A fleet tracking system puts a small device in each vehicle and shows you, on a map, where your vehicles are and what they’re doing. That part sounds simple, and most systems can do it. The differences show up later: in the alerts you actually get, in what happens when the network drops, and in the bill.
This guide is for owners and fleet managers who are about to choose one. It’s written from the questions we ask when we design Selvion, our own fleet tracking platform, but the advice holds whichever system you pick.
Start with your questions, not the feature list
Before you look at any product, write down the questions you’d ask your drivers if you could. For most fleets they look something like this:
- Where is each vehicle right now?
- Did anyone use a vehicle outside working hours?
- Which vehicle left the depot, and when?
- How far did each vehicle travel this week, and where did it stop?
- If a vehicle is taken, can we stop it?
Now judge every system by how quickly it answers those questions. A long feature list doesn’t help if the answer you need is three screens deep.
The features that matter most
A live map you can trust. Look at how often the position updates while a vehicle is moving, and how the system shows the last time a vehicle reported in. A dot on the map is only useful if you know how old it is.
Alerts that come to you. Nobody can watch a map all day. The system should tell you, on your phone, when something you care about happens: an engine starting, a vehicle leaving a zone, a vehicle sitting idle. Check that you can choose which alerts you get, or you’ll soon start ignoring all of them.
Geofences. A geofence is a zone you draw on the map, around a depot, a customer’s site or a whole route. The system tells you when a vehicle enters or leaves it. We’ve written a separate piece on what zone alerts can and can’t tell you.
Trip reports. At the end of each trip you want a summary: start, end, distance, time, stops and top speed. Ask to see a real report, and check whether you can export it.
Remote immobilisation. Some systems can stop a vehicle from being started or driven, using a relay fitted with the tracker. It’s valuable when a vehicle is stolen, but ask exactly how it’s kept safe, who is allowed to use it, and what the vehicle needs fitted.
Questions to ask every supplier
- Which trackers does it work with? Some systems only work with their own hardware. Others work with several makes. This matters when a tracker fails or a supplier stops trading.
- Who owns the data? You should be able to export your vehicles’ history in a common format, at any time, without asking permission.
- What happens when a vehicle loses signal? Good trackers store positions while they’re out of coverage and send them when the signal returns. Ask whether this one does.
- Does it work well on a phone? Your managers will mostly check it on their phones, often on mobile data. Try it on one before you buy.
- Who installs the trackers, and who fixes them? A tracker that’s badly fitted is worse than none, because it gives you false confidence.
- What does support look like? Ask how you report a problem, and how quickly someone actually responds.
The real cost
The price on the brochure is rarely the whole cost. Add up:
- the tracker itself, for every vehicle;
- installation, and removal when you sell a vehicle;
- the SIM card and mobile data for each tracker;
- the monthly software fee, per vehicle;
- any extra charge for features like immobilisation or reports;
- the time your team will spend learning and checking it.
Ask for a written quote that lists each of these per vehicle, per month. It makes systems easy to compare, and it stops surprises later.
Try it before you commit
Ask for a trial on two or three of your own vehicles for a few weeks. Watch it on a normal working day, and on a day when something goes wrong. You’ll learn more from one week of real use than from any demo.
Where Selvion fits
Selvion is our fleet tracking platform for Nigerian businesses. It’s built around the questions above: a live map, ignition and zone alerts on your phone, a report for every trip, and remote immobilisation for when a vehicle is taken. It’s in development now. If you’d like to be one of the first to use it, join the waitlist, or book a call and tell us how your fleet runs.