Going live, switching off, and every reason a lorry pauses
Pausing is the main lever you have on your bill. Seven things stop a lorry being checked; four of them you can undo yourself.
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The switch on a lorry's row, and the Pause and Go live buttons on its own page, are the same control. Live means it is being checked and spending credits. Paused means it is not being checked and not spending anything.
Nothing is lost by pausing
Paused lorries keep their history but do not consume tracking credits. Resume anytime when tracking is needed again. Its alerts, its settings and every crossing it recorded are all still there, and its slot is free for another lorry meanwhile.
A lorry parked in a yard answers every check with yesterday's crossing, at a credit a check. Pausing it is not tidying up — it is the largest saving available to you.
The seven reasons a lorry stops being checked
| The badge you see | What happened | Can you switch it back on yourself |
|---|---|---|
| Paused by you | You paused it | Yes, whenever you like |
| Tracking period ended | The end time you set for it arrived | Yes — and set a new end time at the same moment |
| No movement detected | No toll crossing arrived for as long as this lorry allows | Yes, when it is back on the road |
| Portal not responding | Too many checks in a row could not be answered for this number | Yes, but check the number for a typo first |
| No credits left | Your balance could not cover another check, so every live lorry stopped at once | No — top up first, then take them live |
| Plan ended | The plan ran out and the days to renew in have passed, so every lorry was switched off | No — renew first, then take them live |
| Account suspended | This account is switched off, so nothing on it is checked | No — contact support |
ExampleWhy a lorry stopped
Each badge says what happened, and whether it is your own doing or the platform's.
- 1You paused it. Nothing to fix.
- 2The end time you set arrived.
- 3No crossing for long enough that checking again was paying for yesterday's answer.
- 4The portal would not answer for this number often enough to stop trying.
- 5The balance could not pay for a check, so everything stopped at once.
- 6The plan ended and the days to renew ran out.
The last three do not respond to the switch
With an empty balance, a lapsed plan or a suspended account, a lorry taken live would be refused at its very next check and paused again. The switch would appear to work and then undo itself. Fix the account first — top up, renew, or write to us — and then take each lorry live.
Renewing and topping up do not switch anything back on
This surprises people, so it is worth stating plainly. Buying credits clears the refusal, and renewing a plan brings automatic checking back — but neither takes a lorry live by itself. You go to My trucks and switch on the ones you still need. That is deliberate: an account that comes back should not immediately start spending on forty lorries it may no longer be watching.
The no-movement stop, exactly
The clock is counted from the later of the last crossing and the moment the lorry went live — not from a crossing that was already old when you added it. So a lorry that has been standing still for a week still gets a full window of being watched from the moment you switch it on. A crossing mid-journey resets the clock. The window itself is the Pause if it stops moving for field in the lorry's Settings, and the field shows the platform default it follows when you leave it blank.
The failure stop, exactly
A check fails when the portal cannot answer for that number. After five failures in a row we message you once. At the lorry's failure limit it pauses, because a failed check costs a credit like any other and retrying a number the portal will not answer only buys errors. The usual cause is a typo. You are allowed to go live again after fixing the number — a run of failures can be retried — but nothing will change if the number is still wrong.
No farewell charge
A lorry that reaches one of its stops is not charged for a last check. The stop is worked out before any credit is spent.
The Live tracking tab is what is spending
Review what is liveQuestions about this
Does pausing lose my alerts or my history?
No. The alerts stay attached with their settings, and every crossing on record is kept. Going live carries on where it stopped.
My lorry paused itself and I did not do anything. Why?
It says which reason applied, on the row and on its own page. The commonest are no movement for long enough, an end time you set arriving, and an empty balance.
Does a paused lorry use a slot on my plan?
No. Only lorries being checked use slots, so pausing one frees room for another.
I renewed my plan. Why is nothing being checked?
Because renewing does not switch the lorries back on. Open My trucks and take live the ones you need.
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