When a tracker goes quiet
A tracker going quiet is the most everyday problem in GPS tracking, and most of the time nothing is wrong with the car. The Tracking list gives every vehicle one of five states so you can tell the harmless silences from the one worth chasing. Tracking itself is an optional paid module, switched on per account - contact us to add it to your plan.
What each state means
No tracker - no hardware is fitted to this car. Nothing is wrong and there is nothing to fix; it is simply not on the map. Add tracker changes that.
Pairing - the tracker is registered and Fleetola is waiting for its first report, which usually arrives 2 to 5 minutes after power-up. One that never arrives is a setup problem, not an outage - work through Fit and connect a tracker.
Online - reporting now, with its live speed beside it.
No signal - fitted, has reported before, and has gone quiet. The row shows how long ago it last reported. This is the one state that means go and look.
The whole list at once - when every car goes unknown together and a banner says Fleetola can't reach the tracking server, the problem is the server, not your fleet. Positions are out of date rather than wrong, and it usually clears on its own. The Moving, Parked and No signal filters disappear during the outage, because with no live read Fleetola cannot honestly claim any of them about your cars.
Where to find it: Tracking
When Fleetola alerts you
After about 30 minutes of silence, Fleetola raises one alert - in your notification bell and as a push notification. One per outage, not one every half hour: a tracker parked underground for a week does not bury your bell. The alert carries the time contact was lost, not the time Fleetola noticed. When the device reports again, its return is noted in the vehicle's Reports tab - the event log's Connection filter - and the next silence counts as a fresh outage.
Chase a silent tracker
- Open the vehicle from Tracking and press Locate now. It asks the device to report its position immediately - if the tracker is reachable at all, a fresh position comes back within a minute or two and you are done.
- Check the car has power and the tracker is still connected. The Info tab shows the external voltage from the last report, and flags one that was running low.
- Think about where the car is. An underground car park or a coverage black spot silences a tracker completely, and it comes back by itself when the car does.
- Check the SIM: its data plan is active and, if it is prepaid, the credit has not run out.
If all four come up clean and the tracker stays quiet, suspect the device or its wiring - the server address, port and IMEI were proven right the day it first connected.
Where to find it: Tracking → a vehicle → Locate now
What last seen means
Last seen is the last time the tracker reported - a fact about the device, not the car. Where a silent car still shows on the map, the marker is its position at that last report.
Tip: Before acting on a silent car's marker - sending someone out to collect it, say - read the last seen time beside it. A car can be a long way from a position that is hours old.
Related guides
- GPS tracking for your fleet - A live map of your fleet: what the paid tracking module includes and needs.
- Fit and connect a tracker - Fit a GPS tracker, point it at the server, and get its first report.
- Immobilise a vehicle - Cut the fuel from wherever you are - owner-only, a recorded reason, honest delivery.
- Share a live location link - Hand a recovery agent a live map of one car - expiring, revocable, owner-only.