The trailer is there. You can see its dot on the map. But can it take the next load? At Paper Transport, drivers hunting for empty trailers were running into a costly distinction between knowing an asset’s location and knowing whether it was useful. A trailer could be found and still leave a driver searching.
- FleetLocate connects fleet and trailer data to daily operations.
- GoldStar and LoJack bring tracking to lenders, dealers and car owners.
- The useful question: what will somebody do differently once the data arrives?
Spireon works in that gap. It equips vehicles and mobile assets with GPS devices, sensors and software, turning movement and condition into information people can use. Its proposition becomes clearer when you stop looking at the map and start looking at the decision waiting beside it.
01 / The cost of “probably empty”
In a 2021 Spireon case study, Paper Transport reported more than $30,000 in monthly losses from wasted driver productivity. It chose cargo sensing and integration with its existing tools. The case reported $30,000 a month in savings. Those are customer-reported results, rather than a return every fleet should expect.
“IntelliScan allows us to pull images and see when a trailer is actually empty.”
Dan Deppeler · Paper Transport · 2021
The broader lesson is wonderfully unglamorous. Before buying more equipment, find out whether the equipment already purchased is available for work. A company can own enough capacity and still struggle to put it in the right place at the right time.
Paper Transport’s savings with FleetLocate trailer management.
02 / A dot gets a second opinion
FleetLocate is Spireon’s fleet and trailer product family. Its trailer offering combines tracking hardware with sensors and operational software. IntelliScan ProView adds a view from inside: timestamped images, volumetric fill and the percentage of available floor space. Spireon advertises 99% load-status accuracy. Treat that as a product claim to test against your own freight.
ProView mounts at the rear of the trailer. That detail matters because the view is part of the product, not an incidental photograph. A dispatcher can examine what is occupying the box before assigning work. For less-than-truckload operations, remaining space can also suggest an opportunity to carry additional freight.
Location + load status + an operational response.
The expertise here is a combination of physical installation, sensing, connectivity and software. Spireon’s modular Flex hardware offers different power and sensor configurations. Its managed trailer service adds an operations analyst. Selling a device is one step; helping somebody interpret the resulting stream is another.
03 / Three buyers, three reasons to care
The same coordinate means different things to different customers. A fleet manager wants to allocate work. A lender wants to locate collateral. A car owner wants help after a theft. Spireon packages those needs into distinct products instead of asking every customer to become a telematics specialist.
GoldStar serves buy-here-pay-here dealers and auto lenders with vehicle location, monitoring and recovery-related tools. Its enterprise version addresses larger portfolios. LoJack brings stolen-vehicle recovery together with dealer inventory management and consumer connected-car features. FleetLocate serves commercial vehicles, trailers and other assets, including the smaller fleets that need vehicle and driver information.
This puts Spireon between automotive retail software and transportation operations. It competes with broad fleet platforms such as Geotab and trailer specialists such as ORBCOMM. Both alternatives offer their own tracking capabilities. Spireon’s particular combination is cargo visibility, automotive finance workflows and the LoJack recovery brand, now within Solera’s wider vehicle-software portfolio.
04 / The business behind the box
Spireon traces its beginnings to Knoxville in 2002. Brian Boling and Tim Welch were its co-founders. Bertram Capital brought predecessor businesses together in 2011; the Spireon corporate name followed in 2012. Greenbriar became the primary investor in 2018. Solera acquired the company in 2022.
At the acquisition announcement, Solera described more than 13,000 Spireon customers and nearly four million connected devices. These are 2022 figures. The attraction was clear: a substantial network of assets whose signals could complement Solera’s fleet and dealership businesses. Spireon had already added the LoJack U.S. recovery business in 2021.
The commercial model combines hardware with recurring software and connectivity. Spireon also calls itself channel-led, with reseller and referral relationships. T-Mobile markets its fleet offering, while supported Ford vehicles can supply FleetLocate data through factory connectivity without another aftermarket tracker.
FL360 LTE Standard in an April 2026 T-Mobile government contract, plus $50 setup. Contract-specific pricing; taxes, fees and surcharges excluded.
The latest chapter reaches beyond the tracker. In September 2026, LoJack announced a Dealers’ Choice Award for Vehicle Tracking and described its role in Solera’s emerging Dealer OS. The stated direction is to connect protection with dealership customer records and service workflows. That is an integration ambition, not proof that every store already operates that way.
The company’s own account of its working culture emphasizes collaboration and iteration. Its careers page describes education assistance and a Passion 2 Patent program for employee inventions. Those details fit a business that must keep changing both physical products and software. They also offer a useful reminder: the quiet work of installation, support and product improvement sits underneath the attractive dashboard. Customers experience that work when a device needs attention, an integration changes or a new load confuses a sensor.
05 / Make the next dispatch better
A sensible trial begins with a recurring operational mistake: an unnecessary search, an idle asset or a pickup assigned on a bad assumption. Count its frequency and cost. Then test whether the new information changes the decision. Include hardware, installation, connectivity and subscription charges in the calculation.
There are practical limits. A sensor needs suitable placement and power. Data must reach the people assigning work. Equipment and network generations eventually require replacement. If nobody changes the dispatch, a clearer picture remains just a picture. Spireon’s most useful promise is the possibility of making the next assignment with fewer guesses.