Many distribution businesses want to see where their delivery vehicles are — to answer customers, to spot a run falling behind, to plan tomorrow better. The traditional answer is a GPS tracker in every vehicle. For a fleet of owned trucks that makes sense. For a mix of owned vans, hired tempos and two-wheelers that change daily, it often doesn't.
Phone-based tracking in brief
Instead of tracking the vehicle, you track the crew assigned to it. The driver's phone, running the delivery app, reports its location during working time, and the vehicle's position is taken from its crew.
| GPS device | Crew's phone | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware cost | A device per vehicle | None beyond the phone |
| Hired or shared vehicles | Hard | Easy — track the run's crew |
| Two-wheelers | Often impractical | Works the same |
| Depends on | Device power and SIM | Phone on, location allowed |
| Ties to deliveries | Separate system | Same app as the stops |
What it is good for
- Answering "where is my order?" without calling the driver.
- Seeing runs fall behind while there is time to act.
- Understanding the day — the trail, halts and how long stops took.
- Matching delivery records to where they happened.
Setting it up responsibly
- Track working time only, not the employee's personal time.
- Explain it to staff — what is tracked, when, and why.
- Ask for consent where required, and respect it.
- Set rules centrally rather than leaving it to each phone.
- Use it to plan and help, not to micromanage every minute.
How Zaqnet tracks vehicles
- Vehicles are placed by their crew: a vehicle's position comes from the phones of the people assigned to it, under rules your admin sets — the phone does not decide.
- Trails and halts for the day are visible in Trackboard.
- Runs and stops in the Fleet app link the position to the deliveries — see delivery runs.
- Consent is asked in the app, and tracking follows your organisation's tracking settings.
Track the work, not the worker — and tell them exactly what you track.