Fleet tracking software: tracking the car on the map and in the records together

Most fleet owners who search for «fleet tracking software» are actually after two different things: some want to know where the car is right now; most want the answer to what state is the car in, are its documents in order, is a service due, who has it this week. PlakaPro does both in one place: cars with a tracker show on a live map, and the car's documents, dates and mileage sit on its card. This article explains what the dot on the map does and does not tell you, which dates must never be missed, and how the tracking is set up.

Last updated: 19 September 2026

First, the honest sentence: there is a map, but a map alone is not enough

PlakaPro has a live map: if the car carries a GPS tracker (Mobiliz units today), its position, speed and heading land on the map; the car is marked as moving, stopped or no signal, and a live dot glows next to the plate in the car list. The dot refreshes every 30 seconds. Without a tracker the map stays empty; everything else works the same.

So what does the dot on the map not tell you? Seeing the car in Kadıköy says nothing about which driver is in it on what terms, that the insurance expires in three days, that the second MTV instalment is coming up, that the 10,000 km service is overdue, or that the last handover recorded a scratch on the rear right door. These are the places where a fleet owner loses money: while the dot sits on the map, the policy lapses, the fine goes to the wrong driver, the service is missed.

Five things that have to be tracked

Group fleet tracking under five headings and none of them stands alone: who has the car determines the fine, the mileage determines the service, the handover report determines the damage, and the documents determine whether the car may go out at all. In Excel these are five separate tabs that know nothing of each other; in the software they are five sections of a single car card.

1. The car: who has it, in what state, where

A car's «status», in fleet language, is: with a driver, rented out, idle, in the workshop, in an accident, withdrawn. It changes from day to day and its history matters: how many days was this car idle in March, how many in the workshop? The schedule produces that history by itself — every cell a day, every change an event. The «where» is answered by the mini-map inside the card.

2. Mandatory documents and their dates

• Trafik insurance (the compulsory third-party policy) — annual; the premium is high for commercial vehicles, a lapsed policy keeps the car off the road, and the consequences of an accident are severe.
• Kasko (comprehensive cover) — optional, but almost standard in rental fleets and, at the plate owner's request, in taxis; the policy excess and the driver age condition affect the handover report.
• TÜVTÜRK inspection (the mandatory periodic inspection) — annual for commercial vehicles; without a booking you wait for days, and the late fee is added to the inspection charge. The inspection date is its own field on the car card.
• MTV (the motor vehicle tax) — two instalments, 31 January and 31 July; a payment posted to the cash desk under «MTV» closes the instalment by itself; unposted, the date lands on the list as it approaches.
• Exhaust emission test — tracked alongside the inspection, on its own date.
• Driver documents — licence category and expiry, the SRC certificate (professional driver qualification) and the psychotechnical report for commercial driving; a driver behind the wheel with an expired document is the fleet's risk.

3. Mileage and servicing

A taxi can do 80,000–120,000 km a year; oil, filters, brake pads and tyres should be tracked by mileage, not «every six months». If the mileage is written on the report at every handover, the service plan runs by itself: the system knows how many km the car has done since its last service and flags the responsible person as the threshold approaches.

4. Repair and expense history

The same car on its third clutch, or a driver who blows a tyre every month, only becomes visible when there is a record. The repair record sits on the car card together with its cost; fleets that keep a parts store write the parts issued in the same place.

5. Fines, toll passes and reports

A traffic fine arrives against the plate, the HGS/OGS toll pass (the Turkish electronic toll tag) is charged to the plate; the only way to pass both on to the right driver is to know who had the car that day. The handover report, in turn, is the source of the damage history and of the fuel difference: which scratch appeared when, and with whom.

How tracking is set up in PlakaPro

1. 1Cars are loaded. Plate, make and model, year, mileage; chassis number (VIN), registration (ruhsat) number, fuel type and tank size go on the car card too. If you have an Excel list we import it together on the first day.
2. 2A tracker is connected (optional). The tracker's ID is written on the car card; from that moment the car shows on the map.
3. 3Policies are read from a photo. You upload a photo of the Trafik and Kasko policies; the system reads the insurer, the plate, the start and end dates, and you only confirm. If the reading fails, the fields are filled by hand — the document is still kept in the card's «Car documents» section.
4. 4Inspection and service thresholds are entered. The inspection date, the mileage at the last service and the service interval are written on the car card; the MTV instalments are read from the payment in the cash desk.
5. 5Reminders run. A warning 14 days ahead for policies and inspection; for servicing, when the mileage threshold approaches. The «needs attention» list on the home screen is the first thing to look at in the morning; the insurance, inspection and MTV badges next to every car in the fleet list show the whole fleet's status on one page — overdue in red, approaching in yellow; the service mileage is on the car card.
6. 6Every handover updates the mileage. The km written on the report advances the service counter; there is no separate «enter mileage» chore.

Why the map and the records together?

The map answers «where is the car» instantly; the records answer «who has it, on what terms, when do its papers expire». The fleet's money is lost on the second question; without the first, the second is incomplete. In PlakaPro they are two corners of the same screen.

The morning routine: a five-minute check

Once tracking is set up, the owner's or manager's morning goes like this: the «needs attention» list opens on the home screen — two policies expire this month, one car has its inspection booking next week, three cars have passed the service threshold, two handovers have no report. Every line leads to the relevant card; when the policy is renewed the line drops off, when the car is booked into the workshop a service record opens. If the list is empty, it is a normal day; if not, it tells you who does what. In Excel the same check means opening five tabs one by one and comparing dates by eye — and most mornings it is not done.

Tracking in a fleet with branches

With more than one rank or branch, every manager sees their own cars and their own cash desk, head office sees them all. Permissions are given per person and per section: the insurance screen to accounting, the schedule to the shift supervisor, the cash desk to the branch manager. Every company has its own address (yourcompany.plakapro.com) and its own database. Who changed what stays in the record — and the «it wasn't me» argument ends there.