The Generates trips setting controls whether Hapn assembles a tracker's position reports into trips — journeys with a start, an end, a route and a distance. It's a per-tracker setting.
Hapn turns it off by default for any tracker that reports once a minute or slower. That is deliberate, and for most people it is the right setting to leave alone. This article explains why, what you get instead, and what to do if you genuinely need trips.
Applies to: the Hapn web app at app.gethapn.com and the Hapn mobile app.
Why trip generation is off for slower-reporting trackers
A trip is an inference. Hapn takes a series of positions and works out where a journey started, what route it followed and how far it went. That inference is only as good as the gaps between reports.
When a tracker reports once a minute or slower, a vehicle can cover a mile or more between two reports. Hapn has no way of knowing what happened in between, so it draws a straight line. The result is:
- Routes that never happened — straight lines across blocks, fields or water instead of the roads actually driven.
- Distances that don't add up — a straight line is always shorter than the real route, so mileage reads low.
- Trips that split or merge wrongly — stops get missed, or one journey gets broken into several.
Rather than hand you trip data that looks precise but isn't, Hapn doesn't generate trips at that reporting rate.
What you get instead: pings
This is the part that's easy to miss. Turning off trip generation doesn't lose you any data. Every position the tracker reports is still recorded, stored and shown — as individual pings (check-ins) rather than as assembled journeys.
On a tracker with trip generation off you'll see:
- A Recent Pings list on the asset card, instead of recent trips.
- The tracker listed on the Locations page (Historical Tracking → Locations) rather than on Trips, and History opening on a list of Pings (called Locations on the mobile app) rather than trips, with each report as its own point on the map.
- A daily summary reading 0 trips and 0 stops, and No trips found in the trips list.
Each of those pings is a real, measured position. That makes them more reliable than a trip drawn between them would be — you're looking at where the tracker actually was, not at a guess about how it got there. For most asset-tracking work — where was this trailer on Tuesday, has this generator moved this week, which yard is it sitting in — pings answer the question completely.
See How to View Your Tracker's Location History for how to page through pings by date.
Should you turn Generate Trips on?
Usually not. You can switch it on for any tracker, but we don't recommend it on a tracker reporting once a minute or slower. The setting doesn't make the tracker report more often — it just tells Hapn to draw trips from the reports it already has. You get the same sparse data, presented with a confidence it doesn't deserve, and the routes and mileage will be wrong often enough that you can't rely on them.
If you switch it on anyway, treat the resulting trips as approximate and don't use them for mileage, billing or compliance.
If you really do need trips
The fix is a faster update frequency, not the Generate Trips toggle. Move the tracker to a reporting mode that updates more often than once a minute while moving, and trips will generate normally and accurately.
That comes at a cost, and it's worth being honest about it: faster reporting drains a battery-powered tracker considerably quicker. A tracker that lasts months on a slower mode may last weeks or days on a fast one. Before changing it, it's worth asking whether you actually need the route, or whether you just need to know where the asset has been — because pings already answer the second question.
Vehicle trackers that draw power from the vehicle — OBD, hardwired and dash cam devices — report every few seconds and generate trips normally. This trade-off only applies to battery-powered trackers.
For the modes available and what each one costs in battery, see Reporting Modes: How to Adjust Your Tracker's Update Frequency.
How to turn Generate Trips on or off
The setting lives in the tracker's own settings, one tracker at a time.
On the web:
- Open Live Tracking and select the asset, either on the map or from the list.
- Click Settings on the asset card.
- Scroll to Advanced Settings and open Trip Settings.
- Switch Generates trips on or off.
- Click Save.
On the mobile app: tap the tracker on the Live screen, tap Settings on its card, open Advanced Settings → Trip Settings, switch Generates trips on or off, and tap Save.
A related setting: Stop Threshold for Trips
In the same Trip Settings section you'll find Stop Threshold for Trips, which controls how long a vehicle has to be stationary before Hapn ends one trip and starts another. The default is 15 minutes, so stops shorter than that — a traffic light, a quick drop-off — stay inside a single trip rather than splitting it in two.
Raise it if your trips are being broken up by short stops you don't care about; lower it if you need each individual stop recorded as its own trip.
Frequently asked questions
Does turning trip generation off lose my location history?
No. Every position report is still recorded and shown as a ping. Only the assembly of those positions into trips is switched off.
Will changing this affect trips I already have?
No. The setting only affects future trip recording. Existing trip history stays in your reports.
How do I know what reporting frequency my tracker is using?
It's on the same settings screen, under Reporting Mode, which shows the current intervals for when the device is moving and when it's at rest. The asset card also shows Update Freq. at a glance.
Why does my vehicle tracker generate trips when my asset tracker doesn't?
Because it reports far more often. OBD, hardwired and dash cam trackers draw power from the vehicle and typically report every few seconds, which is plenty of resolution to draw an accurate route.
I have several trackers — can I change this for all of them at once?
No. Generates trips is a per-tracker setting, so it has to be changed on each tracker individually.
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