Coal Logistics India — Complete Glossary of Tracking & Pilferage Terms

A reference glossary for logistics, security, and supply chain teams working with coal tracking and pilferage detection systems in India.

A

Activity Sensing Using Sensors The detection of physical loading and unloading activity on a truck body using IoT sensors. Activity sensing is the core technology used to identify unauthorised coal discharge in transit — detecting the physical signature of an unloading event regardless of GPS location or network coverage. Distinct from GPS tracking, which records location but not physical action.

Alert Fatigue The operational state in which a control tower receives so many GPS halt alerts that genuine risk events are missed in the noise. A key reason why risk-scored alerts — combining multiple parameters — are more effective than raw GPS alert volumes.

B

Blacklist (Driver/Vehicle) A flag in the tracking platform marking a specific driver or vehicle as confirmed high-risk based on sensor evidence of pilferage or FIR-level incidents. Blacklisted entries trigger 100% risk scores on every trip.

Back-Unloading The act of raising a tipper truck's body at an unauthorised location to discharge cargo. The physical signature of back-unloading is detectable by activity sensing using sensors — distinguished from a normal halt by the sensor activity pattern.

C

Confidence Score A 0–100 rating indicating how closely IoT sensor data matches a known unloading signature. High confidence (80+): automatic alert. Medium (50–79): control tower analyst review. Low (<50): logged, no alert.

Control Tower A dedicated analyst operation monitoring GPS and activity sensing alerts from coal truck fleets in real time — triaging alerts, placing driver escalation calls, preserving evidence, and issuing trip risk reports to plant security.

Corridor Risk The historical pilferage risk profile of a specific mine-to-plant road route — based on proximity to informal coal markets, known hotspot locations, and historical event data from active deployments.

G

Geofence A virtual geographic boundary defined in the tracking platform. When a vehicle enters or exits the geofence, an event is triggered. In coal tracking, geofences are defined at mine gates, plant gates, and authorised intermediate stops.

Grey Market (Coal) The informal network of buyers — brick kilns, small industrial users, aggregators — who purchase coal loads diverted from legitimate plant deliveries. Grey market buyers cluster near major coal belt corridors.

I

IAS Module Intugine Activity Sensing module. The proprietary IoT device mounted on truck bodies that captures physical activity data using sensors and classifies each halt as transit, loading, unloading, or idle. The core hardware behind Intugine's pilferage detection capability.

M

Mine Gate to Highway Segment The first 5–20 km of a coal truck journey from the mine exit to the national highway. Considered the highest-risk segment due to clustering of informal coal buyers near mine exits.

Market Fleet (Ad-hoc) Non-dedicated trucks hired on a spot basis to supplement dedicated fleet capacity. Market fleet vehicles carry higher pilferage risk as drivers have no long-term relationship with the plant. Tracked using portable plug-and-play IoT devices.

R

Red Zone A geographically defined risk location — informal coal market, known pilferage hotspot, unauthorized yard — where any truck halt triggers an immediate risk alert regardless of duration.

Risk Score (Trip) A composite 0–100 rating per trip calculated from 9 parameters: activity sensing alert, blacklisted truck/driver, red-zone halt, market fleet flag, route deviation, phone-off, halt duration, delay, and halt count. Issued to plant security before the vehicle arrives.

S

Special Sampling The direction of a high-risk truck to a dedicated lane for enhanced weight and quality checking at the plant gate. Triggered by a HIGH trip risk score — enabling targeted sampling without slowing standard gate operations.

W

Weighbridge Shortage The weight difference between the dispatched quantity (mine weighbridge) and the delivered quantity (plant weighbridge). Without sensor evidence, shortages are unresolvable disputes. With activity sensing data, shortages from pilferage are distinguishable from legitimate moisture variance.