Where cellular networks give up
Gold mining operations in Siberia and the Russian Far East run in conditions that break every usual assumption about telematics. Mines, placer deposits and exploration sites sit hundreds of kilometers away from cities, cellular coverage is absent across vast territories, and Wi-Fi exists only in the office. Still, the fleet and heavy machinery need supervision: bulldozers, dump trucks and drilling rigs burn fuel by the liter, and without reliable data a manager learns about overspending only at the end of the month.
What makes exploration crews different
Geological exploration is a challenge of its own. Crews search for new deposits: they collect soil samples, run test washings and measure the content of precious metals in the rock. Machinery keeps relocating and operates on unpaved roads far from base camps, so classic GSM trackers are useless here — the data simply has nowhere to go. The project needed a communication channel independent of any ground infrastructure.
Five goals of the project
Requirements were set at the technical specification stage. Location control and fuel consumption monitoring were the baseline. On top of that, the system had to receive panic alerts from employees, track operating modes of vehicles and machinery and — most importantly — transmit all of it where there is no cellular service and no Wi-Fi. That last requirement shaped the entire architecture of the solution.
A satellite link instead of GSM
Engineers put their bet on satellite data transmission. The machinery was equipped with Base Block terminals — devices that send coordinates and telemetry even where no terrestrial network operates. CAN readers, engine RPM sensors and fuel level sensors were connected to the terminals. All data flows into a monitoring platform where a dispatcher sees the entire fleet in a single window, including sites unreachable for GSM.
A compact protocol: 40 bytes that matter
Satellite traffic is expensive, so the team had to save not only fuel but bytes. Specialists calculated the data volume for each group of objects and reduced the protocol to six mandatory records: device ID, archive record number, date, time and coordinates. For vehicles with a fuel level sensor and an RPM sensor the packet gained two more parameters. As a result, the minimal record took 40 bytes, and 45 bytes for machines with two fuel tanks. This compactness is what made satellite monitoring economically viable.
Turning raw data into decisions
Splitting the fleet into groups
All vehicles were divided into two groups by sensor set and task type. Each group received its own data composition and transmission frequency: reports were built on the full dataset while the satellite channel stayed clear of redundant information. That balance preserved the managerial value of telematics at minimal traffic.
The actual-versus-norm report
Several reports were configured on the software side. The key one compares actual fuel consumption against the norm and shows the savings delta. It gave management a truthful picture of fuel spending and let them make logistics decisions based on numbers instead of intuition.
Project results
1.5 million rubles per batch
The savings proved measurable. Thanks to monitoring data, delivering one fuel batch cost 1.5 million rubles less, and across two batches the company saved around 3 million rubles on fuel delivery alone. The system started paying for itself before the equipment rollout was even complete — a rare result for remote-site projects.
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