From the field
Off the box:
what actually happens in the first six weeks
We moved several fleets off a third-party box and onto manufacturer data this summer. Here is the real calendar, including the three things that do not go the way the brochure promises.
"Zero installation" sells well. It is true on a new fleet and false on a real one, and the gap between the two is rarely discovered during the sales call. It is discovered in week two, when a third of the vehicles report nothing.
We take it the other way round. Before anyone talks about a platform, we test every vehicle for eligibility and hand over the list. The rest of this article is what happens after that list, in order.
The calendar
- Week 0
Eligibility, VIN by VIN
Not a percentage, a list. Every VIN in the fleet goes through the eligibility test and comes back in one of three columns: connectable natively, connectable with a box, no usable data. On a recent German fleet the answer lands in minutes for several hundred vehicles. On a mixed parc it takes a day, and it is worth the day, because it dictates everything that follows.
- Week 1
The vehicles that stay pending
Part of the fleet comes back pending, and that is not a bug. A vehicle has to be delivered, registered and attached to a manufacturer account before its data flows. A vehicle straight off the line can stay silent for days. The only useful treatment is a named list chased weekly, not a reassuring average.
- Weeks 2 and 3
Access rights before features
The blocker is almost never technical. It is permissions. The operations manager who cannot find her vehicles does not have a data problem, she has a profile missing two rights. Opening access and checking what each role actually sees, before anyone mentions reports, avoids the month of distrust that follows a failed first login.
- Weeks 4 to 6
Geofences, alerts, and the first real question
Once activations are stable, geofences and alerts take days. The question that arrives next is always the same, and it is the right one: what do we do about the last third, the vehicles the manufacturer does not cover? The answer is a box, on those vehicles only, on the same screen as the rest.
The number nobody puts on a slide: the registration year
Embedded connectivity became mandatory for newly type-approved models on 31 March 2018, but eCall hardware is not an accessible manufacturer API, and earlier models kept selling for years. A fleet does not reduce to one percentage.
| Model years | Share of a sub-10-year parc | Natively connectable |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 - 2018 | ~30% of the parc | 20 to 40% |
| 2019 - 2022 | ~35% | 60 to 85% |
| 2023 - 2026 | ~35% | 93.1% cars, 98.2% vans |
Weighted, that is roughly two thirds of a sub-10-year fleet natively connectable today. The remaining third keeps a box, and fleet coverage stays complete. Less sellable than a round number, and it survives the rollout.
Three things that do not go as promised
The latency is not a box's latency
Manufacturer data arrives in cycles, not continuously by the second. For utilisation, mileage, fuel and driving behaviour that changes nothing. For fine crash detection a box is still better, and we say so before signature rather than after.
A hidden box keeps talking through a theft
Manufacturer connectivity can be cut. A well-placed autonomous box cannot. On fleets where theft is the number one risk, the right build is not to move everything native, it is to keep hardware where it protects.
An old parc will not catch up
A 2017 vehicle will not become connectable in 2027. A fleet's native share grows through renewal, not through updates. That is good news on a three-year horizon and no help at all this quarter.
The question to ask before signing
One question, and it is not about the platform: how many of my vehicles, by name, will report what? A vendor who answers with a market percentage will give your competitor the same answer. A vendor who answers with a list of VINs has looked at your fleet.
If you want the order of magnitude before starting that conversation, our calculator runs it in your browser, with no email address: vehicle count, registration years, what your current boxes cost you. It shows a range, because public data cannot do better until someone has read your VINs.
Book a demo
See Linkbycar running in thirty minutes
Send us your plates or VINs. We come back vehicle by vehicle: which ones are compatible with manufacturer data, which ones need a box, and what data each one returns.
Thirty minutes with our team
We show you the platform live and answer your questions. Send us your plates and we tell you what each vehicle can report.
Nothing to fit on compatible vehicles
Compatible vehicles are activated remotely.* No workshop visit, no fitting, and no vehicle off the road.
No commitment
You keep the vehicle-by-vehicle answer whether or not you go further with us.
* Activation time depends on the manufacturer and can take up to 48 hours.
Request received.
We come back to you within 48 hours to set up the demo. Send us your plates or VINs and we tell you what each vehicle can report. If it is urgent, reply to the confirmation email and a person reads it.