The Vehicle Management feature is about maintaining your operational fleet and controlling the data sharing at a vehicle level. It shows all the vehicles that are connected to your carrier network and are visible to you 24/7. These “Dedicated vehicles” could be your own vehicles or the vehicles shared by your subcontractors.
Vehicle management is also a good place to start if you notice problems with the tracking of your transports. You will get an indication of the “health” of your fleet based on the GPS updates received from each vehicle, enabling you to act proactively if a vehicle is not sending any GPS updates.
This article guides you through the functionalities of the Vehicle Management feature, covering the following topics:
1. General concept of tracking and vehicle management
In order to provide real-time visibility (RTV) data on transports you need to connect trackable assets to Transporeon Visibility Hub. The Visibility Hub is asset agnostic meaning an asset can be a trailer, a tractor, a mobile phone or any other device. The only requirement is that the asset has to be trackable, meaning sending position updates during transports.
All assets in the Visibility Hub are called vehicles, and once connected they can be allocated to transports or permanently shared with your partners.
Connecting your vehicles
In order to connect your own vehicles for transport execution, you need to integrate a data source to Visibility Hub. The easiest, fastest and most common way of connecting your vehicles is via a direct connection to your GPS (telematics system) provider but we also support several alternatives. Read more on how to connect vehicles.
After adding the data source(s), the vehicles coming from these integrations will be connected to the Visibility Hub platform, displayed in your Vehicle Management view and are ready for allocation and tracking.
Recommendations
1) Give Visibility Hub access to your fleet
In order to be sure that your current and future vehicles are available for tracking, we recommend giving Visibility Hub permanent access to your entire fleet. Our data engine only shares your data when the data sharing criteria is fulfilled (right vehicle at the right time and place for the specific customer). Data coming from vehicles not used for tracking will be discarded until the day you choose to share data.
2) Let Visibility Hub manage the data of your fleet
Save time and stay competitive by trusting Visibility Hub to manage the data of your fleet. You do not have to worry about adding/removing vehicles or switching on/off the data sharing, we will tell you if any actions are needed from your side.
3) Grow and maintain a healthy fleet
When you follow our recommendations mentioned above all your vehicles should send frequent position updates to Visibility Hub. We call such vehicles “healthy vehicles” that are ready for tracking.
4) Check the status of the vehicles frequently
Active vehicle – Visibility Hub has received a GPS position update within the last 96 hours.
Inactive vehicle – Visibility Hub has not received a position update within the last 96 hours.
If the “inactive” vehicle is from your own fleet, check the status of the integration in the “Integrations” tab on Visibility Hub and follow the instructions. In case of no instructions, please reach out to your GPS provider for support. Alternatively reach out to Transporeon support.
If the “inactive” vehicle is not your own, let your partner know and ask them to reach out to fix the issue with their GPS provider.
Please note! The statuses are not related to any transports, meaning they only indicate the “health” of the vehicle and the connection to Visibility Hub.
5) Grow your vehicle network
Make sure all the vehicles you use for existing and future customers are connected to Visibility Hub. If new vehicles are added to your fleet or you start working with a new subcontractor, make sure to connect them. Use the “Connect vehicles” button in Vehicle Management for that.
2. Functionalities of the vehicle management feature
1) Integrations tab - Adding GPS (telematics system) integration
This feature enables you to connect the vehicles you use for your own and/or for customers’ transports. Add a GPS (telematics system) integration and get ready to start your real-time visibility journey.
Click the Integrations tab. Find the GPS provider(s) you use by searching them from the list and follow the few steps in the simple integration. Click here to read more about how to add/connect vehicles.
The synchronisation with your GPS provider will start after the required information is provided and can take up to 24 hours.
If your provider is not in the list, simply click on the “Add your missing provider” link, submit their contact details and we’ll reach out to start the integration. We will keep you informed during the integration process.
You can see the status of the integration in the Integration tab.
Once your vehicles are connected to Visibility Hub you are able to see the vehicles of each integration by clicking the “View vehicles” link.
What do the columns show?
Name: The name of the data source / integration
Updated: The time of the last integration update in Visibility Hub
Status:
In development – the integration is in progress.
In review –The integration is not working for some reason.
Active – The integration is enabled in Visibility Hub.
Please note! Integration enabled status does not automatically mean that your vehicles are sending data to the Visibility Hub. Check the status of the vehicles (active/inactive) in the Dedicated Vehicles tab.Inactive – The integration is disabled in Visibility Hub.
This could mean that the integration was never enabled due to wrong credentials or that an enabled integration has been disabled for some reason.Update credentials – The credentials of the integration are either invalid or have expired. Once you have updated the credentials the integration will become active again.
View Vehicles: displays the list of vehicles from the specific integration. All the vehicles are also shown in the Dedicated Vehicles tab.
Hint: Read more about different ways to connect to Visibility Hub
2) Dedicated Vehicles tab
This tab gives you a simple table and map view of all your dedicated vehicles. These are your own vehicles and the vehicles your partners have dedicated you 24/7 visibility.
What do the columns show?
License plate:
The license plates of the vehicles that are at your disposal 24/7 (your own vehicles and the vehicles your partners have dedicated to you). You can allocate them for transports, see them on the map view and dedicate your own vehicles to a partner you work for.
Integrations:
The name/type of the integration the license plate is coming from. If the license plate is available through multiple integrations the text “Integrations (number of integrations)” is displayed. Clicking on the text opens the side panel where you can see all the integrations.
Dedicated by:
The name of your partner (typically a subcontractor) who has dedicated some or all of their vehicles to you. The vehicles will stay in the list until your partner decides to take them back.
Dedicated to:
The name of your partner (typically a freight forwarder) to whom you have dedicated a vehicle. If more than one partner has full access to the vehicle the text “Dedicated Partners (number of partners)” is displayed. Clicking on the text opens the side panel where you can see all the partners who have 24/7 visibility.
Last signal:
The time when the last (GPS) position update was received in Visibility Hub. We use this to indicate the “health of your vehicles” in Visibility Hub.
Statuses:
Active – Visibility Hub has received a position update within the last 96 hours.
We indicate that the vehicle is “healthy” and would most likely be trackable on the next transport if the data sharing criteria is met (right vehicle at the right time and place).
Inactive – Visibility Hub has not received a position update within the last 96 hours. We indicate that the vehicle/integration needs attention as it will most likely not be trackable if allocated to a transport.
Read the “Recommendation” above for guidance on how to handle inactive vehicles.
Vehicle details side panel
Click on a vehicle to open the side panel for more details about the vehicle. This can be valuable for investigating reasons why the transports can’t be tracked etc.
Created date – the time the vehicle was connected for the first time and created in Visibility Hub.
Asset id – Vehicles (trailer/tractor) are typically equipped with a GPS unit. Each unit has its unique identification number which we refer to as the asset id. The license plate is associated with the asset id and the license plate is used for allocation.
The “Vehicles” and “Status” filters let you filter out your own or partners vehicles by different statuses.
Recommendation:
Be proactive and pay attention to the inactive vehicles in your list and make sure they send regular data to Visibility Hub before the vehicles are allocated to a transport.
Click on the “Map” to see the vehicles on the map view. The dots will show the position of the vehicles based on their last GPS location update to Visibility Hub.
Dots on the map
Green – the status of the vehicle is active
Grey – the status of the vehicle is inactive
Note! There are no dots for inactive vehicles that have never sent a GPS position update to Visibility Hub.
3) Dedicated by partners tab
This tab gives you a list of all the partners working for you (typically your subcontractors) and an overview of the vehicles they have dedicated to you 24/7.
Click on the name of the partner to see the vehicles dedicated to you. You can see the vehicles in the table or map view.
If some vehicles are missing from the list, ask your partner to make them visible for you.
Please note!
Per default integrated vehicles are only visible to the vehicle owner. This means that you will not see your partners’ vehicles in the vehicle management unless they have been dedicated to you. Your partners can only dedicate their own vehicles and not the vehicles that are permanently shared with them by one of their partners.
Hint!
To find out if your subcontractor’s vehicle is connected and available for tracking use one of Visibility Hub’s allocation dialogues and check if the license plate used on transport is connected and available to you via your partner.
Allocation dialogue
1. Open the "Unallocated” tab in your Transport view
2. Click the “+Allocate”
3. Enter the license plate number you want to check
If the vehicle is available for you it will show via the drop down list. If the license plate is not shown, reach out to your subcontractor and ask them to get the license plate connected to you.
4. Dedicate your vehicles tab
The vehicles you have connected to Visibility Hub via an integration are only visible to you by default.
When executing transports for other carriers (you are a subcontractor to them) it is possible to allow them to see your vehicles as well - also when the vehicles are not allocated to a transport. By allowing your partners permanent visibility to your vehicles this can help them make better and faster decisions when allocating transports to your vehicles.
You can only dedicate your own vehicles to your partners.
The “Dedicate your vehicles” tab shows you the list of all the partners you are working for (you are a subcontractor to them), and you can see the list of vehicles you have dedicated to them.
Click on the name of the partner to see the list of vehicles you have already dedicated (marked yellow) and the vehicles still available for sharing with the partner (not marked)
Note! If some of the not yet dedicated vehicles are permanently shared with other partners, the name of the partner will show in the “dedicated to” column
As you own the vehicles you decide how many partners will have 24/7 visibility. Be aware that all the partners will be able to follow the vehicle, and the driver, until you “take back” the vehicle.
Please note!
You do not have to dedicate vehicles that are only used for transports. Your customers will see the location and receive the GPS updates from your vehicles during the transports.
Best practice!
Due to privacy concerns we advise only to dedicate a vehicle to one partner at a time.
Do not dedicate vehicles only used for transports.
Inform your partners when you have dedicated or taken back the dedicated vehicles.
Make sure all the dedicated vehicles are “active”. Their status will show in your partners’ vehicle list.
3. Supportive articles
Get in touch with Transporeon support