This article provides a high-level introduction to the key concepts and components of the TraX system. Understanding these concepts helps clarify how to integrate the TraX device into a TSP’s platform and how to use TraX effectively.
Key concepts
Business entities:
- Fleet company – Owns or leases vehicles.
- Telematics Service Provider (TSP) company – Provides telematics-based services to fleets, such as vehicle health monitoring and location tracking.
- Third Party company – Supports a TSP or fleet by delivering installation, maintenance, or other auxiliary services.
Information:
- Vehicle – In addition to common attributes such as vehicle name and VIN, each vehicle has a unique identifier (Vehicle ID) assigned by the TSP. This identifier is shared and used consistently across both the SKF and TSP platforms, and is not allowed to be changed.
- Fleet – Refers to a grouping of vehicles (not the fleet company itself). Each fleet resource has a unique identifier (Fleet ID) that is shared and used consistently across both the SKF and TSP platforms.
- Device – Refers to the TraX device. The TraX device incorporates multiple sensors used to measure parameters such as temperature and vibration. Throughout this documentation, the term sensor may occasionally be used interchangeably with device, which may result in minor inconsistencies in terminology.
Other:
- Installer role – The party responsible for managing TraX devices using the TraX mobile app. By default, the TSP is authorized to perform installations, but this responsibility can also be delegated to a fleet owner or a third party, as detailed in the Installer Onboarding Introduction article.
Components
TraX APIs & integrations
The TraX system provides a Web API and Queue API that enable TSPs to automate processes required to integrate the TraX devices into their platforms.
TSPs must implement support for four integrations (listed in the recommended implementation order):
- Installer Onboarding Integration – Enables TSPs to automate provisioning activities and ongoing administration within the SKF platform.
- Vehicle Store Integration – Enables TSPs to create, update, and manage vehicles in the TraX Vehicle Store.
- Sensor Configuration Integration – Notifies TSPs when a device has been onboarded in the SKF platform and provides the information required to mirror onboarding activities in the TSP’s platform.
- Sensor Data Integration – Enables TSPs to transfer device data back to SKF. This integration is required to support full TraX mobile app functionality and to enable efficient troubleshooting.
TraX device
The TraX device is a battery-powered, wireless device designed for wheel-mounted installation. It monitors vibration and temperature, transmitting collected data via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertisement frames.
The expected device behavior is defined in the TraX – WEM-200 – Technical Specification (Connected) document.
Device firmware can be flashed to support different use cases. For example, stable firmware is intended for production use, while specialized firmware variants that simulate bearing faults or WEM faults are useful during testing, validation, and implementation phases.
TraX Mobile apps
The TraX mobile apps (Android & iOS) are used to model real-world vehicles designated for TraX deployment and to support device commissioning and maintenance activities. Key capabilities include commissioning devices, retrieving device status directly from devices, and flashing device firmware.
To commission a device, the app user (typically an installer) searches for a vehicle that has been made available by the TSP in the Vehicle Store and enriches it with additional details such as vehicle type and number of axles. The TraX device is then woken from sleep using a magnet, after which the app transmits the required operational instructions to place the device into an operational state.
TraX Vehicle Store
The Vehicle Store enables TSPs to make vehicles searchable in the TraX mobile app.
Vehicles are defined using identifiers such as name (or title/description) and VIN. TSPs register and manage vehicles in the Vehicle Store via the TraX Web API.
The primary purpose of the Vehicle Store is to eliminate manual data entry, which is time-consuming and error-prone and often leads to data quality issues.
Uploading a vehicle to the Vehicle Store does not automatically add it to the SKF platform; it only makes the vehicle searchable within the TraX app. Detailed implementation guidance for managing vehicle lists is provided in the Vehicle Store Integration article.
Although SKF provides and operates the Vehicle Store service, TSPs are responsible for ensuring that vehicle definitions are complete, accurate, and kept up to date.
SKF Platform
TraX is built on SKF’s IoT platform, which provides the following core capabilities:
- Asset topology – Organizes assets into a hierarchical structure: Fleet → Vehicles → Devices.
- Access control – Ensures that only authorized users can access assets within the topology.
- User management – Enables designated user administrators to create, manage, and remove users.
- Device management – Supports the management of TraX devices and provides services such as firmware distribution, accessible through the TraX mobile app.
- Device data – TSPs transfer device data back to SKF as described in the Sensor Data Integration. This is required to enable full TraX mobile app functionality and to support efficient troubleshooting.