Orbis IO vs FleetCheck: which fleet compliance software is right for your fleet?

FleetCheck and Orbis IO solve the same core problem — UK fleet compliance — and approach it from different starting points. FleetCheck has a long-established compliance platform serving thousands of UK fleets. Orbis is a younger product built on OEM-native vehicle data, with compliance plus a fleet intelligence layer that reads directly from manufacturer telemetry. This page sets out where each is strongest and which buyer fits which product.

Who each product is for

FleetCheck is built primarily for fleet compliance: driver licence checks, vehicle inspections, MOT and tax tracking, document management, and the audit trail behind them. Its customer base skews to operators whose primary need is keeping the compliance workflow running smoothly across hundreds or thousands of vehicles, often with mixed HGV, PSV and light commercial fleets.

Orbis IO covers the same compliance ground and adds the vehicle intelligence layer above it: real fuel and electricity consumption, charging behaviour, PHEV compliance, EV transition modelling, SECR carbon reporting from actual telemetry rather than WLTP estimates. Orbis is built for fleet operators who want their compliance platform and their performance/ESG data running on the same record, with no hardware between them and the vehicle.

Side-by-side comparison

Where FleetCheck wins

FleetCheck's strengths are on the compliance workflow itself, refined over many years of UK fleet operation. Established workflows for driver licence checks, vehicle inspection scheduling, document management and incident reporting are mature and battle-tested. The customer base is large enough that the product has been shaped by feedback from a wide range of fleet operating models — including HGV, PSV and mixed commercial fleets that smaller competitors struggle to serve.

FleetCheck has integrations with telematics providers, fuel-card systems and other fleet ecosystem tools that are well-documented and known to procurement teams. For a fleet whose buying decision is heavily influenced by procurement risk reduction — picking the established option that integrates with what is already in place — FleetCheck is a low-risk choice with a known answer.

Where Orbis wins

Orbis's structural advantages all flow from one architectural choice: vehicle data comes directly from manufacturer APIs, not from a hardware dongle, telematics box, or driver self-reporting.

That choice produces three differences a buyer should care about:

Real fuel economy, not estimates. Orbis reads actual fuel consumption from the vehicle's own onboard computer — the same number the dashboard sees. FleetCheck, like most compliance platforms, depends on third-party telematics or manual entry for any vehicle-level efficiency data, which is materially less accurate and harder to defend in an SECR audit.

PHEV compliance surfaced as a first-class signal. Orbis's OPCI™ score reads battery state-of-charge and charging history per PHEV — surfacing the gap between WLTP claims and operational reality. The audit's reference vehicle returned 287.2 mpg WLTP against 46.9 mpg actual; that figure came from manufacturer telemetry, not an OBD dongle. FleetCheck does not surface PHEV compliance as a distinct metric.

No hardware to install. An Orbis fleet is connected via the manufacturer's own connected-car infrastructure, not via a dongle plugged into the OBD port. The capital cost is £0 on the hardware line; deployment is days rather than weeks; and there is no ongoing hardware maintenance or replacement burden.

Pricing differences flow from the architecture. Orbis Compliance is £2/driver/month — comparable to FleetCheck's compliance offering. Orbis Intelligence at £15/vehicle/month is the layer FleetCheck does not have a direct equivalent for. See the full fleet intelligence software pricing for the breakdown.

Who should choose which

The buyer who should choose FleetCheck: a UK fleet operator whose primary need is hardened compliance workflow at scale, with mature telematics and fuel-card integrations, and whose efficiency/ESG reporting is handled either via WLTP figures or via separate telematics tooling. FleetCheck is a known, low-risk procurement decision.

The buyer who should choose Orbis IO: a UK fleet operator who wants compliance and vehicle intelligence in one record, who runs PHEVs (or is planning EV transition) where real-world efficiency data matters, who values an SECR carbon report defensible against actual consumption, and who would prefer not to install hardware in vehicles to get the data. Orbis is the choice for operators whose buying decision is driven by data quality rather than procurement-risk minimisation.

For most UK fleets the answer is not "either/or" — Orbis Compliance covers the same compliance ground as FleetCheck (see fleet compliance software) and the Intelligence layer (see fleet intelligence platform) is the part that decides the procurement. Fleets evaluating both should ask the same question of each: can you produce a defensible per-vehicle MPG figure on a PHEV that is not based on WLTP?

Frequently asked questions

Is Orbis IO a FleetCheck alternative?

Yes — Orbis IO covers the same core compliance ground as FleetCheck (DVLA-integrated driver licence checking, MOT and tax tracking, grey fleet management, audit trail) and adds an OEM-native vehicle intelligence layer that FleetCheck does not. Fleets that need only the compliance workflow may find FleetCheck's mature feature set a better fit; fleets that want compliance plus real vehicle data — actual MPG, charging behaviour, PHEV efficiency — typically choose Orbis.

Does Orbis IO do driver licence checks like FleetCheck?

Yes. Orbis runs DVLA-integrated driver licence checks on a risk-based schedule, with automated reminders, escalations and a full audit trail — the same workflow standard fleet compliance platforms operate, including FleetCheck. The licence check is part of Orbis's compliance module from £2/driver/month, the same price band fleet operators are accustomed to.

How does Orbis IO pricing compare to FleetCheck?

Orbis Compliance starts from £2 per driver per month, with Orbis Intelligence (the OEM data layer) from £15 per vehicle per month. FleetCheck publishes pricing on a quote basis and operates a tiered model that varies by fleet size and feature set. For a like-for-like compliance-only comparison, Orbis sits in the same price band as FleetCheck; the differentiation is on what the £15/vehicle Intelligence module adds, which has no direct equivalent in FleetCheck's offering.