PaperMole

Set up your car

Once, about three minutes, on your iPhone, sitting in the car. After this, every drive lands in PaperMole by itself.

What it records: where you got in and where you got out, never the drive in between. Only you see a trip until you confirm it as work. Tap Not work and it's deleted.

You need: an iPhone, PaperMole on your home screen and signed in, and your car's Bluetooth paired with the phone.

1. Copy your link

  1. In PaperMole: Trips, then Log trips automatically from your iPhone.
  2. Tap Make a new link, then Copy. It's yours alone: don't share it.

2. Add the two Shortcuts

  1. Tap Add PaperMole Trip > Start, then Add Shortcut. When it asks, paste your link.
  2. Tap Add PaperMole Trip > End, then Add Shortcut, and paste the same link.

3. Test it once

  1. In the Shortcuts app, run PaperMole Trip > Start (the play button). When it asks, choose Always Allow.
  2. Run PaperMole Trip > End. The reply says "too short": that clears the test.
  3. In Settings, Privacy & Security, Location Services, Shortcuts, choose Always, so it runs with the phone locked.

4. Tie them to the car

  1. In Shortcuts, open the Automation tab (not Library) and tap +.
  2. Choose Bluetooth, pick your car, tick Is Connected only, choose Run Immediately, then pick PaperMole Trip > Start.
  3. Tap + again: Bluetooth, your car, Is Disconnected only, Run Immediately, PaperMole Trip > End.
  4. Turn on Notify When Run for the first week, so you can see them fire.

5. Drive

Start the car, drive somewhere, turn it off. The trip waits under Trips, To confirm: pick the job, say what it was for, and type the odometer if you can see it. One real reading per trip keeps the logbook honest; PaperMole never guesses one.

No Bluetooth in the car? Use CarPlay the same way (Connects for start, Disconnects for end), or an NFC tag on the dash that you tap getting in and out.

Pick one. Don't set up Bluetooth and CarPlay together, and don't use Driving Focus: they fire late, so trips start down the road. A loose CarPlay cable splits trips; Bluetooth doesn't.

Android: not yet. Use Log a trip instead.

Company car with a logbook running? Not work becomes Private: the trip is kept as kilometres only, with no places, and only you see it.

Rather build them yourself? In Shortcuts, tap +, name it PaperMole Trip > Start, add Get Current Location, then Get Contents of URL with your link, Method POST and Request Body JSON. Add four Text fields: lat (Current Location, then Latitude), lng (Longitude), time (Current Date, Date Format ISO 8601 with ISO 8601 Time on) and kind (type start). Duplicate it as PaperMole Trip > End with kind end.

Stuck? Tap Report a snag in Trips.