Automotive Industry Standard 140
Definition
AIS-140 full form is Automotive Industry Standard 140. It mandates Vehicle Location Tracking Devices (VLTD) and emergency panic buttons in public and commercial transport vehicles. Certified devices transmit real-time location to state backend control centres and must meet defined hardware, connectivity, and emergency-response requirements.
Commercial vehicles in India need AIS-140 certified trackers to pass RTO fitness and permit checks. Non-compliant or generic imported trackers risk failing inspection and detention.
AIS-140 is an Automotive Industry Standard issued under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules framework, drafted by ARAI and notified by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. It specifies what a tracking installation on a public service or commercial transport vehicle must consist of, and the requirements go well beyond "fit a GPS device".
The standard targets public service and commercial transport rather than private cars. In practice the vehicles most consistently covered are those carrying passengers or operating under a permit.
Because transport is state-administered, the exact scope, the timelines and the enforcement intensity differ between states. The device standard is national; the obligation to fit it, the backend it reports to and the certificate procedure are state matters. A fleet operating across states should expect to deal with more than one process, which is the single most common surprise in AIS-140 projects.
This is the most expensive misunderstanding in the category. A cheap imported tracker can report position accurately and still fail an inspection outright, because accuracy was never the requirement.
It has no certification against the standard, no panic button wired to a backend, no backup battery, no tamper alerting, and critically no connection to the state backend control centre. A device reporting only to a private vendor dashboard does not satisfy a rule whose purpose is that the state can see the vehicle in an emergency.
The failure usually surfaces at the worst moment: at fitness renewal or permit issue, when the vehicle is already earning and taking it off the road costs real money. Buying on device price alone reliably produces this outcome.
No. It targets public service and commercial transport vehicles, principally passenger vehicles such as buses, school buses and taxis, national permit vehicles, and goods vehicles covered by state notifications. Private cars are not covered. Exact scope and timelines are set by each state.
No. A certified device is required, with an emergency panic button, internal backup battery, tamper detection and live transmission to the state backend control centre. An uncertified tracker can report location perfectly and still fail inspection, because location accuracy was never the requirement.
The practical consequence is failure at RTO fitness or permit renewal, which takes the vehicle off the road until it is resolved. Non-compliant vehicles are also exposed to challans and detention at check posts, and the lost operating days usually cost more than the device.
The device standard is national, but transport is administered by states. Each state notifies which vehicle categories are covered, runs its own backend control centre, maintains its own approved vendor list and sets its own certificate procedure, so a fleet operating across states deals with several processes.
Ask the vendor for the test certificate from an authorised testing agency and check the specific model against the approved vendor list published by the state you operate in. Confirm separately that live integration with that state’s backend control centre is operational, not merely supported.
Begin
Join thousands of vehicle owners and businesses across every Indian state and union territory that trust MoboSafe for real-time tracking, safety, and peace of mind.