Three installation types, three different jobs. Choosing by installation convenience rather than by what the asset needs is how fleets end up with trackers that cannot do what was promised.
Hardwired trackers suit vehicles where tamper resistance, sensors or immobilisation matter. OBD plug-in trackers suit light vehicles needing quick, reversible installation. Battery-powered trackers suit trailers, containers and plant with no permanent power. The choice is dictated by the asset and the required data, not by installation time.
| Hardwired | OBD plug-in | Battery-powered | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Install time | 30–90 minutes | Under a minute | Minutes — magnet or bolt |
| Power | Vehicle supply, with backup cell | Vehicle supply via OBD port | Internal battery, months to years |
| Tamper resistance | High — concealed | Low — can be unplugged | Medium — depends on placement |
| Sensor inputs | Full — fuel, temperature, driver ID | Limited to none | Limited — some models support a few |
| Immobilisation relay | Yes | No | No |
| Reporting frequency | Continuous | Continuous | Sparse — battery life depends on it |
| Best for | Fleet vehicles, finance, security | Light vehicles, short-term hire, pilots | Trailers, containers, plant, generators |
Installation convenience and capability move in opposite directions, and almost every disappointment with tracker hardware comes from optimising for the first without noticing the cost to the second.
A hardwired tracker is concealed, permanently powered, and can take sensor inputs and an immobilisation relay. That combination is why it remains the default for owned fleet vehicles, for vehicle finance and for anything where a driver might prefer not to be tracked.
The costs are real: a technician per vehicle, thirty to ninety minutes off the road, and correct fusing and placement. Done badly it causes electrical faults, which is worth saying because the cheapest installers are cheap for a reason. Insist on a backup battery so the unit reports the power-cut event rather than going silent.
Plugging into the diagnostic port takes seconds, requires no technician and leaves no trace when removed. For a rental fleet, a short-term contract, or a pilot across twenty vehicles before committing, that is exactly right.
The same property is the weakness. Anyone who does not want to be tracked can unplug it, and many do. There is no relay for immobilisation, sensor support is limited or absent, and on some vehicles the port is awkwardly placed enough that a knee dislodges it. Use plug-in units where reversibility is the point, not where tamper resistance is.
Trailers, shipping containers, generators, site equipment and skips have no ignition supply, and a battery tracker is the only option. The design question is entirely reporting frequency: a unit reporting every few hours can run for years, while the same unit reporting every minute lasts weeks.
Set the interval from what you actually need to know. Most asset tracking genuinely needs "where is it today" rather than a live map, and treating a sparse reporting schedule as normal rather than as a fault is part of configuring the platform correctly — our Queclink guide covers how battery assets should be handled differently from vehicles.
Most operations of any size end up running all three: hardwired on owned vehicles, plug-in on hire units, battery on trailers and plant. That is not a failure of standardisation, it is matching the hardware to the asset. All three report into the same platform, so a mixed fleet is an installation question rather than a software one.
Tell us what the assets are and what you need to know about them, and we will tell you what to fit to each. Ask about hardware or message us on WhatsApp.
An OBD plug-in tracker, easily — it unplugs. A hardwired unit is concealed and harder to reach, and with a backup battery it reports the power-cut event rather than simply going quiet, which turns tampering into an alert instead of a gap. If tamper resistance matters, hardwire.
Entirely determined by reporting frequency. Reporting every few hours, years. Reporting every minute, weeks. Set the interval from what you genuinely need to know — most asset tracking needs daily position rather than a live map, and the battery life follows from that decision.
Often not usefully. Heavy vehicles generally expose FMS or J1939 on CAN rather than the light-vehicle OBD-II standard, so a consumer OBD dongle may find little or nothing. For trucks, a hardwired unit with a proper CAN connection is the right approach.
Done correctly, with proper fusing and a suitable power take-off point, it is routine work. Done badly it causes faults, which is the real argument for using installers who know the vehicle rather than the cheapest quote. Where a lease or warranty prohibits cutting into the loom, contactless CAN readers and plug-in options exist.
Yes, and most fleets above a certain size do. The platform normalises all of them into the same position and event model; what differs is which data each can supply and how alerting should be tuned — a battery asset reporting twice a day is behaving correctly, not failing.
Describe the problem rather than the product. We will tell you what solves it, including when that is the cheaper option.
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