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Where the Van Is

Collect the least data that answers the question you can name

Location systems ship configured to record everything. Four operational questions genuinely need location, and none of them needs a continuous record of every movement. Fifty notes on the difference.

All notes, A to ZStart here

All 50 notes, A to Z

Listed alphabetically rather than grouped, because most people arrive with a specific question and know the word rather than the section. The section is shown against each entry, and each section has its own page below.

A

C

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G

H

I

K

L

M

P

Q

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Or read a section in order

Each section runs in a sequence that builds.

  • Foundations

    Four operational purposes, and the distinction between following an asset and following a human being that decides everything else.

    4 notes

  • Methods

    Geofence events instead of continuous trails, position on alarm instead of continuous logging, totals instead of routes.

    5 notes

  • What it can and cannot measure

    The dot is the centre of a probability, not a position. A gap has seven possible causes and only one of them is deliberate.

    3 notes

  • The legal position

    Enforcement in this area has turned on the same question repeatedly: was the amount collected necessary for the purpose stated. The answers have been consistent.

    10 notes

  • The boundary

    Where deployments become unlawful without anyone intending it, usually because a default was left in place rather than a choice made.

    9 notes

  • Putting it in

    The order that produces a defensible design rather than a procurement, and the overnight test almost nobody runs.

    5 notes

  • Running it

    The project ends at go-live; the system generates work indefinitely, and in most deployments nobody was assigned to it.

    8 notes

  • Reference

    The questions these records cannot answer, the options that collect nothing at all, and the end state as a checklist.

    6 notes

What this is

Fifty notes on location data in field operations, written for whoever has to specify, deploy and live with it.

Independent product comparisons, no sponsored content and no paid placement.

Four things that hold

Four purposes genuinely need location: dispatch, proof of attendance, lone worker safety, and cost. None of them requires a continuous record of every movement, which is what most deployments collect.

Tracking a vehicle and tracking a person are different. A van that stays on site follows an asset. A van that goes home follows a household.

A gap in the record has seven causes and only one of them is a device being switched off. Treating a gap as evasion is how straightforward cases become lost ones.

Products in this category are configured to collect everything. The whole discipline of deploying one well consists of turning things down and writing down why.

Where to start

Nothing deployed yet: the foundations, particularly the note on the least data that answers the question.

A deployment generating complaints: the boundary section.

Operating in Europe: the legal section, where prior authorisation and consultation may both apply.

A deployment that has stalled: how these deployments fail.

What this is not

Not legal advice. References to data protection duties, authorisation requirements and consultation rights are general and vary substantially by jurisdiction.

It does not describe how to track people covertly, how to conceal what a system collects, or how to make a pause control harder to find. Those appear only in the notes about why they should not be done.

Independent software comparisons

Long-form shortlists for mobile teams, small fleets, routing and dispatch.

For one concrete workforce reference, visit Monitask and test it with the same purpose, access and correction rules used throughout this site.