Resources
Fleet management glossary.
Plain-English definitions of the GPS tracking, telematics, and New Zealand compliance terms used across Argus — so everyone on your team speaks the same language.
- GPS fleet tracking
- Using GPS hardware in vehicles to show their real-time location on a map, along with speed, trips, and stops. It gives fleet managers live visibility of every vehicle and a historical record of where each one has been.
- Telematics
- The combination of GPS tracking and onboard vehicle data (speed, distance, driver behaviour, sometimes engine and fuel data) sent back to a central platform. Telematics turns raw vehicle movement into reports and insights that improve safety, cost, and compliance.
- Road User Charges (RUC)
- A New Zealand distance-based charge paid by diesel vehicles and some others for using public roads, administered by NZTA. RUC must be purchased in advance per 1,000 km; running on expired RUC risks fines, which is why fleets automate it.
- Smart eRUC (electronic RUC)
- An NZTA-approved electronic RUC solution that replaces the paper RUC label with a solar-powered e-ink windscreen display. It is enforcement-scannable, removing the admin of printing, posting, and manually applying new paper labels at every renewal.
- Geofencing
- Drawing a virtual boundary around a real-world location (a depot, customer site, or hazard zone) so the system alerts you when a vehicle enters or exits. Geofences can be circular, polygon, or address-based, with schedules and speed limits per zone.
- Driver ID
- Identifying which driver is operating a vehicle — typically with an iButton tag tapped on entry — so every trip, kilometre, and event is attributed to a named person rather than just the vehicle. This enables accurate timesheets and fair, per-driver reporting.
- AI video telematics (AI dashcam)
- A dashcam that combines GPS tracking with on-device AI to detect road hazards and risky driving, and to record timestamped video of incidents. Argus's Vision AI dashcam is dual-channel (road-facing and driver-facing) with remote playback.
- ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems)
- AI that watches the road ahead for collision risk, pedestrians, and hazards, warning the driver in real time. In an AI dashcam, ADAS uses the road-facing lens to help prevent forward collisions before they happen.
- DSC (driver state/status monitoring)
- AI that watches the driver — using the cabin-facing lens — for fatigue, phone use, and distraction, triggering in-cab alerts and capturing evidence. It complements ADAS by addressing the human side of driving risk.
- Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT)
- A New Zealand tax on non-cash benefits employers provide to staff, including private use of work vehicles. Accurate trip and overnight-use records from telematics make FBT reporting on pool and company vehicles far simpler and defensible.
- WOF / COF
- Warrant of Fitness (light vehicles) and Certificate of Fitness (heavy vehicles) are New Zealand's mandatory periodic safety inspections. Fleets track WOF/COF expiry alongside Rego and RUC so no vehicle operates while out of compliance.
- Idling
- A vehicle's engine running while stationary. Excessive idling wastes fuel, increases emissions and engine wear, and is a common, easily-reduced cost that telematics reporting helps fleets identify and cut.
- Overspeed event
- A recorded instance of a vehicle exceeding a set speed limit — a fleet-wide threshold or a geofence-specific limit. Tracking overspeed events lets managers coach drivers; Argus customers have cut them by an average of 40%.
- FIRM (Fleet Intelligence Risk Modelling)
- Argus's nine-dimension fleet maturity framework. It benchmarks a fleet's capability against NZ industry data, identifies the biggest risk areas, and provides a step-by-step roadmap to safer, smarter operations.
See these features working on your fleet.
Book a free demo with our NZ-based team — we'll show you exactly how it all fits together.