The problem
When onboarding a new asset — say a mower joins the fleet — the admin currently has to:
- Create the asset manually
- Assign every relevant group one by one (Mowers, Tractor & Mower Monitoring, Speed Rules, PTO Tracking, Zone Monitoring, etc.)
- Hope they didn't miss any
For databases with complex group structures, a single asset type might need 10–15+ group assignments. Multiply that across dozens of new assets per year, across multiple asset types (mowers, light vehicles, trucks, trailers, plant equipment), and you've got a slow, repetitive process that's practically designed to produce errors.
The real cost isn't the admin time — it's the silent downstream failures. A missed group means exception rules don't fire, reports show gaps, and nobody notices until a client asks why their speeding alerts stopped working for a particular unit. By that point, you've lost weeks of data coverage.
The proposal: template assets
Introduce template assets as a native feature in MyGeotab under Admin > Assets. The concept is simple:
- Admins define templates for each asset type in their database (e.g. "Mower", "Light vehicle", "Rigid truck", "Trailer")
- Each template stores a set of pre-assigned groups that every asset of that type should belong to
- When creating a new asset, the admin selects a template from a dropdown — all groups are applied instantly
- Templates are editable — when fleet requirements change, update the template and optionally propagate changes to existing assets created from it
A database could have as many templates as needed. The template selection would sit right in the existing asset creation workflow — no extra screens, no complexity.
Why this matters
- Eliminates user error. Group assignments are the single biggest source of silent configuration mistakes in fleet databases. Templates remove the human element entirely.
- Scales with complexity. The more groups a database has, the more valuable templates become. Large fleets with sophisticated exception rule structures benefit the most.
- Faster onboarding. What currently takes 5–10 minutes of careful clicking per asset becomes a 30-second workflow.
- Consistency across admins. When multiple people manage a database, templates ensure everyone configures assets the same way — no more "I didn't know that group existed."
- Exception reporting integrity. Every asset gets full rule coverage from day one. No more discovering data gaps weeks later.
What templates could include (future scope)
Starting with group assignments alone would deliver massive value, but the concept naturally extends to:
- Default notification contacts per asset type
- Custom device parameter defaults (fuel tank capacity, odometer factor, etc.)
- Zone assignments
- Default dashboard or report configurations
Who benefits
This is particularly valuable for:
- Resellers and partners managing large client portfolios — we'd love the ability to define and push templates across multiple databases
- Council and government fleets with strict compliance requirements and complex group hierarchies
- Any fleet with diverse asset types where each type has a distinct set of monitoring rules