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Plant Machinery Fuel Monitoring in Geotab

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PBala-10053
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Edited by EishiFUN

Hi everyone,
We're currently reviewing fuel reporting across our fleet and have identified that a number of our plant and machinery assets (tractors, mowers, excavators, etc.) are configured for GPS tracking only and therefore do not appear in the Fuel & EV Usage Reports because fuel consumption data is not being captured.

I'm interested to hear how other organisations are managing fuel monitoring for plant and machinery assets within Geotab.

Are you able to capture fuel consumption data for these types of assets?
If so, what hardware or configuration are you using?
Are there alternative Geotab-compatible solutions available for monitoring fuel usage on plant and machinery?
Or is fuel monitoring for these assets typically managed outside the telematics platform?
Any experiences or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Praveen

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EishiFUN
Community Administrator

Hi @PBala-10053 ,

Great question and one that comes up fairly often for mixed fleets. Thank you for asking it here in our community.

You're right that GPS-only configured devices won't populate the Fuel & EV Usage Reports — those reports rely on fuel consumption data pulled from the vehicle's OBD/CAN bus, which plant and machinery assets often don't expose in the same way as on-road vehicles.

Here are some options worth exploring depending on your equipment:

1. J1939/CAN-capable equipment
Some larger plant assets (excavators, tractors with modern electronics) have J1939 CAN bus support. If the equipment exposes fuel consumption diagnostics on the CAN bus, a GO device wired directly into the J1939 connector — rather than a standard OBD port — may be able to read that data. Whether this is possible depends on the specific make and model and what the OEM exposes on the bus.

2.IOX-AUX with a fuel level sensor
The IOX-AUX module allows you to connect analog sensors to your GO device. A fuel tank level sensor can give you tank level readings over time, from which consumption can be inferred — though it's not as clean as a direct consumption diagnostic.

3. Fuel transaction data import
If your fuel is dispensed through fuel cards or a site-based fuel management system, Geotab supports importing fuel transaction data via the FuelTransaction API. This won't give you real-time telemetry but does allow you to track fill-ups and costs against assets in MyGeotab.

4. Managing it outside the platform
For assets where none of the above is practical, many organisations do manage fuel for plant equipment through a separate fuel management system and use Geotab purely for location and utilisation (engine hours, idle time) on those assets.

It's worth noting that off-highway and plant equipment is a recognised gap in the current platform — so I'd also love to hear from others in the community how you're handling this today, as Praveen asked. Real-world experience here is really valuable.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. We are here to help.

Have a great day!
Eishi FUN

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