a photo, attached to the same booking.
What you're looking at
The Vehicles board is a list of every vehicle the yacht has registered. Each row shows:
- Vehicle photo — uploaded by the admin, used for quick visual identification
- Vehicle name and type — e.g. "Range Rover Sport — Courtesy Car", "Yamaha XMAX — Scooter"
- Registration / identifier — number plate, hull ID, or whatever your vessel uses to identify it
- Status pill — green "Available", amber "Checked out", grey "Out of service"
- Currently checked out by — if checked out, the crew member's name and the time they took it
Tap a vehicle to open its detail screen — that's where check-out and check-in happen.
Checking a vehicle out
From the vehicle's detail screen, tap Check out. The iPad walks you through:
- Driver selection — pick which crew member is taking the vehicle from a list of currently-on-board crew. The crew board powers this list, so anyone signed ashore won't appear (you can't check out a vehicle to someone who isn't on the vessel).
- Driver's agreement — the full text of your vessel's vehicle use agreement is presented on screen. The driver reads it, scrolls through, and either taps to accept or signs with their finger if your agreement requires a signature. The accepted agreement is stored against the booking record.
- Starting fuel level — pick from the fuel gauge slider (Empty, ¼, ½, ¾, Full) so the return state can be compared
- Starting mileage / hours — type the current odometer reading. For boats and engines this might be running hours instead.
- Pre-existing condition photos — optional but recommended. The driver walks around the vehicle and snaps photos of any existing scratches, dents, or damage. These are attached to the booking so any new damage on return can be distinguished from old damage.
- Expected return time — optional. If filled in, the iPad can flag overdue vehicles.
Tap Confirm check-out and the vehicle's status pill flips to amber, the driver's name appears next to it, and the booking is recorded.
The driver's agreement
The driver's agreement is the legal protection layer. Most yacht insurers and management companies require crew to acknowledge a standard set of conditions before driving any vessel-owned vehicle — speed limits, alcohol policy, accident reporting, who pays for damage, etc. The Muster App lets you upload your own agreement text in the admin panel under Vehicles → Settings, and that text is presented to every driver at every check-out.
When the driver accepts (or signs), the timestamp, the agreement version, and the driver's identity are all stored against the booking. If a dispute arises later — "I never agreed to that" — the audit trail shows exactly which version of the agreement was accepted and when.
You can update your agreement text whenever you need to. Future check-outs will present the new version; past bookings retain whichever version was active at the time they were created.
Checking a vehicle back in
When the driver returns the vehicle, find it on the Vehicles board (it's the one with the amber pill) and tap Check in. The iPad walks through the return state:
- Returning fuel level — set the new gauge position. If the vehicle was returned with less fuel than the typical "return full" rule, this is now on the record.
- Returning mileage / hours — type the new reading. The iPad calculates the distance or hours travelled and stores it against the booking.
- Damage report — any new scratches, dents, mechanical issues. Take photos, add a description.
- Notes — free-text field for anything else the driver wants to record (e.g. "windscreen washer empty", "tyre pressure low front-left")
Tap Confirm check-in and the vehicle's status flips back to green Available. The completed booking — check-out details, agreement, fuel in/out, mileage in/out, photos, notes — is now stored in the vehicle's history.
Marking a vehicle out of service
If a vehicle has a mechanical issue, is in the workshop, or otherwise shouldn't be driven, an admin can mark it as Out of service from the admin panel. The iPad shows a grey pill on that vehicle and prevents new check-outs until the admin marks it back to In Service.
Out-of-service vehicles still appear on the board (so crew can see them and don't ask "where's the courtesy car?"), but tapping them shows the reason for the out-of-service state instead of a check-out flow.
Vehicle history
Every booking ever created against a vehicle is kept in the admin panel under Vehicles → click the vehicle → History. You can see who drove it, when, for how long, the fuel and mileage on each leg, the agreements they accepted, and any photos or damage reports.
This is genuinely useful for a few reasons:
- Disputes about damage — when did this scratch appear? The history will tell you.
- Insurance claims — who was driving on the day of the incident? It's right there.
- Service intervals — total mileage driven over the past month is a good indicator of when the vehicle is due for a service.
- Crew accountability — if the same crew member keeps returning vehicles half-empty, the head of department can have a quiet word.
The iPad doesn't show the full history (it's designed for "now") — the history is browseable in the admin panel from any browser.
Adding new vehicles
Adding, editing, and removing vehicles is admin-only and happens in the admin panel under Vehicles. From there you can:
- Create a new vehicle with name, type, registration, and a photo
- Set the default fuel type and tank size for fuel-cost calculations (optional)
- Configure required fields for check-out and check-in (e.g. mileage required, fuel optional)
- Set or update the driver's agreement text
- Mark vehicles in or out of service
New vehicles appear on every iPad on the vessel within a few seconds of being created.
Offline behaviour
The Vehicles board, like everything else on the iPad, works offline. Crew can check vehicles in and out with no internet — the bookings, photos, agreements, and notes all queue locally and sync to the server the moment WiFi is back. This matters when your courtesy car is parked at a marina with no WiFi and a deckhand needs to check it out at 0700.
If two iPads are offline and both try to check out the same vehicle, the iPad that reconnects first wins. In practice this almost never happens because the bridge is usually online and most check-outs happen from there.
What to read next
The Vehicles board pairs naturally with the visitor board — both are about logging activity that happens at the dock, both produce a useful audit trail, and both are designed to be used by crew without admin training. For setting up your fleet of vehicles, configuring agreements, and managing the booking history, see the Vehicles section of the admin help (coming soon).