GPS Tracking Software is a server-based application that receives location and sensor information from tracking devices attached to vehicles or assets, processes it, and displays it via live maps, alerts and reports. It's the satellite signals that let the device know where it is, and it's the software that allows it to do so.
It is located at one end of a five-step chain: satellites send out timing signals, a tracker processes its location plus vehicle data, a network transmits this data to a server, the server processes it and the software displays it.
This tutorial will discuss how each layer operates, what is being tracked, the users, the cost and how to pick a tracking system.
GPS Tracking Software in a nutshell.
| Question | Answer |
| What is it? | Software which tracks GPS on vehicles and assets. |
| What does it track? | Any telemetry data including location, speed, ignition, routes etc. |
| What is the method used to convey data? | Cellular, satellite or other communications networks |
| What is the location of data? | Typically on a cloud or self-hosted server |
| What can users see? | Real-time maps, history, reports and alerts |
| Who uses it? | Fleet, logistics, construction, delivery and asset operators |
| How accurate is it? | Typically 5 metres in open air and 4 metres in areas of dense urban development. |
| Is hardware required? | Yes — each vehicle or asset to be equipped with a tracking device |
What's GPS Tracking Software?
GPS tracking software is an application that accepts and stores data from tracking devices via geospatial technology and sensor data, then converts this information into live maps, alert messages, reports and fleet workflows. Translates coordinates into data that manager can respond to.
There are three pieces and they are grouped together under one name:
- The tracking device — equipment in the vehicle that detects the position and reads the sensors.
- The tracking server — software that receives data from all devices, decodes each manufacturer's data protocol, keeps history and activates the alert engine.
- The interface refers to the dashboard or mobile app your team logs in to.
The difference is of importance in the trade. A device manufacturer's bundle app only reads its own device. An effective vehicle tracking solution decodes dozens of protocols, allowing you to switch to a new device supplier without losing years of data.
So, what is the difference between GPS and GNSS?
GPS is one satellite constellation, owned by the United States. All of them are under the umbrella of GNSS, including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, NavIC and QZSS. Several of them are used by a GNSS receiver, which results in quicker fixes and higher accuracy in urban areas where many buildings obstruct the sky. Almost all the modern trackers are GNSS devices, the industry continued to say "GPS".
What Does GPS Tracking Software Do?
GPS tracking is done in five steps: satellites establish location, device captures location data, network conveys data, server analyzes data, and software provides display. The entire process takes only a few seconds.
The job of each layer is one. GPS/GNSS determines position. It gathers this and merges information about the vehicle – that's telematics. It's moved through the network. It is carried out by the server. It is presented in software. On top of all that is the business layer, Fleet Management.
1. GPS/GNSS Determines Location
Satellites transmit their position in orbit and an atomic-clock time stamp continuously. Transmission is unidirectional and passive, therefore the use of satellite positioning is available to all.
Each receiver uses its own clock to compare the time and then computes the distance to the satellite by multiplying the difference by the speed of light. Each distance corresponds to a sphere and where the spheres intersect is the position. This is trilateration, not triangulation, which measures angles, and positioning measures distances. At the fourth satellite corrects for the device's less-than-perfect quartz clock – a loss of one nanosecond is about 300 metres.
The Tracking Device Collects Data
The tracking device consists of a GNSS receiver, a modem and a set of inputs. It records ignition time, engine hours, battery voltage, harsh braking and acceleration, engine data from OBD-II or CAN bus (if wired), fuel level, cargo temperature and driver identity (if wired).
What is the accuracy of GPS tracking? In open skies about 5 metres. In urban areas, signals bounce off buildings and suggest additional distance; thus, a tracker downtown may seem to be a street away. Without dead reckoning, you will not receive any signals in the tunnel and basement.
3. Data is transmitted via the Network.
- Cellular — the default. 2G/3G is being retired in many countries: Specify 4G LTE: Cat-1 for vehicles, LTE-M or NB-IoT for battery-powered tags.
- Satellite — for mining, shipping and true no-coverage terrain. Expensive per byte, but can work anywhere with sky visibility.
- Short-range RF or Bluetooth — yard management, tool tags, trailer tags through gateway.
When the connection drops, good hardware will buffer the records into internal memory without leaving holes in the record.
4. Server processes data
The server decodes the protocol of the device, validates each record and keeps it. Raw output has noise in it (position jumps, drift while parking, etc.) and removing that noise is between accepting a trip report from the driver, and having a fight with the driver. Then, scores your rules on all of your records: geofence entry/exit, overspeeding, idling, harsh braking etc. Any match triggers an alert.
This game is made for the software developer.
Live Map, Route playback of any date, dashboards, scheduled reports and an alert feed, both via web portal and mobile app. The delay from start to finish is a couple of seconds – primarily your reporting period, rather than your latency.
GPS vs GPS Tracker vs GPS Tracking Software
- GPS Satellite constellation Government operated Free for use
- GPS tracking equipment: Equipment which receives and sends out location information; Device manufacturers; One-time hardware + SIM data.
- The software follows a client-server architecture and is installed on a server that collects, processes, stores and presents the data; the software vendor sells the software as a subscription or licence.
GPS is a public service, no one sells it, and thus the car navigation system doesn't require an account.
One problem solved by a tracker is that you know where to find it and you know how to get it to a server. It alone generates coordinates and no more.
Coordinates turn into operational information with tracking software, and the layer that dictates that you'll be stuck with one hardware brand. As hardware and software purchases are separate, operators find themselves unable to move to a different device supplier without losing their history if they purchase them together.
What is GPS Tracking Software tracking?
A tracking system keeps track of location, speed, ignition, route history, engine data and any attached sensors, such as fuel level, temperature, door status, driver identity, etc.
- Location and movement — latitude and longitude, speed, heading, distance, route taken, stop duration
- Vehicle status — ignition, engine hours, odometer, battery voltage, tamper and power-disconnect events
- Driving habits — extreme braking, acceleration, cornering, speeding, idling
- Diagnostic data — fuel consumption, engine temperature, RPM, trouble codes, etc. from the engine (OBD-II or CAN)
The sensors used are attached to the equipment, including temperature, door open/close sensor, driver identification (RFID), and panic button.
A car's location is indicated by its location alone. Fuel and driver ID explains why last week's route was more expensive than they should have been.
Features and Capabilities
- Live tracking. Position, speed and status updated every X seconds (usually 10-30 seconds for most fleets).
- History and playback. Replayer any vehicle on any period of time. The settlement resolves conflict regarding arrival of vehicle to a location and the time it waited there.
- Geofencing. Virtual boundaries around depots and customer sites that generate arrival and departure events without any driver involvement.
- Alerts. Unauthorised movement, tampering, Overspeeding, Harsh driving, Idling, SOS. Plan for less than you believe you will need — you don't want to have an alert channel that no one reads.
- Driver behaviour scoring. The events from each of the accelerometers were added up over time and per-driver scores created.
- Trip and route management. Planned Routing, deviation alerts, ETA calculation, stop analysis.
- Maintenance scheduling. Service reminders based on odometer and engine hours, so intervals are based on actual service.
- Automation and verification. Trip logs and odometers that are automatically updated and an objective record of the invoice, detention claims and compliance audits.
- Reporting, API and permissions. Scheduled reports, documented API to push data into ERP or TMS, and role-based access so that managers, customers and drivers are only looking at what should be theirs.
Who Uses GPS Tracking Software?
| Business | Primary use |
| Logistics | Route and delivery tracking. |
| Transportation | Fleet visibility |
| Construction | Asset monitoring |
| Waste management | Route verification |
| Rental | Vehicle monitoring |
| School transport | Safety and ETA |
| Service Assurance | Field service Technician tracking |
| Cold chain | Compliance of temperature and location |
| Tracking of individual persons | Monitoring of persons' location |
Where there's money, there's movement and that's the common denominator with assets moving out of sight. A tracking platform saves you from making phone calls and making an educated guess when your vehicles, equipment or people are working away from your sight.
For school buses and other public service vehicles, the decision is not at the discretion of the school, but regulatory, as per AIS-140, where the school is required to have certified units with panic buttons.
Benefits
- Lower fuel costs. A reduction in idling, optimized routing and less misuse lead to lower fuel costs – typically the second item in the expense budget after payroll.
- Higher utilisation. Routine visibility of working vehicles and vehicles that do not – shows a larger fleet than necessary. Often the largest saving is through rightsizing.
- Safer driving. Knowing that his/her actions will result in less braking, drivers drive at a lower speed to short-circuit repair costs and downtime.
- Theft prevention. A tracked vehicle can be retrieved, a tracked asset with a tamper alert is all too often never stolen at all.
- More accurate billing and improved service. Trip and geofence data validates invoices and yields accurate ETAs, minimizing incoming calls and payment disputes.
- Lower insurance exposure. The ability to be monitored and recovered is becoming an important factor for commercial premiums.
- Judges making decisions based on data. At least one assumption concerning the fleet is usually found to be incorrect within the first month of operation. That's typically the return comes from.
Cloud-Based GPS Tracking Software vs. Self-Hosted GPS Tracking Software
Cloud platforms are hosted by the vendor and paid for by vehicle per month. Self-hosted software is installed on your own server, comes with a one-off licence and a hosting service.
| Cloud | Self-hosted | |
| Initial investment | Low | Higher (licence and set-up) |
| Cost at scale | Increases as each vehicle is added | Generally remains unchanged as more vehicles are added |
| Data ownership | Yours (on your server) | Vendor-held |
| Customisation | done by the vendor | accessing the database or the API directly |
| Maintenance | Vendor | you or your provider |
| Best for | Small fleets, quick starts | Larger fleets, resellers, data-sensitive operations |
Cloud is rapidly deployable and requires no infrastructure, but is also linearly expensive and can be hard to move off later on.
Self-hosting inverts that. Depending on subscription rates, the crossover point occurs at a certain number of vehicles, typically in the low hundreds. It's not far from a requirement for two groups: businesses that resell tracking to their own customers, and operators who have contracts and regulators that mandate having data under their control.
How Much Does GPS Tracking Software Cost?
Costs can be broken down into 4 components: Hardware (one-off, per vehicle); SIM Data (recurring, per device); Software (subscription or one-off licence); Install and Support. The last two are often not included in a quote.
The basic plug-in OBD is a relatively inexpensive option, hardwired – with fuel sensor, driver ID reader and dashcam – is a significant step up and AIS-140 certified is an expensive option. They use data modestly (tens of megabytes per month per vehicle); but in a fleet, the amount of data they use is multiplied; and IoT plans outperform consumer plans.
Use the three-year total cost based on the number of vehicles you expect to own instead of the per-month cost. What seems like a good deal of 20 cars can be entirely different at 300 and hardware that is cheap may come with 2G devices that will eventually expire or go away, anyway.
How to Choose GPS Tracking Software
- Hardware independence. Is the platform capable of decoding protocols from different manufacturers or is there a fixed price for one manufacturer? First check the list of supported devices.
- Deployment model. Either cloud-based or self-hosted, it costs you more than three years, based on a realistic fleet size, instead of based on your fleet size today.
- Ownership and export of data. Who owns the History? Can you get it at once? What happens on the day you go? Decide this before signing!
- Scalability. What does the platform do when you have 10 times your current fleet of reports?
- Integration. A documented REST API and webhooks, along with integration with your ERP, TMS or accounting system.
- Compliance fit. For AIS-140, ELD or cold-chain regulations, verify the platform is able to accept certified devices and generate the types of reports auditors require.
- Support. Time zone, language, response commitments and whether you are able to contact engineers or a ticket queue.
Real-World Example
Example: logistics fleet. A logistics company with 200 vehicles has a tracking system that enables them to track and replay routes after the fact, track for excessive idle time, receive geofence alerts for their depot and customers, and provide estimated arrival time to their customers.
That same data is then also used three other places without being re-entered: maintenance scheduling based on real odometer & engine-hour readings, fuel analysis per vehicle & per route, and dispatch based on the actual vehicle that is closest, not on the assumed vehicle.
That's what's being reused: The majority of value gained from a tracking deployment is not from the live mapping but from the same records being used across multiple departments.
What Fleet Stack has learned from GPS Tracking Deployments
- Tracking projects with GPS typically don't fail because of GPS accuracy. They blow out on its environment — device support, communication interfaces, server load, data storage, alert set-up and integration. Positional precision will not have as much influence on the use of the finished system as these do.
- Compatibility of devices is not an afterthought and is important first. The platform often decodes just a portion of what the device sends; for example, fuel probe readings, driver ID, or CAN parameters (as untagged values). Check out the supported device list first, and buy in volume only if you're certain that the exact model is supported.
- There are no protocol conversions. Different protocol versions and field sets can be used between two devices of the same manufacturer. This should be verified on a model by model basis for mixed fleets.
- The size of servers is based on the reporting interval and not the number of vehicles. Five times as many vehicles at two second intervals produce twice the load as a thousand at sixty second intervals. Determine the size of the server, and then the interval.
- Data retention is a cost and a legal decision. Retention of all positions slows down reporting and creates privacy law retention concerns. Most operators require months of full resolution data and years of summarised data.
- If the number of alerts is excessive, they are ignored. The most prevalent post-launch issue is an alert feed that nobody reads. Begin with 3-4 rules that someone is responsible for carrying out and build up more rules as they are effective.
- Requirements for integration only emerge after. Typically recording is purchased by operations, however, finance/compliance require the data in months. Just confirm the API access at purchase even if it will not be used in year one.
Challenges and Limitations
- Signal interference. Multipath while in dense urban areas and total loss in tunnels. Dead reckoning fills the gaps in time.
- Jamming and tampering. Jammers are banned in most countries and are readily available on the market. A jamming device will show the jamming as an event.
- Limits of privacy and legalities. In most jurisdictions it's legal to track vehicles that you own, it's legal to track employees if you have written notice and a policy in place, and it's illegal in most jurisdictions to track a private vehicle without permission. Location data is personal data that falls under the GDPR and India's DPDP Act. This is a general information and not legal advice.
- Data without process. Technical failures are not the most common failures. Fleets purchase tracking, create reports, and no action is taken.
Future Trends
- AI-driven prediction. Route optimisation is well-developed; new areas marking potential failure are flagged on the vehicle.
- Video telematics. Linking dashcams with tracking data provides visual context to each harsh-braking incident, reshaping accident investigation and insurance negotiation.
- Cheaper precision. The availability of sub-metre accuracy at ordinary fleet hardware is now becoming affordable with the entry of dual-frequency GNSS chipsets.
- Edge processing. As the devices become more capable, they are now calculating and reporting rules on-board, thereby reducing data costs at scale.
- EV telematics. State of charge, charging session data and range prediction, a metric set most platforms are still constructing, is essential for electric fleets.
Frequently Asked Questions
GPS tracking software is a program developed to monitor GPS devices.
Software that is installed on the server to retrieve and store location and sensor data from the tracking devices and display them as real-time maps, alerts and reports.
What is involved in GPS tracking software?
Satellites determine location, then it gets collected in a device, transmitted to a server, gets processed there and then displayed on a software.
Is GPS tracking software dependent upon GPS hardware?
Yes. There's no software to display unless there's something being transmitted from the car.
Is there GPS tracking software that can track vehicles in real time?
Yes. When traveling, most fleets report every 10-30 seconds, which is live.
What does GPS tracking software gather?
Location, speed, ignition, engine hours, odometer, driving events and sensor data (fuel level, temperature, or driver identity).
How much does GPS tracking software cost?
Per Vehicle Hardware, Recurring SIM, Software Subscription or Licence, Install and support. Compare for more than three years in expected fleet size.
Is GPS tracking software open source?
Yes. Self-hosted platforms are those that are hosted on your own server, retaining data on your infrastructure and preventing costs from climbing with each vehicle.
Can GPS tracking software be used for small fleets?
Yes. A fleet of just a few cars typically begins with a cloud subscription – and the alternative of self-hosting is more appealing as the number of vehicles increases.
Is it possible to integrate in GPS tracking software with ERP and TMS?
A platform with a proven rest API can take and send trip data, fuel data, and maintenance data to ERP or TMS. Verify the existence of API access prior to purchase.
GPS tracking software is different from fleet management software?
The tracking software provides answers to where vehicles are located and what they are doing. Fleet management software is based on that to operate maintenance, compliance, costing and dispatch.
Fleet Stack GPS Tracking Software
Fleet Stack is an on-site tracking and fleet management solution. It is deployed on your own server and the location data remains within your infrastructure, eliminating costs that increase with each vehicle that is added.
Supports protocols from a variety of manufacturers, which means you're not restricted to one hardware vendor. It combines with live tracking & playback, geofencing, driver management, trip & route optimisation, fuel monitoring, maintenance scheduling and a complete REST API. E-Way Bill, LR/Bilty and FASTag workflows exist in the same system as the tracking data for Indian operators.
Find out more about the platform, devices that work, and get a consultation.
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