The Vehicle Gateway's built-in Wi-Fi hotspot lets drivers connect company devices in the cab. Your fleet shares a single pool of hotspot data, and you control how much each vehicle can use.
Overview
- Fleet-level pool: Pro and Enterprise plans for Vehicle Gateway (VG-3) and the Fleet management plan for AI Dashcam Plus (AIDC+) include 400 MB per Wi-Fi-enabled device per monthly cycle. Your pool is 400 MB multiplied by your number of subscriptions, shared across all vehicles.
- Per-vehicle threshold: Fleet Admins can set a limit for each vehicle or a default across vehicles, so one high-usage vehicle cannot use up the shared pool.
- Thresholds do not add data: Raising a vehicle's threshold only changes how much of the shared pool that vehicle can use. If your fleet needs more total data, additional data packages are available through your Motive account team.
What happens when hotspot limits are reached
| Level | What happens |
|---|---|
| Vehicle | When a vehicle reaches its threshold, its hotspot is restricted (slowed), while the Motive Driver App is designed to keep working. |
| Fleet | Fleets on Vehicle Gateway (VG3) and AI Dashcam Plus (AIDC+) hardware receive alerts at 75% and 100% of the pooled allotment. At 100%, hotspot access is throttled for Vehicle Gateway and paused for AI Dashcam Plus. |
- Core services are not affected: ELD, GPS, telematics, and safety video use the gateway's separate cellular connection. Only the in-cab hotspot is limited.
- Vehicle-level restrictions: A vehicle restricted because it reached its own threshold is not restored by a fleet-level data top-up.
What you can measure in Motive
The Wi-Fi Usage Summary report, available to fleet admins and managers, shows:
- Total fleet allotment, data used, and data remaining in the cycle
- Usage and threshold for each vehicle
- Hotspot status for each vehicle (enabled, throttled, or disabled)
- Month-over-month history, with CSV and PDF export
Driver App compared with non-Driver App usage
Motive can attribute hotspot traffic to the Motive Driver App and compare it with total usage. The remainder is traffic from other apps on connected devices, such as browsing, streaming, app and OS updates, and cloud sync.
- Motive cannot identify which specific third-party app or website used the data. That requires device-side tools such as MDM.
- In Motive's fleet analyses, Driver App traffic is typically a small share of total hotspot usage, and most overages come from other traffic on connected devices.
- Your Motive account team can review the split for your fleet.
Recommended practices
- Use MDM on company phones and tablets to restrict app installs and block streaming and personal apps. This is the strongest control available.
- Connect company-issued devices only. Personal devices that reconnect automatically can use the shared pool without anyone actively browsing.
- Turn off background activity: Background App Refresh, automatic app updates, and automatic OS downloads.
- Run OS and app updates on office Wi-Fi, not in the vehicle.
- Set per-vehicle thresholds that protect the shared pool.
- Review the Wi-Fi Usage Summary monthly, and act early when your fleet reaches 75% of its allotment.
- Size your plan to your workload. If drivers run business apps or Wi-Fi-only tablets beyond the Driver App, ask your account team about an appropriate data package.
Contact your Motive Account Manager or Support if you still have any Wi-Fi hotspot-related questions.
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