Fleet Command · included in Kava OS Core
Know before the host calls.
Fleet Command is the vending telemetry software at the base of Kava OS. Every connected machine, cooler and locker reports sales, inventory, temperature, door state and payment health in real time, so the first person to hear about a problem is you, not the location host.
- per device per month on Core
- $19per device per month on Core
- offline transaction buffering
- 72 hoffline transaction buffering
- median Kava Link install
- 22 minmedian Kava Link install
Vending telemetry that covers more than the coin box
A DEX pull tells you what sold since the last visit. Fleet Command tells you what is happening now, at the level of a single spiral or shelf.
Sales by item
Every vend or cooler transaction by item, time and payment type, as it happens. No waiting for the driver to plug in a handheld.
Inventory against par
Live counts per selection, so you know which spirals are empty before anyone opens the door.
Temperature
Cabinet temperature from built-in sensors or the Kava Link probe input, with excursion alerts you set per device.
Door and lock state
Door opens, long opens and lock status. Kava Cooler locks itself if it stays above 41 °F for 30 minutes.
Payment health
Cashless reader status and decline patterns, so a dead reader doesn't masquerade as a slow week.
Vend confirmation
On Kava Vend V4, drop sensors and spiral motor telemetry confirm each vend and refund automatically when nothing drops.
Your legacy machines already talk. Kava Link listens.
Most of the machines on your route can already describe themselves. They just have nobody to tell. Kava Link L2 sits behind the bill validator panel, connects to the MDB bus and the DEX port, and turns that chatter into live, item-level records in Fleet Command.
It draws under 2 W from the machine's own MDB power (24–42 V DC), connects over LTE-M or NB-IoT with Wi-Fi fallback, and ships with an external antenna kit for basements and steel-walled breakrooms. The median install takes 22 minutes, with no machine modification beyond mounting.
- Real-time sales and inventory telemetry from DEX/UCS and MDB events.
- Remote price changes, confirmed back by the machine.
- Cashless reader passthrough, so you keep the reader you have.
- Inputs for a temperature probe and a door switch.
From a warm cooler to a closed ticket
An example from a single night. The point isn't the alert. It's that every person who touches it gets the context they need without calling anyone.
The reading drifts
A third-floor cooler climbs past 41 °F. The door log shows it was propped open during an evening delivery.
The rule fires
After 30 minutes above 41 °F, the cooler locks itself to protect the food and Fleet Command raises a critical alert.
The right phone buzzes
The on-call technician gets the alert in the operator app with the temperature curve, the door log and the last service note attached.
The fix
The door is closed, the cabinet pulls back down to temperature, and the technician reopens the cooler from the app after checking the product.
The record
The excursion, the lock, the fix and the reopening time sit in the device history, ready for the food-safety log.
Running a route with and without live telemetry
| Question | Scheduled visits and DEX pulls | Fleet Command |
|---|---|---|
| Is site 14 out of cold brew? | You find out on the next visit | Live count per selection, right now |
| Is the card reader working? | When the host calls to complain | Reader status and decline alerts |
| Did the price change take? | Drive out with a key and a label | Remote change, confirmed by the machine |
| How warm did it get last night? | Nobody knows | Temperature history per device |
| Which machines can skip a visit? | None, everything gets the weekly stop | Visible in Core, automated with Pro routing |
What a fleet does when it can finally describe itself
640 machines across 410 locations. 520 were retrofitted with Kava Link in 9 weeks, then moved to Pro and later Autopilot.
We didn't have to rip out a single machine. The fleet just started telling us what it needed.
What's in the box, and what isn't
Data sources
- Protocols
- MDB vend and cashless events; DEX/UCS audit data
- Kava Link inputs
- Temperature probe, door switch
- 8Kava hardware
- Native sensors: temperature, lock, door, load cells, drop sensors
Access
- Apps
- Web console, iOS/Android operator app, driver app
- Roles
- Owner, manager, driver/restocker, technician, finance, brand partner (read-only)
- Remote actions
- Price changes, basic planograms, alert rules
Reliability
- Offline buffering
- 72 hours on every 8Kava device
- Uptime SLA
- 99.9%; 99.95% on Enterprise
- Security
- US-region hosting, TLS 1.2+ in transit, AES-256 at rest
Plan
- Included in
- Core, Pro, Autopilot and Enterprise
- Core price
- $19 per device per month; $16.15 with annual billing
- Support
- Email on Core; 24/7 phone from Pro up
How many of last month's service calls started with someone else's phone call?
Each one was a failure a sensor could see before a person could. A reader that stopped accepting cards at 6 a.m. looked exactly like a quiet morning until the host noticed at noon. The goal of telemetry isn't more alerts. It's fewer surprises. Pull last month's tickets and mark the ones you learned about from a host. That's your baseline.
Fleet Command feeds every other module
Fleet Command questions
Which machines can Fleet Command monitor?
Every 8Kava device reports natively. Legacy machines connect through Kava Link L2, which reads MDB events and DEX/UCS audit data from MDB-compliant equipment. If a machine has an MDB bus and a DEX port, it can usually join the fleet.
Do I have to replace my cashless readers?
No. Kava Link passes your existing MDB cashless reader through, so the reader and processor you have keep working. You can bring your own processor at no markup or move to Kava Pay later.
What if the cellular signal is bad?
Kava Link uses LTE-M or NB-IoT with Wi-Fi fallback and includes an external antenna kit. If the connection still drops, transactions are buffered for up to 72 hours and sync when it returns.
What does it cost?
Fleet Command is part of Core at $19 per connected device per month, or $16.15 with annual billing. Kava Link is a one-time $349 per legacy machine. There's no software setup fee and no long-term contract on monthly plans. See pricing.
Can drivers and technicians see alerts?
Yes. Alerts go to the roles you choose, such as driver/restocker or technician, in the iOS/Android operator app and the driver app. Finance can see sales and cashless reporting without seeing alert noise.
Where to go next
Hear it from the machine first.
Connect one machine with Kava Link, or start a 30-day Pro trial on up to 10 devices. Fleet Command is included in every plan.