GPS Fleet Tracking for Snow Removal & Winter Maintenance

An IOX-AUXM module on the GPS tracking device reads the plow-lift, wing and spreader circuits through the truck's own wiring, so every point on the route records whether the blade was down and the spreader was on. A plain GPS track only shows where the truck drove. With the inputs connected, the route map for a storm draws plowed segments in one colour, treated ones in another and deadheading in a third. The report behind it lists every street with the time it was serviced and the truck that did it.

A municipality needs that record when the phone rings the next morning. The street was plowed at 4:12 a.m. by unit 27, the blade was down the whole length, and the spreader was on from the corner. If it was not plowed, the operations manager finds out before the council meeting instead of during it. Some municipalities also publish a resident-facing plow map from the same data, which leaves fewer morning calls and only the ones that need an answer.

The operations centre sees every unit on one live map: plow trucks, salt trucks, loaders at the salt dome, sidewalk machines and contractor trucks, each with its plow and spreader status. A supervisor can see a route falling behind, move a truck to cover a breakdown and check which streets are still waiting, without calling each operator on the radio.

Most plow trucks take the GO10 GPS tracking device, which installs with a harness and is rated from -40 °C to +85 °C. The GO10 does not support the PWM and JPW protocols used on legacy pre-2010 heavy-duty and off-road equipment, so High Point GPS checks older trucks and machines before install and fits another device from the range where needed. Loaders and other machines can take the GO Anywhere Plus, which wires to 12 V or 24 V DC and keeps a backup battery.

A snow contractor's invoice says a parking lot was plowed twice and salted once during a storm. The client's property manager was asleep. The platform's record shows the truck inside the site geofence from 1:40 to 2:05 with the blade down, again from 5:10 to 5:30, and the spreader on for the second visit. High Point GPS builds the proof-of-service report to match the contract, per site and per visit, so the invoice goes out with the evidence attached and payment does not wait on a phone call.

The same records answer the claim that arrives in April. A pedestrian fell in the lot on the morning of the storm, or a car slid into a curb; the record shows when the lot was last plowed and salted, by which truck, with the spreader status, and the trip replay shows the truck's path across the lot. For a contractor, that record supports the defence when the claim arrives.

Our guide to GPS proof of service for snow removal goes through what a contractor can show the client, visit by visit.

Salt is a winter-maintenance cost that is hard to control without data. Spreader controllers that integrate with the platform report the application rate and the material used per route, so the operations centre sees which routes and which operators are spreading heavier than the plan. Even without controller integration, the spreader-on time per route from the auxiliary input, multiplied by the set rate, gives a material estimate per storm that the budget can track against.

Fuel follows the same logic. A plow truck idles through a storm, at the yard between routes and at the salt dome while it loads, and the idling report per truck shows where the diesel goes. Fuel-card integration matches the fuel bought to the truck that burned it, per storm and per season.

Geotab documents more than 20 material spreaders that send their data through the IOX-WRKS, a harness on the GO device's expansion port, among them Force America, DICKEY-john, Certified Cirus, Bosch Rexroth, Epoke, Muncie, Aebi Schmidt and Parker IQAN controllers. Each one needs a cable for its make and model, and some need a firmware version or a gateway from the manufacturer, so High Point GPS checks every controller on your list before install. Our Public Sector page has the full table.

The same harness reads road and air temperature from sensors such as Lufft MARWIS, RoadWatch and Vaisala MD30, and keeps four inputs for the belly plow, front plow, wing plow and tow plow or beacon. Geotab notes that material totals are not captured while a spreader runs in simulation mode, the setting used to test it without moving the truck, so a test in the yard does not add to a route's totals. Basic controllers with no data log still record spreader on and off through an auxiliary input.

The Code of Practice for the Environmental Management of Road Salts, published by the Government of Canada in 2004 under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, is voluntary. It applies to road organizations that use more than 500 tonnes of road salts a year (as a five-year rolling average) and to those with vulnerable areas in their territory. Those organizations prepare a salt management plan, report to the Minister of the Environment each year by June 30 and keep that information for 7 years.

The yearly report covers, among other items, the total quantity of road salts used, the equipment calibration program and salt application practices, and the Code's aim for application is the right amount of road salts in the right place at the right time. Route-level spreader data from the platform gives the road organization records to work from; the plan and the report stay its own. Our Public Sector page covers the municipal side in more detail.

A plow truck may add little distance in a twelve-hour shift while running its engine and hydraulics the whole time. Engine-hours and PTO-hours reminders schedule the hydraulic, engine and spreader-drive service on the hours the truck actually works, and engine fault codes reach the shop as the truck logs them, so a charging or cooling fault is repaired between storms rather than discovered during one. The ronde de sécurité and DVIR run in the DVIR app, with custom defect lists that cover the plow, the wing, the spreader and the lights, and a defect reaches the shop before the storm starts.

The GO Focus Plus AI dash cam records the road in 1080p for collision review, and its cabin camera with infrared watches for fatigue and distraction and warns the operator in the cab, which matters late in a long night. A Road Only version keeps the lens off the operator, and High Point GPS confirms the camera's pairing with each truck's GO device before install. If you operate in Quebec, review your obligations under Quebec's privacy law (Law 25) before you record drivers.

When the snow is gone, the same trucks and the same platform go back to sweeping, hauling and mowing, with the plow inputs ignored until the equipment goes back on in the fall. Location, maintenance on engine hours and driver reports carry on as before, and the winter history stays in the platform for the next contract renewal or budget review.

Many snow contractors are landscapers the rest of the year. Geofences move from lots back to lawns, Bluetooth tags keep track of mowers and trimmers on the trailers, and the same High Point GPS account covers both seasons.