Can the platform predict a breakdown?

Not with certainty. It alerts you as soon as the vehicle reports a fault or an out-of-range value, so you can act before operations stop.

Does it work with the trackers I already have?

It depends on the model and on whether they read OBD-II. The first thing we check in the assessment is the device and its protocol.

Who receives the alerts?

Whoever you decide: the fleet manager, the shop or several people at once. Permissions are set by role inside each company.

Fleets and GPS · 5 min read · Updated November 3, 2026

How do I know which vehicle in my fleet is about to fail before it stops operations?

Short answer

To know which vehicle in your fleet is about to fail before it stops operations, you need a tracker plugged into the OBD-II port that sends fault codes (DTCs) and engine data to a platform that alerts you by email or SMS. It does not predict the future: it tells you as soon as a vehicle reports a fault, which usually gives you days to act instead of finding out on the road.

Also asked as

Why did the check engine light come on in a fleet truck
Engine fault alerts for vehicle fleets
What are geofences and how are they used in a fleet

How to detect faults in your fleet vehicles

Every modern vehicle checks its own engine and, when something goes out of range, stores a fault code (DTC) and lights the dashboard warning. A tracker plugged into the OBD-II port reads those codes along with data such as RPM, voltage, temperature and load, and sends them to the platform. The fault reaches the fleet manager even if the driver never reported it.

Which data is worth watching

Fault codes (DTC) with a plain-language description.
Battery voltage and engine temperature.
RPM, load and speed.
Fuel, with the sensor calibrated so the reading can be trusted.
Mileage or hours of use to plan maintenance.

Alerts: what they say and who gets them

A useful alert reaches the person who can act, with the vehicle, the fault and the time. The most common are engine fault, speeding, leaving a zone and low battery. They go out by email or SMS, and each company decides who receives them so they do not get lost in a general chat.

What geofences are for

A geofence is a zone drawn on the map, such as the yard, a customer site or a city. The platform alerts you when a vehicle enters or leaves it. It helps you know when a delivery arrived, spot use outside working hours or confirm a unit stayed on its route.

From alert to fix: an incident flow

Receiving the alert is not enough if nobody handles it. What organizes the work is a flow: the fault is logged as an incident, someone picks it up, the action is noted and it is closed when the vehicle is fixed. Your team can then see which faults are still open and which are handled.

What to check before you hire

First, which trackers you use and whether they read OBD-II, because a tracker that only gives position does not report faults. Then, which alerts you need, who receives them and whether you want PDF reports or role-based access. Cost depends on the number of vehicles, the hardware and the alerts; we define it in a written proposal after a free assessment.

How we solved it

Fleet & IoTNexus OBDIn Nexus OBD, a multi-tenant SaaS in production, a custom gateway decodes Teltonika tracker telemetry and shows it on a live map with engine data. It includes fault-code (DTC) tracking with an incident flow, geofences, email and SMS alerts and PDF reports.See the project →

Illustrative image with sample data; the real screens are private to the client.

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