Privacy mode
Privacy mode for company cars: private trips are not recorded
When an employee uses a company vehicle privately, Fleet Hero can stop recording its positions completely. They are discarded as they arrive and never stored, the distance is still counted for mileage, and every pause is written to the audit log.
Included in every Fleet Hero package, from €10.80 per vehicle per month with the SIM card and mobile data.
01How it works
How privacy mode works
Privacy pause
Recording stops the moment you confirm
'Pause recording' stops storing the vehicle's positions from the moment you confirm. Nobody can recover them afterwards: not you, not an administrator, not an export. Set a time for recording to resume by itself, or resume it by hand.
- Reasons: private use, commute, off duty or other, with an optional note
- People without the privacy permission do not see the control at all
- The history says whether a pause ended by hand, on time or by an administrator
Booked private periods
Book private periods in advance
Plan a private period ahead, for example for a weekend or a holiday trip, and it starts and ends by itself with nobody pressing a button. A booked period can be changed or cancelled until it starts; after that, only 'Resume recording' ends it early.
- Up to 31 days per period, booked up to a year ahead
- Several periods per vehicle, never overlapping
Private kilometres
The distance is counted, the route is not stored
During a pause, the vehicle's own instruments are still read as the data passes through: the distance from the odometer, or from speed and time when the odometer is not reported. Each pause shows its duration, its distance, how it was measured and how many positions were discarded.
- Measured, calculated or not measured, and never a silent zero
- Private distance totals per vehicle for any period
- Driving time and fuel for the period are kept as well
In the route history
Private periods marked as not recorded
For people with the privacy permission, route replays show a private period as a dashed line between the last position before it and the first one after it, with a note that nothing was recorded in between. Others see a plain line between the two positions, without the reason. People with a separate permission can ask for an estimated road route across a finished private period, drawn as 'Estimated route — not recorded'.
- Estimated on a routing engine that Office Hero runs itself, covering Europe, so no outside service sees the journey
- Refused, with the reason, when it does not match the odometer or would need an impossible speed
- Estimated kilometres are never added to recorded ones
02Also included
Privacy that holds up in daily use
Permission-based
Out of the box, only administrators and fleet managers can pause; an administrator can grant the permission to other people.
Every pause audited
Opening, booking, changing, cancelling and resuming a pause each record the person who did it.
Kept off the live map
Positions from a pause never reach the live map, because they are discarded as they arrive.
Paused on share links
A shared link shows 'Paused' and no position or route while the pause is open.
Most alerts stop while paused
Positions and readings from a pause are discarded, so speeding, geozone, power-disconnected and SOS-button alerts cannot fire for that vehicle.
Private kilometres in reports
The vehicle summary lists private kilometres apart, not in the totals.
Business or personal trips
A simple rule suggests business or personal from the day and the start time, and a manager can change it to business, personal or mixed.
It runs on one trip at a time, entered by its trip ID, and it is not an official mileage record for tax purposes.
Pause from the phone
Office Hero Manager has the same pause and booking controls, coming soon to the app stores.
Coming soon
Limits of the estimate and the trip rule
An estimated route needs its own permission, can be made only after a private period has ended, and covers the European road network. The business or personal trip rule is a suggestion for your own use and does not produce a statutory mileage record.
04Step by step
Privacy mode in four steps
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Step 1 Agree the rules
Decide with your team when vehicles may be used privately and who may pause recording.
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Step 2 Pause or book
Pause a vehicle now, or book its private periods in advance.
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Step 3 Distance still counted
Positions are discarded; the distance is still measured.
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Step 4 Review the history
See each pause, its private distance and how it ended.
05Questions
Questions about privacy mode
Not answered here? Write to [email protected]. A person from our team in Skopje replies, Monday to Friday, 09:00–17:00 CET.
Are paused positions hidden or deleted?
Neither: they are never stored. They are discarded the moment they arrive, so nobody can recover them later.
Who can switch privacy mode on?
People whose role includes the privacy permission: out of the box, company administrators and fleet managers. Everyone else does not see the control.
Can drivers pause recording themselves?
No. A fleet manager or an administrator pauses the vehicle, or books its private periods in advance, for example for the hours agreed with the driver.
Can we still account for private kilometres?
Yes. Each pause records its distance, and the pause history adds up the private distance per vehicle for any period.
Do alerts still work during a pause?
Most do not. Positions and readings from a pause are discarded, so no alert that needs them can fire, from speeding and geozone exits to power disconnected and the SOS button. Tracker-offline and maintenance alerts still work, and the others work again as soon as recording resumes.
Can we pause every weekend automatically?
There is no repeating schedule. Book each private period ahead instead, up to 31 days long and up to a year in advance.
Does privacy mode make our tracking lawful?
It gives you a technical way to respect private use, because positions are not stored at all. Whether your tracking is lawful also depends on its purpose, your policy and how you inform employees, so take legal advice for your country.
Not legal advice
Privacy mode supports your data-protection duties, but it does not decide what is lawful in your country. Our guide explains the main GDPR principles for vehicle tracking.
Give company cars a real private mode
Book a demo and we will show you privacy pauses, booked periods and the private distance.