What is vehicle tracking?
Vehicle tracking is a way of monitoring the location, movements, status and behaviour of a vehicle or fleet of vehicles. This is achieved through a combination of an electronic vehicle location unit (VLU) fitted in the vehicle, a method of returning the data to the user and PC or web based software. The data is turned into information by management reporting tools in conjunction with a visual display on computerised mapping software. Vehicle Tracking can be used in the following scenarios; - Fleet Management: When managing a fleet of vehicles, knowing the real-time location of all drivers allows management to meet customer needs more efficiently. Whether it’s delivery, service or other multi-vehicle enterprises, drivers now only need a mobile phone with telephony or Internet connection to be inexpensively tracked by and dispatched efficiently.
- Asset Tracking: Companies needing to track valuable assets for insurance or other monitoring purposes can now plot the real-time asset location on a map and closely monitor movement and operating status.
- Field Service Management: Companies with a field service workforce for services such as repair or maintenance, must be able to plan field workers’ time, schedule subsequent customer visits and be able to operate these departments efficiently. Vehicle tracking allows companies to quickly locate a field engineer and dispatch the closest one to meet a new customer request or provide site arrival information.
- Field Sales: Mobile sales professionals can access real-time locations. For example, in unfamiliar areas, they can locate themselves as well as customers and prospects, get driving directions and add nearby last-minute appointments to itineraries. Benefits include increased productivity, reduced driving time and increased time spent with customers and prospects.
- Trailer Tracking: Haulage and Logistics companies often operate lorries with detachable load carrying units. The part of the vehicle that drives the load is know as the cab and the the load carrying unit is known as the trailer. There are different types of trailer used for different applications, e.g. flat bed, refrigerated, curtain sider, box container.
Generally speaking, when the term vehicle tracking is used, it refers to the scenarios outlined above. However, there are actually two distinct types of vehicle tracking; - A.V.L (Automatic Vehicle Location)
This type of vehicle tracking is normally used in the fleet or driver management sector. The unit is configured to automatically transmit it’s location at a set time interval, e.g. every 5 minutes. The unit is activated when the ignition is switched on/off. - E.A.T.S (Events Activated Tracking system)
This type of system is primarily used in connection with vehicle or driver security solutions. If, for example a thief breaks into your car and attempts to steal it, the tracking system can be triggered by the immobiliser unit or motion sensor being activated. A monitoring bureau, will then be automatically notified that the unit has been activated and begin tracking the vehicle. Some products on the market are a hybrid of both AVL and EATS technology. However industry practice has tended to lean towards a separation of these functions. It is worth taking note that vehicle tracking products tend to fall in to one, not both of the technologies. AVL technology is predominately used when applying vehicle tracking to fleet or driver management solutions. The use of Automatic Vehicle Location is given in the following scenario; A car breaks down by the side of the road and the occupant calls a vehicle recovery company. The vehicle recovery company has several vehicles operating in the area. Without needing to call each driver to check his location the dispatcher can pinpoint the nearest recovery vehicle and assign it to the new job. If you were to incorporate the other aspects of vehicle telematics into this scenario; the dispatcher, rather than phoning the recovery vehicle operative, could transmit the job details directly to the operative’s mobile data device, who would then use the in-vehicle satellite navigation to aid his journey to the job. Source: http://www.ford1.demon.co.uk/ EATS technology is predominately used when applying vehicle tracking to vehicle security solutions. An example of this distinction is given in the following scenario; A construction company owns some pieces of plant machinery that are regularly left unattended, at weekends, on building sites. Thieves break onto one site and a piece equipment, such as a digger, is loaded on the back of a flat bed truck and then driven away. Typically the ignition wouldn’t need to be turned on and as such most of the AVL products available wouldn’t typically be activated. Only products that included a unit that was activated by a motion sensor or GeoFence alarm event, would be activated. Both AVL and EATS systems track, but for different purposes. New quality standards from the Thatcham association, such as the CATEGORY 5 standard (Click here to open an overview of Cat5), have made this distinction very clear and stipulate the function and features that a vehicle security tracking product must have to gain accreditation.
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