Tradius

The brief was unforgiving: ship a trades-dispatch product that homeowners would trust in a panic and journeymen would actually log into between jobs.

• Two faces, one app: A panicked homeowner needs three taps and a price; a journeyman needs route plans, parts checks, and invoice generation - the same binary couldn't ship a watered-down version of either.
• Callout pricing without dispatch staff: Quote calculation had to resolve from a published rate card without a human dispatcher in the loop.
• Escrow and dispute handling: Funds had to be held until the homeowner signed off the job, with a clear arbitration path when work was contested.
• Parts inventory before dispatch: Showing up to a boiler call without the right diverter valve loses the job and the rating - the app had to prompt parts checks before accepting.
• Trade-specific credentialing: Different trades carry different licences (Gas Safe, NICEIC, F-Gas); verification couldn't be a one-size-fits-all upload.

We shipped a dispatch-style Ionic app with a hybrid Node.js routing layer and a stripped-down journeyman cockpit that fits in a van.

• Callout quote engine: A homeowner's job request resolves against a per-trade rate card with anti-social-hours premiums, congestion-zone surcharges, and minimum-callout floors baked in.
• Live ETA matchmaking: Job offers fan out to the three nearest qualified tradespeople with current traffic-aware ETAs; first accept wins.
• Parts-check gate: Before a job is accepted, the journeyman ticks off required parts against their van inventory; mismatches trigger a supplier-stop route insertion.
• Trade-aware credentialing: Onboarding asks for the right body cards per trade (Gas Safe for gas work, Part P for electrical), with expiry tracking and auto-unverify on lapse.
• Escrow with milestone sign-off: Stripe escrow holds the quote at booking; a photo-signed completion releases funds. Disputes flag to a moderator with the full job-thread.
• Scheduled-job route planner: Day-ahead jobs cluster by postcode with a drag-to-reorder route and a fuel-cost rollup.

Six months after launch Tradius had become a real callout option in two metros, with the marketplace economics holding up under load.

• Median time from request to journeyman accepting: 84 seconds on weekday daytime jobs.
• 78 % of emergency callouts arrived on site within the quoted ETA band.
• Parts-check gate cut wasted-trip incidents by 31 % compared with the pre-launch pilot.
• Average journeyman day grew from 3.8 to 5.2 paid jobs after the route planner shipped.
• Escrow disputes resolved within 24 hours on 94 % of contested jobs using the in-app moderator thread.