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# Real-Time Vehicle Tracking

Know where every vehicle is, what every sensor is reading, and how every trip is progressing, in real time.

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GPSrFMSTachographIoTWatchtowerSocket.IOCold-chain

Live

GPS tracking

7

Truck brands direct

5

IoT sensor types

3

Alert severity levels

Watchtower · Live

![Watchtower live table listing shipments with status badges, reference, customer, current coordinates, ETA and next action, above the planning tabs](/assets/screens/watchtower.webp)

The Watchtower: every shipment with its trip, live position, ETA and next action.
1. Live toggle and refresh time
2. Status per shipment and trip
3. Current location from telematics
4. ETA and next action per row

Transportial consolidates GPS tracking, IoT sensor data, and trip progress into a single live view. Whether you use the OpenMove driver app, Transics board computers, or third-party telematics, all data flows into the same tracking layer, with configurable alerts when things need attention.

## What it does

A code-level inventory of what Real-Time Vehicle Tracking covers, in the terms you will find inside the product.

### Position from wherever it comes

* Board computers and telematics  
Transics, Webfleet, Trimble, Mapon, Squarell, EvoGPS, FleetAccess and Fleets Online send positions, activities, driver status and remaining driving times; several also accept planning and messages back.
* Direct OEM connections (rFMS)  
DAF, Scania, Volvo, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, MAN and IVECO trucks connect over the ACEA rFMS standard: position, fuel, AdBlue, odometer, engine hours, battery state, weights and remote tachograph files, with no extra box.
* OpenMove and the execution link  
Drivers on the [app](/en-us/product/driver-app) broadcast as a mobile board computer.
* Containers, ocean and air  
project44, SeaRates and Qubictron feed container and air-cargo milestones onto maritime and air trips by bill of lading, booking or AWB number.

### Sensors and telemetry

* Sensor types  
Temperature, pressure, speed, humidity, accelerometer, current, voltage and weight, plus telemetry such as odometer, RPM, fuel, engine and coolant temperature, battery voltage, service distance and tacho work state.
* Slot mapping  
Provider inputs (digital and analogue slots, CAN datasets) map to sensors, entity fields, statuses and action completion, with tenant rules on top of defaults.
* Aggregates and charts  
Server-side buckets from a minute to a week with average, minimum, maximum and count; line, area or bar charts; compare sensors; CSV export. See the [fleet FMS dashboard](/en-us/product/fleet-management).
* Sensor health  
A sensor that stops reporting for 24 hours raises an alert.

### Alerts: built-in, telemetry and custom

Every alert has a type (trip, vehicle, driver, shipment, integration), a level and a tenant SLA in minutes.

* Trip checks on save  
Twenty-seven opt-in checks: ADR qualification and certificate expiry, license and tacho validity, driver bans, non-operational assets, insufficient drive time, rest due, weekly limit, weight and load meters exceeded, high-value goods, missing location, missing weight, missing customer, constraint violated, expired document, negative margin, unpriced order, empty trip, preferred-vehicle and language mismatch, vehicle suddenly idle.
* Telemetry thresholds  
Engine temperature above 100 °C, fuel below 10 %, battery below 23 V, cargo temperature outside its band, service due or overdue, fuel drop while parked (theft), stale sensor, geofence enter and exit.
* Custom alert rules  
Any trigger event plus a condition, with level error, warning or information, a target type, an action such as open trip, and automatic resolution when the condition clears.
* Conflict and capacity alerts  
Vehicle, driver and means-of-transport double bookings, capacity availability and "actions done, no documents".

### Where the data shows up

* Watchtower and boards  
Live position, ETA, next action and plan status per shipment and trip; fuel, speed, heading and current country per vehicle.
* Customer-facing  
Public tracking links with visibility toggles, the [customer portal](/en-us/product/customer-portal) watchtower and live-tracking map, and embeddable track-and-trace widgets.
* Events  
Gate in and out, arrival, departure, engine start and stop, start and stop moving and waiting, location updates and capacity changes are stored as events on the vehicle and trip.
* Reports  
Insights for vehicle CO₂, idling and fuel cost, temperature compliance, sensor value by date, border crossings and driver-on-truck.

## How it works

1. ### Connect the source  
Add a preset integration for your telematics provider or an OEM rFMS connection, or let drivers use the app. Board computers are matched to vehicles by identifier.
2. ### Map what matters  
Sensor slots map to temperature, fuel, door or weight; value-mapping rules translate provider codes into activities and statuses.
3. ### Watch live  
Positions, events and sensor values arrive continuously; the Watchtower, boards and maps update by push, and ETAs recalculate.
4. ### Let alerts do the watching  
Enable the built-in checks you care about, set sensor thresholds, add custom rules. Alerts carry an SLA and auto-solve when the condition clears.
5. ### Share  
Send tracking links, open the portal for customers, or trigger a "Trip ETA update" automation when the ETA moves.

Customer portal · Live tracking

![Customer portal live tracking page with active orders listed on the left and their routes and vehicle positions drawn on a map of the Netherlands](/assets/screens/portal-live-tracking.webp)

The same live data, scoped to one customer in the portal.

## One tracking layer for a mixed fleet

Fleets are rarely single-brand or single-provider. A Dutch carrier may run DAF and Scania tractors on their factory connectivity, a few older trucks on Webfleet, hired drivers on the app, and reefers with a separate temperature logger. Transportial normalizes all of it into board computers, sensors and events, so the Watchtower shows one row per trip regardless of where the position came from.

Telemetry slot mapping is what makes this practical. A provider's "digital input 3" becomes "reefer door", a CAN dataset becomes the fuel level, and tenant rules override defaults where a fleet is wired differently.

Board computers · New

![New board computer form linking a telematics integration and identifier to a vehicle](/assets/screens/board-computer.webp)

One board computer record per vehicle, trailer or mobile device.

## Alerts with a service level

An alert nobody owns is noise. Each alert level carries a tenant-configurable SLA (errors 60 minutes, warnings 4 hours, information 24 hours by default), alerts auto-solve when the condition clears, and custom rules deduplicate per rule and entity. The result is a list that shrinks when the operation is healthy, instead of a log that grows forever.

Integrations · Preset

![Preset integration selector listing transics, web_fleet, squarell, evogps, trimble, mapon, portbase, psa and dpworld](/assets/screens/integration-presets.webp)

Telematics presets: pick the provider, enter credentials, map the vehicles.

## Compliance rides along

Remote [tachograph](/en-us/glossary/tachograph) download over rFMS, FleetAccess, Squarell and Transics files, parsed to EU 1360/2002 for first and second generation cards and units, with the 28-day and 90-day deadlines tracked per driver and vehicle. Cabotage counts per vehicle, posting-of-workers declarations per country and certificate expiry warnings complete the picture.

## Concepts & terminology

The words this module uses, with links to the full glossary where a term has its own page.

[Open the glossary](/en-us/glossary)

Board computer

The device or app identity that reports a vehicle, trailer or driver's position and activities.

rFMS

The ACEA remote fleet management standard that truck makers expose for read-only vehicle data and remote tachograph download.

Telemetry slot

A provider input (digital, analogue or CAN) mapped to a sensor, a field, a status or an action completion.

Event

A timestamped fact about a vehicle or trip: location update, gate in or out, arrival, departure, engine start or stop, capacity change.

Alert SLA

The time within which an alert of a given level should be resolved, configured per tenant.

Geofence

A radius around a location that raises enter and exit alerts and can auto-start actions.

Track and trace[Glossary](/en-us/glossary/track-and-trace)

Following a shipment's position and milestones from pickup to delivery, exposed to customers through links, the portal and widgets.

ETA[Glossary](/en-us/glossary/eta)

The estimated arrival time at the next stop, recalculated from live position, route and dwell times.

## Works with

Connectors that feed or consume this module out of the box.

[Webfleet](/en-us/integration/webfleet)[![](/assets/trimble-logo.svg)Trimble](/en-us/integration/trimble)[Squarell](/en-us/integration/squarell)[FleetAccess](/en-us/integration/fleetaccess)[EvoGPS](/en-us/integration/evogps)[![](/assets/volvo-logo.svg)Volvo Connect](/en-us/integration/volvo-connect)[Project44](/en-us/integration/project44)[SeaRates](/en-us/integration/searates)[All integrations →](/en-us/integration)

## Built for

Where this module carries the most weight, plus the free tools on the same topic.

[fleet-managers](/en-us/solutions/fleet-managers)[transport-companies](/en-us/solutions/transport-companies)[shippers](/en-us/solutions/shippers)

Technical details

Location data is processed by the Worker backend mode and stored against trip entities. The Watchtower board uses a Socket.IO channel for push-based live updates, avoiding polling.

## Frequently asked questions

### Which telematics systems are supported?

Transics, Webfleet, Trimble, Mapon, Squarell, EvoGPS, FleetAccess and Fleets Online, plus direct rFMS connections to DAF, Scania, Volvo, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, MAN and IVECO. Container and air milestones come from project44, SeaRates and Qubictron.

### Do I need extra hardware in new trucks?

No. Trucks from the seven rFMS manufacturers connect through their factory-fitted unit with the manufacturer's consent flow.

### Can I monitor cargo temperature?

Yes. Temperature sensors on vehicles or trailers feed live charts, a cargo temperature band raises alerts, and a temperature-compliance report exists per vehicle and period.

### How do alerts avoid becoming noise?

Every built-in check is opt-in, alerts have levels with SLAs, they auto-resolve when the condition clears, and custom rules are deduplicated per rule and entity.

### Can customers see the same live view?

Yes, scoped to their own orders: public tracking links, the portal live-tracking map and watchtower, and embeddable widgets.

### Is tachograph data collected remotely?

Yes. Driver-card and vehicle-unit files are downloaded over rFMS, FleetAccess, Squarell and Transics, parsed in-house, and tracked against the 28-day and 90-day deadlines.

## Related features

[View all features](/en-us/product)

[Fleet & Resource ManagementFull lifecycle management for every vehicle, driver, and piece of equipment in your operation.](/en-us/product/fleet-management)[OpenMove Driver AppGive your drivers everything they need for their trip, on iOS or Android, with real-time communication back to the office.](/en-us/product/driver-app)[Message AutomationsSend the right message to the right person at exactly the right moment, triggered automatically by 75+ operational events.](/en-us/product/message-automations)

View all features

[Transport Order Management](/en-us/product/transport-orders)[Interactive Plan Board](/en-us/product/plan-board)[AI-Powered Trip Optimization](/en-us/product/trip-optimisation)[Fleet & Resource Management](/en-us/product/fleet-management)[3D Load Planning](/en-us/product/load-planning)[OpenMove Driver App](/en-us/product/driver-app)[Real-Time Vehicle Tracking](/en-us/product/vehicle-tracking)[Multi-Modal Routing](/en-us/product/routing)[Pricing Engine](/en-us/product/pricing-engine)[Invoicing & Financial Management](/en-us/product/invoicing)[Message Automations](/en-us/product/message-automations)[Document Management & Generation](/en-us/product/documents)[Integrated Email Inbox](/en-us/product/email-inbox)[In-App Chat](/en-us/product/chat)[Customer & Business Portal](/en-us/product/customer-portal)[Integration Framework](/en-us/product/integration-framework)[Reporting & Insights](/en-us/product/reporting)[Multi-Tenancy & White-Label](/en-us/product/white-label)[Security & Access Control](/en-us/product/security)

## Ready to put this to work?

Start free with full platform access, or talk to our team about your specific operation.

[Start Free](https://portal.otms.transportial.com/auth/register)[Book a Demo](/en-us/contact)

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Canonical page: https://transportial.com/en-us/product/vehicle-tracking