If you're looking at this for the first time, here's what the hardware is, what it can and can't see, and what a professional installation actually involves.
A fleet tracking device does three things: works out where it is, reads what it can from the vehicle, and sends both somewhere you can look at them.
The position part is straightforward satellite positioning. Modern units track multiple constellations — Geotab's GO9, for example, uses 72 channels across GPS and GLONASS with roughly 2.5 metre accuracy.
The interesting part is the second function. A device connected to the vehicle's data bus can read engine fault codes, battery voltage, fuel level, engine hours, odometer and seat belt use. That is what separates fleet telematics from a phone-based location app.
Worth understanding before you buy, because it affects data accuracy.
Simple devices report on a fixed interval — every 30 seconds, say. The problem is everything between samples. If a turn happens between two reports, the recorded path is a straight line through whatever was in the way, and the mileage is wrong.
Better systems log by curve. Geotab applies the Ramer–Douglas–Peucker line-simplification algorithm, keeping only the points needed to reproduce the actual path within a defined error margin and discarding the rest. You get corner-by-corner accuracy and accurate odometer-grade distance without transmitting high-rate position data.
The same logic gets applied to engine values — oil pressure, oil temperature, battery voltage — which is what makes trend detection possible.
**Plug-in (OBD-II).** Goes into the diagnostic port under the dash. Fastest to fit, easiest to move between vehicles, and removable by anyone who can reach the port. Fine for pooled light vehicles where accountability isn't the point. Poor for anything where it is.
**Hardwired.** Connected to power, ground and ignition sense, concealed. This is the standard for commercial fleets. It cannot be casually unplugged, it survives the vehicle's life, and it's what you want if part of the reason for deploying is establishing what actually happened.
**Battery-powered asset trackers.** For anything with no power of its own — trailers, generators, compressors, roll-off containers. Runtime is measured in years rather than hours, but it depends heavily on how often the unit reports. More on that in our article on [tracking unpowered assets](blog-asset-and-trailer-tracking-protecting-what-isnt-powered.html).
The main device gives you position and bus data. Getting anything else usually means adding a module.
Geotab's approach is a family of small task-specific expanders that daisy-chain off the main unit — up to five, auto-detected. Each does one job:
This is where installation stops being generic. Wiring an auxiliary input to a PTO circuit on a service truck is body-specific work — it depends on the upfit, not on the chassis.
For a straightforward hardwired tracker on a light commercial vehicle: locate a switched ignition source and a clean ground, run the harness out of sight, mount the device where it has sky view and won't be disturbed, verify it reports, document it.
Well under an hour per vehicle once a crew is set up on site, for standard configurations.
It gets longer with cameras, with auxiliary inputs, and with anything on a heavy truck where the body builder has already used the obvious circuits.
**Circuit choice.** A device wired to constant power that should have been on a switched circuit will never sleep. Geotab's GO9 draws **1.5 mA asleep** against 60–300 mA active — the difference between a device that's a non-issue and one that flattens a battery over a long weekend is entirely a wiring decision.
**Grounding and voltage drop.** Vehicle manufacturers publish voltage-drop test procedures for exactly this reason; Volkswagen's service documentation, for instance, specifies that starter circuit drop should not exceed 0.5 V. The same test proves an added circuit isn't starving a shared load.
**Standards.** The ATA's Technology & Maintenance Council publishes recommended practices covering this work specifically — **RP 1206** on placement and structural requirements for heavy-duty navigation and communication devices, **RP 1207A** on the cab electronic accessory power interface, plus a family of RPs on circuit protection and low-tension cable.
**Documentation.** Photos per vehicle, and a recorded before-and-after parasitic draw measurement. It protects everyone.
Straight answers, because they save arguments later.
It won't tell you what the driver was doing inside the cab unless you fit a camera. It won't tell you why a vehicle stopped — only that it did, for how long, and whether the engine was running. It won't diagnose a fault; it will report the code and leave the diagnosis to a technician.
And it won't improve anything on its own. It produces information. What you do with it is the entire return.
GPS tracking is position. Telematics adds vehicle data read from the data bus — fault codes, battery voltage, fuel level, engine hours, odometer. In practice most commercial systems do both, but a cheap position-only device can't give you maintenance signals, which is one of the larger savings categories.
Position accuracy on a modern device is around 2.5 metres. The bigger accuracy question is how often it logs and how. Fixed-interval polling produces inaccurate mileage and paths that cut corners through buildings; curve-based logging keeps the points needed to reproduce the real path within a set error margin.
Yes, with a battery-powered asset tracker. Runtime is measured in years, but it depends heavily on reporting frequency — which is a configuration decision made at install time, not a fixed hardware property.
Well under an hour per vehicle for a straightforward hardwired tracker, once a crew is set up on site. Longer for cameras, auxiliary inputs, PTO integration, or anything on a heavy truck where a body builder has already used the obvious circuits.
We install every major platform across Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, at your yard rather than at a shop. If you're new to this and would rather talk it through than read about it, call us and describe your vehicles — we'll tell you what's involved and what it'll take.
Get a free quote from API Signal → or call/text 803-513-1009. We install across Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, and we come to your yard.
We install GPS, cameras and telematics across GA, SC & NC — at your yard, on your schedule.