Vehicle Tracking – What’s involved?

More companies are looking at tracking to save their business money, but what is involved in setting a tracking system up? Read on….

Installation

Vehicle tracking systems normally require a small device to be installed into the interior of the vehicle behind the dash or another suitable panel. More complex tracking systems that use external sensors or CanBus integration will normally require additional time to install.

Communication

The tracking device installed into the vehicle receives GPS (Ground Positioning System) signals from Satellites orbiting the Earth. The device uses the GPS data to accurately determine its real time location. The device then sends the location information to a secure server where the data is made available to use via the internet.

Software

The tracking software provides a secure portal to access the tracking data and provides live mapping, alerts/notifications and reports for the user to monitor and analyse the data.

There are 2 main types of tracking software available, ‘Thin Client’ and ‘Web Based’. Whilst both types use the internet to receive tracking data a ‘Thin Client’ application requires the user to download an application to their PC. Web Based tracking systems do not require an application to be downloaded which means they can be accessed from any PC with an internet connection.