Free e-book: Discover the world of AIoT
E-book: Discover the world of AIoT

Vehicle Tracking: The technology behind a smarter fleet

Stop guessing, start knowing. We engineer custom vehicle tracking solutions that provide deep, real-time insights into location, performance, and health, transforming your fleet into a strategic asset.
needCode IoT

We work with Industry Leaders

The challenges of Vehicle Tracking

A lack of real-time visibility in fleet management leads to significant operational and financial liabilities. We have identified core challenges that can compromise your bottom line.

Limited visibility

Without real-time data, fleet managers struggle to optimize routes, dispatch vehicles efficiently, and ensure on-time delivery.

Safety & compliance risks

Manual tracking of driver behavior and vehicle health is unreliable, increasing the risk of accidents and non-compliance with safety regulations.

Operational inefficiencies

A lack of deep telemetric data leads to suboptimal vehicle performance, inefficient fuel consumption, and unnecessary maintenance costs.

Integration complexity

Connecting a diverse fleet of vehicles with different communication standards to a single, unified platform is a major technical hurdle.

Our Solutions

Our expertise in vehicle tracking goes beyond simple GPS. We deliver a complete, modular ecosystem that connects hardware, software, and analytics into a cohesive, purpose-built system.

01

Data acquisition and protocol translation

CAN bus integration

Our solutions seamlessly integrate with a vehicle's CAN bus system to capture a wide range of telemetric data, including engine parameters, speed, fuel levels, and diagnostics. We use our Wired Industrial Protocol Module Set to ensure reliable, robust communication with vehicle electronics.

Multi-protocol support

Our trackers are engineered to support a mix of wired (CAN, Modbus) and wireless (LTE, UWB, BLE) protocols. Our Protocol Translation Gateway is a bidirectional software layer that converts these diverse data streams into a unified format, enabling a single platform for all your fleet assets.

Advanced GPS & UWB positioning

We combine reliable GPS for wide-area outdoor tracking with our UWB Precision Location Pack for sub-30cm accuracy in indoor environments like warehouses or garages. This hybrid approach ensures total visibility, regardless of location.

02

Connectivity and resilience

Long-range wireless stack

We use a modular software stack for wide-area communication protocols, including LTE-M and NB-IoT. Our stack is pre-integrated with our backend systems for rapid deployment and is optimized for low-power operation in mobile devices.

Motion & orientation sensing

We integrate our Motion & Orientation Module with 9DoF IMUs (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer) and built-in sensor fusion. This allows us to track driving behavior, detect hard braking or acceleration, and analyze vehicle health through vibration analysis.

Offline resilience

Our trackers are equipped with an Offline Resilience & Backup Module that allows them to continue operating and logging data during network outages. Once the connection is restored, the gateway automatically synchronizes the data with the backend.

03

Analytics and operational intelligence

Data analytics & insights framework

We turn continuous streams of telemetric data into actionable intelligence. Our Data Analytics & Insights Framework supports real-time analysis and historical trend exploration, enabling you to optimize routes, identify inefficient driving patterns, and forecast maintenance needs.

Hybrid edge-cloud processing

Our solutions leverage a Hybrid Edge-Cloud Orchestration Layer that decides whether a given workload runs locally on the device or in the cloud. This ensures critical events, like a safety alert, are processed instantly at the edge, while larger data sets are sent to the cloud for long-term analysis.

Unified API layer

Our API Gateway & Integration Layer acts as a centralized access point for all fleet data. This simplifies integration with your existing fleet management software, dispatch systems, and ERP platforms, ensuring a seamless flow of information.

What a smarter fleet means for your bussiness

Our vehicle tracking solutions are engineered to deliver a clear and measurable return on investment, transforming operational challenges into strategic advantages.

Boosted operational efficiency

Reduce idle time and optimize delivery routes to lower fuel consumption.

Reduced maintenance costs

Enable predictive maintenance by monitoring vehicle health and engine diagnostics in real-time, preventing unplanned downtime and costly repairs.

Enhanced safety and compliance

Improve driver behavior through real-time feedback and data analysis, reducing accident rates and ensuring adherence to safety regulations.

Maximized asset utilization

Gain a strategic view of vehicle usage patterns to optimize fleet size, reduce unnecessary capital expenditure, and extend the lifespan of your assets.

What we bring to your project

We believe a great tracking solution is not just a device. It’s a strategic asset that transforms how you manage your fleet, turning every vehicle into an intelligent data source. Our partnership is built on flexibility, allowing you to choose the level of engagement that best suits your needs and strategic goals.

01

From hardware to a complete ecosystem

Whether you need custom hardware engineered for a specific use case or a full, end-to-end solution, we provide a seamless, one-stop-shop for your project. We can design and engineer custom trackers, telemetric modules, and gateways to integrate with your specific vehicle types, or deliver the core software backend and analytics dashboards to connect with your existing systems.

02

Operational blueprint

We provide a comprehensive IoT Strategic Roadmap that aligns your business goals with the right technology stack. Our team helps you map out a clear path from concept to commercialization, ensuring your new system seamlessly integrates with your existing workflows, from dispatch and logistics to maintenance and compliance.

03

Continuous optimization

Our partnership extends beyond deployment. We provide tools for remote diagnostics, field support, and OTA (Over-the-Air) updates, ensuring your system remains reliable, secure, and ready to evolve. We also help you use the gathered data to continuously optimize routes, improve driver behavior, and achieve a clear return on investment.

Where our vehicle tracking solutions fit

Our modular approach allows us to deliver optimized solutions across multiple industrial applications, solving common problems with uncommon speed and precision.

Logistics & transport

  • Cold chain monitoring
    Track and monitor temperature and humidity in real-time within transport units. Our solutions can trigger automated alerts if conditions deviate from the norm, ensuring the integrity of sensitive goods and compliance with regulations.
  • Optimizing last-mile delivery
    Optimizing last-mile delivery
    Analyze real-time location data to optimize delivery routes, reduce fuel consumption, and provide accurate arrival times for customers, improving satisfaction and reducing operational costs.
  • Enhancing driver safety
    Use our Motion & Orientation Module to monitor driving patterns, such as hard braking, rapid acceleration, or aggressive cornering. This data enables you to provide targeted training, improve safety scores, and potentially reduce insurance premiums.

Warehousing & industrial

  • Optimizing forklift traffic
    Gain real-time visibility over the location and movement of forklifts and other vehicles within the warehouse. Our solutions can identify traffic jams and suggest optimal routes, improving material flow and reducing idle time.
  • Improving asset utilization
    Analyze usage patterns of industrial vehicles to right-size your fleet and streamline operations. You can identify underutilized assets and allocate them more efficiently, reducing unnecessary capital expenditure.
  • Geofencing for safety
    Implement precise geofencing to manage vehicle access to specific zones. Our system can automatically slow down or stop a forklift if it enters a restricted area, preventing accidents and ensuring a safer workplace.

Construction & heavy industry

  • Equipment monitoring & theft prevention
    Track the location and operational status of high-value heavy machinery and vehicles on large, dynamic construction sites. Our solutions can send instant alerts if an asset is moved outside of a pre-defined area, significantly reducing the risk of theft.
  • Predictive maintenance
    Use telemetric data and vibration analysis from our Motion & Orientation Module to forecast maintenance needs for heavy equipment. This allows you to schedule servicing proactively, reducing unplanned downtime and costly emergency repairs.
  • Fuel and resource management
    Monitor fuel consumption and engine performance in real-time, enabling you to optimize usage and identify inefficiencies, leading to significant cost savings on large-scale projects.

Case studies

Read more in our E-books

Testimonials

“I think the key takeaway from needCode is their ability to adapt and understand the customer's requirements. That took away probably a large portion of what could have been a lot of development time and expense for both companies.”
Bob Folkestad
Bob Folkestad
President at Creative Werks
“One aspect that truly sets needCode apart is its profound expertise in firmware development. Their proficiency in various programming languages, embedded systems and hardware architecture is truly impressive. When faced with difficult problems, their strong problem-solving skills and analytical mindset shine through, allowing them to overcome obstacles with remarkable ease.”
avatar Semeh Sarhan
Semeh Sarhan
CEO at Xtrava
“I worked with needCode while leading the NWTN-Berlin team in 2018. A big chunk for our FW development has been outsourced to them and they had proven to iterate very quickly, following specs and deliver on time. It was great working with them. I recommend working with needCode’s team on any Embedded SW development.”
avatar Marco Salvioli Mariani
Marco Salvioli Mariani
CTO at NWTN Berlin GmbH
“needCode Team proved to be one of the best engineers I have ever met. The part I like the most about the team is the more difficult an obstacle seems to be, the more motivated they were to find a solution and a way forward.”
A Testimonial picture
Szymon Słupnik
CTO at Silvair
“needCode is an outstanding partner. Their quick follow-up, scalability, and extensive professional network set them apart. Their expertise in wireless technologies has been valuable, supporting us from low-level drivers to architecture discussions.”
avatar Tim Allemeersch
Tim Allemeersch
Director at Qorvo, Inc.
“needCode did a great job improving the firmware of the Vai Kai connected toys and developing new features, surpassing our expectations multiple times. I would definitely recommend hiring Bartek and needCode for the embedded software projects!”
avatar Matas Petrikas
Matas Petrikas
CEO & Co-founder
at Vai Kai UG

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Manufacturing

Modern manufacturing machines are typically equipped with IoT sensors that capture performance data. AIoT technology analyzes this sensor data, and based on vibration patterns, the AI predicts the machine's behavior and recommends actions to maintain optimal performance. This approach is highly effective for predictive maintenance, promoting safer working environments, continuous operation, longer equipment lifespan, and less downtime. Additionally, AIoT enhances quality control on production lines.

For example, Sentinel, a monitoring system used in pharmaceutical production by IMA Pharma, employs AI to evaluate sensor data along the production line. The AI detects and improves underperforming components, ensuring efficient machine operation and maintaining high standards in drug manufacturing.

Logistics & supply chain

IoT devices - from fleet vehicles and autonomous warehouse robots to scanners and beacons - generate large amounts of data in this industry. When combined with AI, this data can be leveraged for tracking, analytics, predictive maintenance, autonomous driving, and more, offering greater visibility into logistics operations and enhancing vendor partnerships.

Example: Amazon employs over 750,000 autonomous mobile robots to assist warehouse staff with heavy lifting, delivery, and package handling tasks. Other examples include AI-powered IoT devices such as cameras, RFID sensors, and beacons that help monitor goods' movement and track products within warehouses and during transportation. AI algorithms can also estimate arrival times and forecast delays by analyzing traffic conditions.

Retail

IoT sensors monitor movement and customer flow within a building, while AI algorithms analyze this data to offer insights into traffic patterns and product preferences. This information enhances understanding of customer behavior, helps prevent stockouts, and improves customer analytics to drive sales. Furthermore, AIoT enables retailers to deliver personalized shopping experiences by leveraging geographical data and individual shopping preferences.

For instance, IoT sensors track movement and customer flow, and AI algorithms process this information to reveal insights into traffic patterns and product preferences. This ultimately leads to better customer understanding, stockout prevention, and enhanced sales analytics.

Agriculture

Recent research by Continental reveals that over 27% of surveyed farmers utilize drones for aerial land analysis. These devices capture images of crops as they are and transmit them to a dashboard for further assessment. However, AI can enhance this process even further.

For example, AIoT-powered drones can photograph crops at various growth stages, assess plant health, detect diseases, and recommend optimal harvesting strategies to maximize yield. Additionally, these drones can be employed for targeted crop treatments, irrigation monitoring and management, soil health analysis, and more.

Smart Cities

Smart cities represent another domain where AIoT applications can enhance citizens' well-being, facilitate urban infrastructure planning, and guide future city development. In addition to traffic management, IoT devices equipped with AI can monitor energy consumption patterns, forecast demand fluctuations, and dynamically optimize energy distribution. AI-powered surveillance cameras and sensors can identify suspicious activities, monitor crowd density, and alert authorities to potential security threats in real-time, improving public safety and security.

For example, an AIoT solution has been implemented in Barcelona to manage water and energy sustainably. The city has installed IoT sensors across its water supply system to gather water pressure, flow rate, and quality data. AI algorithms analyze this information to identify leaks and optimize water usage. Similarly, smart grids have been introduced to leverage AI to predict demand and distribute energy efficiently, minimizing waste and emissions. As a result, these initiatives have enabled the city to reduce water waste by 25%, increase renewable energy usage by 17%, and lower greenhouse gas emissions by 19%.

Healthcare

Integrating AI and IoT in healthcare enables hospitals to deliver remote patient care more efficiently while reducing the burden on facilities. Additionally, AI can be used in clinical trials to preprocess data collected from sensors across extensive target and control groups.

For example, intelligent wearable technologies enable doctors to monitor patients remotely. In real-time, sensors collect vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, and glucose levels. AI algorithms then analyze this data, assisting doctors in detecting issues early, developing personalized treatment plans, and enhancing patient outcomes.

Smart Homes

The smart home ecosystem encompasses smart thermostats, locks, security cameras, energy management systems, heating, lighting, and entertainment systems. AI algorithms analyze data from these devices to deliver context-specific recommendations tailored to each user. This enables homeowners to use utilities more efficiently, create a personalized living space, and achieve sustainability goals.

For example, LifeSmart offers a comprehensive suite of AI-powered IoT tools for smart homes, connecting new and existing intelligent appliances and allowing customers to manage them via their smartphones. Additionally, they provide an AI builder framework for deploying AI on smart devices, edge gateways, and the cloud, enabling AI algorithms to process data and user behavior autonomously.

Maintenance (Post-Release Support)

When your product is successfully launched and available on the market we provide ongoing support and maintenance services to ensure your product remains competitive and reliable. This includes prompt resolution of any reported issues through bug fixes and updates.

We continuously enhance product features based on user feedback and market insights, optimizing performance and user experience.

Our team monitors product performance metrics to identify areas for improvement and proactively addresses potential issues. This phase aims to sustain product competitiveness, ensure customer satisfaction, and support long-term success in the market.

Commercialization (From MVP to Product

Our software team focuses on completing the full product feature range, enhancing the user interface and experience, and handling all corner cases. We prepare product software across the whole lifecycle by providing all necessary procedures, such as manufacturing support and firmware upgrade.

We also finalize the product's hardware design to ensure robustness, scalability and cost-effectiveness.

This includes rigorous testing procedures to validate product performance, reliability, and security. We manage all necessary certifications and regulatory compliance requirements to ensure the product meets industry standards and legal obligations.

By the end of this phase, your product is fully prepared for mass production and commercial deployment, with all documentation and certifications in place.

Prototyping (From POC to MVP)

Our development team focuses on implementing core product features and use cases to create a functional Minimum Viable Product (MVP). We advance to refining the hardware design, moving from initial concepts to detailed PCB design allowing us to assemble first prototypes. Updated documentation from the Design phase ensures alignment with current project status. A basic test framework is established to conduct preliminary validation tests.

This prepares the product for real-world demonstrations to stakeholders, customers, and potential investors.

This phase is critical for validating market readiness and functionality before proceeding to full-scale production.

Design (From Idea to POC)

We meticulously select the optimal technology stack and hardware components based on your smart product idea with detailed use cases and feature requirements (Market Requirements Document / Business Requirements Document). Our team conducts thorough assessments of costs, performance metrics, power consumption, and resource requirements.

Deliverables include a comprehensive Product Requirements Document (PRD), detailed Software Architecture plans, an Initial Test Plan outlining validation strategies, Regulatory Compliance Analysis to ensure adherence to relevant standards, and a Proof of Concept (POC) prototype implemented on breakout boards.

This phase aims to validate the technical feasibility of your concept and establish a solid foundation for further development.

If you lack a validated idea and MRD/BRD, consider utilizing our IoT Strategic Roadmap service to gain insights into target markets, user needs, and desired functionality. Having a structured plan in the form of an IoT Strategic Roadmap before development begins is crucial to mitigate complications in subsequent product development phases.