State of The Art GPS Tracking
Connected Directly Into Your Fleet Vehicles.

The core device in the GEOTAB hardware offering is referred to as the GO device. The GO is a small form-factor telematics measurement tool that connects directly into your vehicle’s OBDII port. If your vehicle does not have an OBDII port, an adapter is used instead.

The GO offers state-of-the-art GPS technology, g-force monitoring, GEOTAB IOX® expandability, and engine and battery health assessments.

GO Device Algorithm Overview

GO devices use intelligent patented logging algorithms to decide when to record speed, position, and other engine information. The device is constantly monitoring various inputs, for example: second-by-second GPS data, hundreds of accelerometer readings per second, and engine diagnostic inputs. The device monitors the data and determines the appropriate time to store a value.

Various data loggers exist on the market today that use a simple time- or distance-based logging algorithm. These approaches, though simple, have significant drawbacks:

Important high or low values for speed (or other metrics) could be missed.

Positions during cornering are missed (producing inaccurate mileage or poor display on map).

Increased data costs by logging redundant information (for example, recording data for a vehicle that is not moving or moving in a straight line at a constant speed).

Fastest Acquisition Time

Even if your vehicle is parked indoors and underground, Geotab’s technology will start tracking as soon as you begin driving. You will receive second-by-second data accuracy of ignition on, trip distance and time, as well as engine idling and speed.

The main concept behind GO device logging is to produce an accurate representation of the original data by logging the essential points on a graph and discarding redundant points. We sometimes refer to this ascurve-based logging. This is best illustrated by example:

In this graph, the actual trip is represented by the blue curve. The red dots represent a simple time-based sampling where a speed value is recorded at regularly spaced time intervals. Notice how some high points and low points are missed by this approach. Also notice that, even when the speed does not change, the time-based approach continues reading the same value.

The green dots represent a more accurate record of the data by establishing the ideal way to reproduce the data with with the fewest number of data points. This is the basic principle that underpins the intelligent logging of the GO device.

The GO device monitors both position and speed at the same time, using the approach discussed above, to log the data. By doing so, the speed profile can be very accurately reproduced and the location of the device determined. This also means the trip will be logged properly around corners (yielding a very accurate mileage calculation).

The GO device also monitors key engine diagnostic values and applies the approach above to log these values (data such as RPM curve, fuel level and many other parameters) in an optimized manner that allows an accurate reproduction of events without the drawbacks associated with time- or distance-based logging.

Note: The intelligent logging approach means the rate at which the data is logged will vary; we cannot specify a fixed logging rate such as “x times per hour” because the logging rate depends on the driving behaviour of the vehicle. The GO device will log as as many times as required to accurately represent the data being recorded while minimizing redundant data.

The methodology used to determine the optimal time to log GPS points is a curve-based algorithm that utilizes the Ramer-Douglas-Peucker (RDP) algorithm. The purpose of the RDP algorithm is to create a simplified curve compared to the original data. This is done by removing trivial and redundant data points, and keeping only the relevant data points within the allowable error limit. The curve-based algorithm is used to determine which of the second-by-second GPS points need to be saved and transmitted to MyGeotab. The curve logging algorithm allows the GO device to keep only the points that are necessary in order to provide an accurate representation of the events logged. Accuracy is dictated by the predetermined allowable curve error values.

When the algorithm runs on the set of data points, it starts with the first and last points in the data set and automatically marks these as to-be-saved. It then considers the points between the first and last points; the data points will be continually divided until a line segment within the allowable error limit is obtained; this point will then be marked as to-be-saved. The algorithm will then run again for any points between the first point and the new point as well as any points between the new point and the last point.

The curve-based algorithm is run first on Latitude vs. Longitude and then on Speed vs. Time. The curve algorithm is run on speed values between the to-be-saved points predetermined by running the curve on position.

Based on the curve reduction method and the chosen allowed error values, the requirement is that the data between two saved GPS points will be acceptably linear in both position and speed.

When the curve algorithm is run on the data is dependent on several factors, which are listed below:

  • The curve buffer becomes full.
  • The actual position of the GO device differed excessively from the predicted position of the GO device.
  • Another event triggered the running of the curve.



Here is a list of parameters which utilize the curve algorithm for data logging

Fastest Acquisition Time

Even if your vehicle is parked indoors and underground, Geotab’s technology will start tracking as soon as you begin driving. You will receive second-by-second data accuracy of ignition on, trip distance and time, as well as engine idling and speed.

Curve Logging on Engine Data

Where appropriate engine data is logged using the curve-based algorithm.

Battery Temperature | Brake Lining Remaining | Brake Temperature | Cab | Interior Temperature | Charge State
Coolant Level | Coolant Temperature | Cruise High Speed Limit | Engine Cooling Fan Speed | Engine Oil Level
Engine Oil Life Remaining | Engine Oil Pressure | Engine Oil Temperature | Engine Speed | Fuel Alcohol Composition
Fuel Filter Life Remaining | Fuel Level Maximum Road Speed Limit | Outside Temperature | Starter Brush Life Remaining
Starter Current | Tire Pressure | Transmission Oil Level | Transmission Oil Temperature | Washer Fluid Level

Vehicles will not necessarily return all of the above information; the list is based on all the supported engine protocols.

Total Fuel Used

Total Fuel Used is generic status data. No matter how fuel information is received from a particular vehicle, be it OBD2, J1708, J1939 or another diagnostic standard, a generic Total Fuel Used record will be saved after ignition off. An additional record, Device Total Idle Fuel Used, which is the fuel used while road speed is 0, is also saved on ignition off. Device Total Fuel Used (Telematics Device Code 2187) and Device Total Idle Fuel Used (Telematics Device Code 2188) are the parameters used to track fuel consumption.

Seat Belt and Odometer

Seat belt and odometer requests are proprietary on most passenger cars. It is Geotab’s goal to support seat belt and odometer across all the major vehicle manufacturers. If you are unable to obtain seatbelt or odometer requests for your vehicle, please contact Geotab Support. You can query the percentage of seat belt, odometer and other engine based data is supported for different vehicle types via MyAdmin.

Seat belt use is logged on status change: a value of 1 represents the seat belt unbuckled, while a value of 0 represents the seat belt buckled. Odometer is logged both on ignition on and ignition off.

High Quality Recording

Our engine integration leads the industry. The Geotab GO7 extracts more valuable information on the health and running status of your vehicle to make you aware of service maintenance priorities. Recording VIN, odometer, and seatbelt use helps managers audit vehicle use and identify both safe and risky driving habits.

Accident Detection & Notification

If an accident is detected, an email or desktop alert can be set up which provides the manager with the first notice of loss. If a suspected accident is detected, detailed forensic data will be automatically uploaded from the device to allow for forensic reconstruction of the event. What’s more, the GO7 also has the unique ability to detect in-vehicle reverse collisions.

Advanced Vehicle Data Capture

Vehicles send data from a multitude of sources, including the engine, the drivetrain, the instrument cluster and other subsystems. Utilizing multiple internal networks, the GO7 captures much of this data and results in the richest collection of information.

Powerful Add-Ons to Future-Proof Your Fleet

The Geotab platform can be extended even further, at any time, to provide added flexibility and integration with third-party providers. IOX (Input / Output Expanders) plug directly into the GO device and are used to extend the GO device to peripherals in your vehicle. Leveraging the CAN networks that run on the GO device, IOXs can be daisy-chained together meaning multiple peripherals can be added to the GO device. This adds flexibility to your implementation, even after installation, and means the Geotab solution can grow as your fleet needs grow. Choose any Add-On that suits your need, such as satellite tracking, driver ID, hours of service (HOS), temperature tracking, camera systems, and more.

Utilizing Near Field Communication (NFC) Technology, the Driver ID add-on provides companies the ability to monitor vehicles based on driver. Having the driver swipe in when they start a trip will allow a dispatcher or manager to easily view where each driver is at any point in time. It will also help you monitor which driver is currently operating a given vehicle.

Having the data be further organized by driver also opens up new opportunities for rules and reports. Now you can run a report based on a Driver to better manage the driving habits of each individual driver. You can also run rule exception reports by driver and easily see if a certain driver is more prone to breaking rules.

Who Should Use This

  • Companies that have multiple drivers that must share a vehicle.
  • Companies who wish to have reports based on Driver and analyze data broken down by driver.
  • Companies that wish to get a better understanding of how certain drivers operate vehicles, and better identify incorrect driving habits for specific drivers.

Features & Benefits

  • Plug-and-play, quick installation
  • Assigning Drivers to vehicles allows reporting based on Driver
  • Tracks Driver across multiple vehicles to track different driving habits

To further establish Geotab’s commitment to Safety and Driver Feedback, the GO TALK provides real time spoken alerts to Drivers. Using text-to-speech, the GO TALK provides real-time feedback to drivers based on predefined rules. Any rules that the GO device uses today to alert the driver with beeps can be used with the GO TALK. Immediate feedback  to the driver, regardless of cellular coverage, includes all device-based rules:

  • Seat belt usage (if supported by the vehicle)
  • “Dangerous Driving” as defined by the customer
  • Idling beyond a customer-configurable threshold
  • Speeding beyond a customer-configurable threshold
  • Reminder for a driver to swipe their NFC fob or sticker
  • Revving over a customer-configurable threshold (i.e. 4000 RPMs)
  • Approaching the maximum speed limit defined by the customer

With the addition of Active Tracking, drivers will get near-real-time feedback (generally within 5-10 seconds) when in good coverage from MyGeotab-based rules as well.

Custom text for MyGeotab-based rules can be added to provide specific messaging to help the driver understand what they may have done wrong, or right. Benefits to customized messages include the ability to create a message specific to the violation being encountered, as well as the ability to create the kinds of positive messages your drivers will respond to. Include tokens such as driver name, address of the violation, and zone name to provide the driver with a detailed account as to where and when the violation occurred.

Who Should Use This

GO TALK is perfect for any fleet that wants to provide more information to its drivers about their driving habits. It will allow fleets to improve driving habits over time while empowering their drivers with helpful, real time feedback. It will also help improve driver safety, by teaching them good habits over time.

Features & Benefits

  • Improve fleet safety
  • Plug-and-play, quick installation
  • Real time spoken driver feedback
  • Customize text to speech messages for drivers
  • Provide drivers with steps to improve driving habits

Making powerful functionality simple and straightforward, it’s what Garmin does best. With Garmin FMI, managers can rely on a proven, feature-rich experience that will save their business time and money. Garmin expands conventional fleet management with solutions that are simple while ensuring effective communication and efficiency. Garmin FMI capabilities range from very basic (messaging/job dispatch) to more advanced control and interaction (sensor alerts, HOS).

Who Should Use This

Anyone wishing to communicate with mobile workers in the field.

Features & Benefits

  • Driver ID
  • Sensor Alerts
  • Pop-up alerts
  • Job Dispatch
  • Path Specific Routing
  • Road Segment Avoidance
  • Estimated Time of Arrival
  • Hours of Service Parameters
  • Messaging (2way, canned, status)

Our highly accurate fuel level solution is designed to measure the fuel levels in a vehicle, stationary tankage or diesel generator. The level sensors are integrated into GEOTAB’s award-winning platform, MyGEOTAB. This allows customers to quickly access all fuel level statistics as well as all other MyGEOTAB services from a single screen.

Who Should Use This

Ideal for fleets that want to effectively measure and manage fuel usage behaviour, in certain or all vehicles. Easily identify fuel theft as well as wastage.

Features & Benefits

  • Proved accuracy of 99.2%.
  • Undergoes 6 stages of quality control.
  • Complete set of certificates (CE, E-mark, ISO 9001:2008, FCC).
  • Stable performance in temperatures ranging from -60°C to +80°C.
  • Safe and secure from any noise, power failure and connection errors.
  • Reliable and stable measurement accuracy in extreme operating conditions.
  • Hermetically sealed, resistant to vibration and pollutants such as fuel additives or waxes.
  • The length of the sensor can be trimmed during installation with no harm to measurement accuracy.

Our patented solution monitors up to four temperature zones simultaneously and transmits temperature readings through your GO device to MyGeotab in real time. Two sensors are included in the kit with the ability to purchase additional sensors separately as required.

Multiple Geotab Add-ins provide the following functionality:

  • Select a time period and look at the history
  • Configure Report types and distribution lists
  • Configure units of measure – Celsius, Fahrenheit, etc.
  • Rules are pre-programed with the value being user settable
  • Configure custom parameters in order to focus on trends
  • Identifies vehicles that are outside of user defined zones – red or yellow
  • Identifies the issue and allows for the drill down of the detail on a vehicle basis,
  • Allows the user to define the value for the alerts and the recipients where the alert is sent.
  • Drill down to look at a vehicle or multiple vehicles separated by yellow, red or green zones.

Who Should Use This

Companies that ship fresh produce, frozen goods, or high-value assets such as pharmaceuticals via refrigerated transport.

Features & Benefits

  • Wirelessly monitor up to 4 Zones
  • Immediate email alerts for over- and under-temperature changes
  • “Out of bounds” temperature warnings alert you to potential issues
  • Real-time monitoring removes the need for manual temperature inspection
  • Track temperatures through the life of a shipment and trend temperatures over time
  • Real-time monitoring of temperature, samples every four seconds, transmits every ten seconds, or 1 degree temperature change.
  • Understanding temperature throughout your chain of custody allows you to deliver safely and with confidence

To continue our determination to support all kinds of customers, Geotab has partnered with IRIDIUM to deliver a solution for companies that work in remote areas. Through the IRIDIUM satellite network, customers can receive information about their fleet both when drivers are travelling within a cellular network and outside it.

The IOX-SATIRDv2 also allows fleets to incorporate a driver assist panic type button into the vehicle, so that drivers that may be out of reach can alert the company in an emergency.

When using satellite only critical information is transmitted to reduce bandwidth. The following records or logs can be enabled or disabled:

  • Ignition: Sends a log when ignition changes state (On & Off).
  • Poll: Gives end users the option to request the current location of the device.
  • Update Period: Allows the device to send a positional update every 30 minutes.
  • Accident Upload Event via IRIDIUM: Allows the device to send an “Accident Upload Event” fault.
  • Emergency Trigger: Allows the driver to send an emergency/distress log to head office. The Geotab device will notify the driver when the message has been received by MyGeotab.
  • Switch to IRIDIUM Satellite Coverage: Allows the device to send a log indicating when it has switched to sending data over the IRIDIUM network.

Who Should Use This

This specific IOX will greatly benefit any customers that operate or send drivers to remote locations where cellular coverage is poor or non-existent for much of the time.

Features & Benefits

  • Device communication outside of Cellular Network Coverage
  • Integration of a Panic Button to send an immediate emergency message.

Geotab offers the ability to install a driver assistance button into the vehicles of customers, allowing drivers to alert company in case of any roadside emergency, these alerts could be linked to either the Geotab 24/7/365 contact center, the Geotab Managed Monitoring Centers or to the company directly.

Who Should Use This

Companies wishing to provide an extra layer of duty of care to employees on the road.

Features & Benefits

  • Audit log of incidents recorded on the road.
  • Increased care levels for employees and drivers of company.
  • Ability for drivers and employees to have an emergency link to a variety of contact points.

Mobileye is a collision avoidance system that reduces the number and severity of accidents in fleets and passenger vehicles, driver infractions, and in many cases provides a reduction in fuel and maintenance costs. It mounts to the inside of the windshield and is about the size of a toll pass tag. The system provides visual and audible alerts to the driver in case of imminent collisions.

Driver warnings are transmitted through the IOX-CAN to the GO7 and up to MyGeotab where Managers and Dispatchers can view the information in reports, create rules and exceptions, and apply driver policies.

Who Should Use This

Any fleet interested in equipping their drivers with a tool to warn them of impending collisions, unsafe lane changes, or following too close.

Features & Benefits

  • Forward collision warning
  • Increased driver reaction time
  • Fewer collisions and close calls
  • Pedestrian and bicycle collision warning
  • Self-corrected driver habits and behavior
  • System typically pays for itself in 6 – 8 months
  • Reduced insurance premiums and fines for non-compliance
  • Speed limit indication to read speed signs and provide alerts
  • Provides alerts to help keep safe distances from vehicles ahead
  • Lane departure alerts if there is an unintentional lane departure
  • Supports all vehicle types – light duty, medium duty, and heavy duty vehicles
  • All driver alerts transmitted to MyGeotab for mapping, reporting, and driver score card purposes.

Warnings and Alerts for drivers and managers for:

  • Forward collision warnings
  • Unintentional lane departures
  • Pedestrian and bicycle collision warnings
  • To keep safe distances from vehicles ahead

You can view video of Mobileye solution here

More on IOX

Geotab offers integration possibilities to third party, in-vehicle devices using the serial or CAN protocols. The IOX-RS232 is available in a female or a male version and communicates over the RS232 protocol. It is used for partners or customers integrating third party products where they wish to transmit data from a device, through the Geotab GO device, and up to MyGeotab. This is accomplished utilizing Geotab’s Third Party protocol via the IOX-RS232.

Many devices have been integrated using using the IOX-RS232 including truck scales, sensor data, Driver Distraction data, remote worker data, etc. In MyGeotab, this data can be used to create specific reports, adding more useful metrics for the company.

Who Should Use This

This is a perfect application for any company that requires data from any third party device on the RS232 protocol like gas detectors, pressure monitors, etc. It allows for the seamless integration of data from third party devices and consolidates it with valuable data already reported by the GO Device.

Features & Benefits
  • Provides a connection to Third Party devices to allow for transmission of data to MyGeotab

Geotab is always looking for way to provide more customization to our products and providing the customer with more and more data about their fleet. The IOX-CAN is a perfect example of our commitment to extending the functionality of the GO Device even more. With IOX-CAN, customers can incorporate a wide variety of third party products to report data to MyGeotab.

IOX-CAN is used for all Mobileye and Valor (TempTrac and TPMS) implementations. The IOX-CAN can also be used for partners or customers integrating third party products where they wish to transmit data from a device, through the Geotab GO device, and up to MyGeotab. This is accomplished utilizing Geotab’s Third Party protocol over a private CAN Bus connection via the IOX CAN.

The IOX-CAN is the fastest way for you to get information from third party devices and consolidate it in one place on MyGeotab. Once in MyGeotab, this data can be used to create rules and reports with even more metrics to measure your fleet.

Who Should Use This

Required for implementations of Mobileye products and all Valor products including TempTrac and TPMS.

Also useful for companies that require data from in-vehicle third party devices. Leverage the IOX-CAN for easy access to the information reported by the third party device in addition to the data from the GO Device. It can be used by anyone looking for third party device integration and is quick to set up and get running.

Features & Benefits
  • Driver distraction monitoring through Mobileye
  • Provides a connection to Third Party devices to allow for transmission of data to MyGeotab
  • Reefer Temperature monitoring (TempTrac) and Tire Pressure monitoring (TPMS) through Valor

The IOX-AUX supports up to 4 digital inputs each. These digital inputs can range from school bus warning lights, to doors opening and closing, to Driver Assist buttons for drivers to whatever sensor or input you need to track.

All the data captured by IOX-AUX are transferred to MyGeotab and accessible by the user to create rules and reports based on the readings.

Who Should Use This

The IOX-AUX is a great asset for companies looking to measure specific vehicle settings or external systems that are not already obtained by the GO device. This is ideal for customers that operate with specialized vehicles or for customers that operate in remote regions so they can improve driver safety.

Features & Benefits
  • Intelligently self learns input signals
  • Adds further functionality to the Geotab GO device
  • Support for up to 4 digital inputs per IOX-AUX. Two IOX-AUXs can be daisy chained together.