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The Knowledgebase

AlertTraveler®: Impacted Travelers

AlertTraveler® includes an Impacted Travelers page that identifies individuals affected by recent events. The list of travelers can be filtered by alert severity, country, traveler status, proximity to specific locations, timespan, and keywords. Additionally, you can choose to hide inactive alerts and adjust the number of alerts shown. By default, the page displays all travelers impacted by active alerts issued in the past seven days.

This article will discuss the following topics:

 

Access and Permissions

The Impacted Travelers tab is accessed by navigating to AlertTraveler>Impacted Travelers.

In order to access the Impacted Travelers tab, users must have, or be in a group that has the following permission: 

AlertTraveler: Impacted Traveler

For optimal performance, the user should be in the AlertTraveler permission group, or the Group Leaders (AT) group (if their access should be limited to only those whose travel they are leading).

 

Impacted Travelers

On the Impacted Travelers page, travelers will be displayed with the following information in the columns to the right of their name:

  • User: The name of the impacted traveler. Clicking their name will navigate to their profile page.

  • Program: The name of the program the traveler is currently on and for which the alert applies.

  • Alert Headline: The headline will provide an overview of the incident for which the alert was issued and the traveler is impacted. Clicking the headline will take admins to a page with a map of the impacted area, the issue time for the alert, the total number of impacted travelers, detailed information about the incident, advice for travelers impacted, and sources for the news agencies that reported the incident for which the alert was issued.

  • Last GPS Location: This will display the last known location of the traveler based on the GPS of the device on which they using the AlertTraveler app. It will also display the time that location was captured.

  • Itinerary Location: This column will display the location recorded in their application or program itinerary. If there are potentially overlapping itineraries, clicking the "Read More" link will expand the row to display all relevant itineraries.

  • Check-In Status: If a check-in request has been issued to the traveler, this column will display the traveler's response as “Safe,” “No Response,” “I Need Help,” or "Review." This will read as “N/A” if a check-in has not been requested of the traveler. A lock icon next to the status indicates that an administrator manually entered the status for the traveler rather than the traveler responding directly. An asterisk indicates that a check-in reminder has been sent to that traveler.
    • The "Review" status is displayed when a traveler replies to a check-in request via SMS and does not use a 1 or 2 (for "Safe" or "I Need Help" ) as instructed. They will be marked with a status of "Review" so an admin can review their status note and then take action appropriately or edit their status.
  • Status Timestamp (if selected to show): This column will display the time at which the traveler responded to a check-in request or their check-in status was manually set by an administrator.
  • Impacted Date: This column will show the date and time (UTC) when a traveler was first impacted by the alert.
  • Why Affected?: This column indicates why this traveler is impacted by this alert.
    • “GPS” indicates that the traveler was impacted because of an alert they received due to their GPS location of the device with which they are using the AlertTraveler® app.
    • “TDS” indicates that the traveler was impacted because of an alert that impacted the area that the traveler should be in based on their Terra Dotta itinerary.
    • "USR" (User) may also display in addition to one of the other values. This indicates that the traveler also created an opt-in subscription for the affected area.
  • App: This column shows the current license status of the traveler. Please see the information about the "License Manager" more details about license statuses.
  • Actions: The Actions column allows an administrator to quickly perform several different administrative tasks using the corresponding icons: 
    • Message: Real-time messaging with travelers who have initiated “Help Request” and those who have responded to Check-in request with “Need Help.” Also allows internal notes about travelers needing help.
    • Phone: Hover to view phone number and click to copy phone number to clipboard
    • Traveler History: Shows history of traveler interactions with AlertTraveler®
    • Resolve Request: Interface to resolve case when traveler no longer needs assistance
    • Actions: Quick links to send email or send activation email

  • Check-In Notes (if selected to show): If a traveler responds to a check-in request and included notes about their status, a link to those notes will be displayed here. Clicking that link will open a new panel that displays the traveler’s response. This column is hidden by default.

Admins can choose to add or remove these columns from view using the “Hide/Show” dropdown. Clicking a column name will hide/reveal it accordingly.

Under the “Options” dropdown​, an administrator can quickly send an email to the selected travelers.

 

Note: Itineraries are not pushed immediately to the AlertTraveler® app or to the Impacted Traveler list. This process can take up to 30 minutes after initial itinerary creation in the Terra Dotta site.

 

 

Working with Affected Travelers

The Affected Travelers column in AlertTraveler>Alerts indicates the total number of travelers impacted by a particular alert. If there are one or more affected travelers, a link to “Add Check-In” will also be available (see below).

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Clicking that link will allow admins to quickly create a check-in request which will then be sent to these travelers asking them to report their status. If these travelers have opted into push notifications on the app and are connected to the internet by wifi or cellular data, the check-in request will be sent directly to the app, causing a notification on the mobile device. Otherwise, the check-in request will be sent by email. An admin can also opt to send an SMS message to the phone number associated with the users' account.

Admins can edit the headline of the check-in request and they must enter a message in the Detail section (see below). Additional details can be added, though please note that any text entered into the Additional Details section will only be delivered via push notification and email, not by SMS. By default, the headline will be the same as the headline for the alert on which the check-in request is based.

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Clicking "Create Request" will require an additional confirmation in order to send the Check-in Request.

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After a check-in request is created, the link will be replaced with three numbers in green, black, and red. The green number displays how many of the affected travelers have responded to the check-in request saying they are safe. The black number is the number of travelers who have yet to respond. The red number displays the number of affected travelers who have reported they need help. The tan number displays the number of affected travelers who should have their information reviewed.

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Clicking the total number of travelers impacted will link to a view of travelers impacted by this alert. From this Impacted Travelers page, admins will have several options under the “Options” dropdown. They can check boxes next to travelers' names and act on any or all of them with these options:

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  • Edit Check-in Status: This option will open a module that allows one to manually change the check-in status of any selected travelers for this alert. The current status is displayed and can be changed by using the dropdown menu in the top right and clicking “Save New Status.” A check-in status note can also be entered from the screen that appears.

  • Check-in Reminder: This option allows an administrator to send a reminder notification to the selected travelers regarding the check-in request for this alert, again prompting them to respond to the request.

  • Send Email: This option opens a page that allows an admin to quickly send an email to the selected travelers.

  • Excel Export: This option will generate an Excel file export of the selected travelers’ information pertinent to this alert and check-in request.

 

GPS is Continuously Updated Until a Check-in Response is Received

More precise information is better during an emergency. The AlertTraveler® system will now record all available GPS updates from the time a traveler receives a check-in request until they respond as OK. No response from a traveler is treated the same as a traveler requesting assistance, providing admins more information when they're working to account for their travelers during a crisis.

 

 

Why a Traveler is Impacted in an AlertTraveler® Alert

When an alert is issued, there is always a geographic Impacted Area associated with the alert. In order for a traveler to be considered as impacted, the system must believe the traveler may be in that area. There are two reasons a traveler may be impacted by an alert: their Terra Dotta itinerary record or their GPS location. Of course, in order for a traveler to be impacted by their GPS location, they need to activate the AlertTraveler® app and enable location services. We recognize that getting compliance is an ongoing challenge, but want to stress how valuable having the additional data point of the travelers GPS location is during an emergency.

For the itinerary, travelers are impacted when the itinerary city matches the city of the alert. When it comes to country-wide alerts, the itinerary must be for the impacted country.