Fleet tracking and IoT, in plain words

ADAS

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems — road-facing camera intelligence that watches the scene ahead and warns about tailgating, lane departure and forward collision risk. In a fleet dashcam the detection runs on the device itself, so only the clip around an event is uploaded.

See also: Video telematics

Asset tag

A self-powered tracking device fitted to equipment with no permanent power supply — trailers, containers, generators, plant. It reports on a schedule while stationary and wakes on movement, running up to three years on an internal cell.

See also: Asset tracking

BeiDou

China’s global navigation satellite system. Modern trackers listen to BeiDou alongside GPS and GLONASS, which improves the fix in urban areas where any single constellation is partly blocked.

CAN bus

The Controller Area Network — the internal data network a vehicle’s own systems talk on. Reading it gives factory-accurate odometer, engine hours, RPM, coolant temperature and fault codes instead of values inferred from GPS.

See also: Fleet management

Capacitive fuel probe

A sensor cut to the depth of a fuel tank that measures level continuously by capacitance. It resolves changes of a few litres, which is fine enough to separate normal consumption from siphoning — something a factory float sender cannot do.

See also: Fuel monitoring

Cold chain

The unbroken temperature-controlled route a perishable product travels from producer to end user. Monitoring it means logging temperature continuously across vehicles, containers and cold rooms, not sampling it at each handover.

See also: Cold chain monitoring

DMS

Driver Monitoring System — a cabin-facing camera that detects drowsiness, phone use, smoking and absence of a seatbelt. Paired with ADAS it gives both sides of an incident: what the road did and what the driver did.

See also: Video telematics

Dwell time

How long a vehicle stays inside a geofenced location. In distribution it is the minutes spent at each outlet; in logistics it is time at a loading bay. Long dwell is often where a schedule quietly falls apart.

See also: FMCG distribution

Engine hours

Accumulated run-time of an engine, as opposed to distance travelled. It is the correct billing and service unit for generators, excavators and other plant that works hard without moving.

See also: Generator energy monitoring

Geofence

A virtual boundary drawn on a map — a circle, a polygon or a corridor along a route. Crossing it generates an event, so entry, exit and dwell can each raise their own alert, optionally only during hours you specify.

See also: Vehicle tracking

GIS

Geographic Information System — the layer that turns a coordinate pair into a place. It is what makes 31.5204, 74.3587 read as "Ferozepur Road, 2 km from the Johar Town depot" rather than as two numbers.

See also: How vehicle tracking works

GLONASS

Russia’s global navigation satellite system. Using it alongside GPS increases the number of visible satellites, which improves both accuracy and time-to-first-fix.

GNSS

Global Navigation Satellite System — the umbrella term covering GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo. A multi-constellation receiver uses several at once rather than depending on one.

GPS

The United States’ Global Positioning System. A receiver listens to signals from four or more satellites and calculates its own position from the difference in arrival times — accurate to roughly 2.5 metres in open conditions.

See also: How vehicle tracking works

GSM jamming

Deliberate transmission of noise on mobile frequencies to stop a tracker reporting. A well-built device detects the attempt and raises an alert with its last known position, so jamming produces an event rather than silence.

See also: Vehicle tracking

Harsh event

A sudden acceleration, braking or cornering force above a threshold, detected by the accelerometer inside the tracker. Counting them per driver is the basis of behaviour scoring, and reducing them cuts brake, tyre and clutch wear.

See also: Fleet management

Idling

Engine running while the vehicle is stationary. It burns fuel and accrues engine hours with nothing to show for either, and is usually the second-largest recoverable fuel loss after theft.

See also: Fleet savings calculator

Immobiliser

A relay that interrupts the starter circuit on command, preventing the engine from being restarted. On a correctly built system it is speed-interlocked so it can only take effect at standstill, never while the vehicle is moving.

See also: Vehicle tracking

IoT

The Internet of Things — physical objects fitted with sensors and a network connection so their state can be read remotely. A tracked vehicle, a monitored cold room and a metered generator are all the same idea applied to different assets.

See also: IoT

Multi-network SIM

A SIM that can roam between several mobile operators rather than being locked to one. On Pakistani routes this is the difference between a device that stays online in the interior and one that goes dark.

OBD-II

The standardised diagnostic port fitted to modern vehicles. A tracker plugged into it can read engine data without cutting into the wiring, which suits short-term hire and light vehicles.

Reefer

A refrigerated vehicle body or shipping container. Monitoring one means logging internal temperature continuously and tying door-open events to a location, so a delivery stop reads differently from a roadside detour.

See also: Cold chain monitoring

RFID driver identification

A card or fob presented by the driver before a trip, binding that journey to a named person. It makes behaviour scores meaningful and can be configured to prevent ignition when an unrecognised card is used.

See also: Fleet management

Route corridor

An allowed band either side of an assigned route. Straying beyond it raises a deviation alert immediately rather than at the end of the trip, which is what makes it useful on long-haul work.

See also: Logistics transport

Siphoning

Removing fuel from a tank without authorisation. On a level curve it appears as a near-vertical drop while the vehicle is stationary with the ignition off — a shape normal consumption never produces.

See also: How to stop fuel theft in your fleet

Store-and-forward

A device behaviour where positions are written to onboard memory when there is no mobile coverage and uploaded in full once signal returns. It is why a good tracker leaves no gap in the route history.

See also: How vehicle tracking works

Tamper alert

A notification raised when someone tries to disable a tracker — cutting power, opening the case or disconnecting the antenna. Each is reported separately with the last known position.

See also: Vehicle tracking

Telematics

The combination of telecommunications and informatics applied to vehicles: collecting data on board, transmitting it over a network, and turning it into operational information. Fleet tracking is telematics with a business purpose attached.

See also: Fleet management

TPMS

Tyre Pressure Monitoring System — sensors at each wheel position reporting pressure and temperature. Under-inflation raises fuel consumption measurably, and heat build-up is the warning that precedes a blowout.

See also: Tyre management

Trip replay

Playing a completed journey back on the map at speed, with stops, idles and events pinned where they occurred. It is what settles a delivery dispute with evidence instead of recollection.

See also: Vehicle tracking