Glossary
Terms used across these notes, defined once, including several the industry uses to mean different things.
Breadcrumb trail — a continuous series of positions. The default collection mode of most products, and rarely what any operational question requires.
Debouncing — requiring a minimum dwell before a geofence entry counts, so passing traffic does not generate visits.
Dead zone — a location where no fix is available. Mapping your own is what stops gaps being misread.
Dwell time — duration between geofence entry and exit. Contains work, waiting, travel within the site, conversation, breaks and position error, and separates none of them.
Geofence — a boundary that generates an entry or exit event. The most useful reduction available: two events per visit instead of hundreds of positions.
Fix time and receipt time — when a position was determined, and when it arrived. They differ in poor coverage, and reports should use the first.
Harsh braking event — deceleration above a threshold. Includes emergency stops that were good driving.
Man-down detection — automatic alarm on a fall or sustained immobility, for lone worker protection.
Pause control — a driver-operated switch marking a journey as personal. Its absence, where personal use is permitted, means the deployment tracks private life by design.
Position error — the radius within which the true position lies. A few metres in open sky, tens of metres among buildings, and not shown by most interfaces.
Terms used loosely by vendors
"Real-time tracking" usually means positions transmitted at intervals. Ask what the interval is and what happens without coverage.
"Proof of service" means a vehicle was near an address. It does not establish that work was done.
"Driver score" is a count of threshold events per distance, dominated by route type.
"Stealth mode" describes concealment from the person being tracked and should end a procurement conversation.
"Compliance" describes a deployment, never a product. A vendor cannot make your configuration lawful.
How to read these notes
Start with the foundations if nothing is deployed, particularly the note on the least data that answers the question.
Start with the boundary section if a deployment exists and is generating complaints.
Start with the legal section if you operate in Europe, where prior authorisation and consultation may both apply.
Start with common failures if a deployment has stalled.
Nothing here is legal advice, and the notes say so where it matters.
On the absence of numbers
How to treat any figure in this collection.
No accuracy figures are quoted as facts beyond broad ranges, because they depend on the device, the environment and the sampling interval.
No savings percentages, because vendor figures are best cases and yours will differ.
No prices, which vary by fleet size and negotiation.
Where a relationship is stated — that error grows among buildings, that dwell time contains waiting, that gaps have seven causes — that is the part worth relying on.
Turn the principle into a test
For an example that can make this requirement testable, consult this practical example. Treat the page as a starting point rather than proof: reproduce the workflow with real roles, failures and permissions.