Category: For Vehicles

GPS Vehicle Tracking Devices Made Simple

I think we’ve all been there before. You have this vehicle that you just wish that you could track.  You might be a business owner, or a concerned parent, or a victim of grand theft auto.  It doesn’t matter.  Whatever your reasoning, GPS vehicle tracking is something that is accessible to individuals at all levels of technological familiarity. Anyone can track a vehicle if they are equipped with a little understanding and the right hardware for the job.

What we hope to do here with this post is give anyone all the knowledge they need use a GPS tracking system for their vehicle. We will go step by step through the whole process and by the end any person should be able to understand what this powerful technology allows them to accomplish as well as some steps for them to take to get their car, van, or truck tracked with GPS.

What Is GPS Vehicle Tracking?

Its always good to start at the very beginning. I hear its a very good place to start. When we begin, we start with GPS. This acronym stands for the Global Positioning System. It is a constellation (fancy word for group) of satellites operated by the United States Air Force. These satellites float around in outer space beaming a special signal down to earth. These signals are used by a whole bunch of devices and can be heard using a special receiver, or chip.

This GPS tracking chip will “hear” the signal and learn several different things from it. The most important things that it is going to learn is the satellite that sent the signal and how long ago it sent the signal. The GPS chip will then do some fancy math and determine where on earth it could be in relation to that one satellite.

Earth From Space

Now I want you to imagine that you are a man floating out in space looking down on the earth. You have the black expanse of space ominously looming behind you as you gaze at that beautiful blue ball that we call home. Looking down (you have super eyesight) you notice some interesting things about points on the earth in relation to yourself. First, there is one point just below that is the closest point on the earth to you. The second thing is that all the points that are not right below you have other points that share their distance with that point. All the points that share the same distance from you can be connected together and they will make an “o” (circle) shape on the ground. Having more than one point as the distance from you is the norm when looking down on the earth from space.

Now back to our GPS vehicle tracking – specifically our understanding of how many satellites are needed for a tracking chip to know where it is in the world. Just one satellite message is probably not going to give you your exact location. Unless you are directly under a satellite (only around 32 points on earth exists just like this) your GPS chip is going to need to get some help from other satellites to determine where it is. The magic number is 4 total satellites are needed to get a really solid position.

What has been described above is the standard way all GPS devices work. They all require access to the signals from these satellites to figure out its position. If it cannot get these signals (i.e. it is in a cave, an underground parking structure, at the bottom of a lake, river, or ocean, or it is being jammed by a GPS blocker) then it will not be able to be tracked. This is important for those thinking about how they want to use their vehicle tracking device.

The next thing that we should understand about any tracking system is that is needs a way to communicate the location information that the tracking chip calculates to you, the person who is using the vehicle tracker. This is something that standard GPS devices simply do not do. For example, you cannot take your standard GPS navigation device, say a Garmin nüvi 265WT, stick it in a car, and expect to be able to track it. It just doesn’t work that way because these devices have no way to communicate information to people outside the vehicle they are in.

Instead, you are going to need a device that is specifically made for tracking purposes. Car tracking devices generally have both a GPS chip built into it as well as some sort of communication hardware. In most cases this is going to be a cell phone modem for communication over the wireless networks that paint themselves across America, but there are a few instances where the tracker could communicate via commercial communication satellites. Chances are though any tracker you are going to use will use a cell phone network, so we will focus on how that works.

Your vehicle tracking system will now take the information that the tracking chip has calculated and send this out over the cell phone network much like a person would send a text message (SMS) or email. This data is sent from the device to the tracking provider. The tracking provider will make this information available to their users – in this case you and whomever you decide to share it with – through a clean web interface that will either be Google Maps or at least closely resemble it.

That, in a nutshell, is what GPS vehicle tracking is – it is the seamless combination of GPS location technology and wireless communication technology into one powerful device.

GPS Vehicle Tracking Devices

There are many different devices out there from a wide range of manufacturers and distributors. We cannot go through each of them and talk about the different vehicle tracking devices that they offer and how you can use them. That would take up too much time and would probably be pretty boring to read. Instead, what we want to do here is briefly describe the two main categories of devices and discuss some of the various pros and cons for each of them. The two types of GPS vehicle trackers out there are built-in device and standalone device.

Built-in GPS Vehicle Tracking Devices

These are the most commonly used devices for fleet vehicle tracking. Being built in to the vehicle gives them extreme flexibility and power, enabling almost constant tracking for vital performance metrics for businesses. Also, by being well tied into the internal workings of the vehicle also has its advantages. For example, some GPS vehicle trackers allow remote control of certain functions of the car.

Is your driver idling the car for too long at a service call? Simply cut his engine for him! Did your delivery person accidentally lock the keys in the ignition of the delivery van? Unlock the doors remotely for her! You can many of these things with fleet tracking devices built specifically for the purpose. And these features are not just limited to commercial applications, many consumer oriented trackers also offer these feature to their customers as well.

Most built in trackers do require a professional install since theses devices do become integral part of the vehicles electrical and computer systems. Some trackers just plug into a special port under the steering wheel (called an OBD-II port) and don’t require any special attention from a professional installer, which means that you can install it yourself once you get the piece of equipment in the mail.

I did want to clear up on point of possible confusion before going on to talk about standalone trackers. By using the phrasse “built-in” I might have given the wrong impression. I do not necessarily mean something like OnStar. It does not have to be built into the car when it is made or even shortly after it is made. It just needs to get its power from the vehicle. Another phrase I could have used was hard-wired.

Other possible applications:

  • Teen driver tracking
  • Theft recovery
  • Catching a cheater
  • Business mileage calculator

Standalone GPS Vehicle Tracking Devices

Standalone trackers are usually versatile GPS tracking devices that are not necessarily bound to a single function. Take the Zoombak line of products. There are two main trackers that they sell. The Advanced GPS Car & Family Locator and the Advanced GPS Universal Locator. These devices are essentially the same, the only difference being the branding that they’ve done. This is pretty much going to be the standard for all portable, standalone trackers.

One thing that you have to be aware of is that standalone trackers cannot really compete with the built-in vehicle tracking systems because they are not set up for real time GPS tracking in the same way. While a built in tracker can produce an avalanche of data and never run out of batteries a standalone tracker can only track as long as the battery has a charge. The Zoombak can give 150 locates before it runs out of battery. This is a pitiful number when compared with fleet tracking devices.

But what they lack in longevity these devices make up in versatility. A built in car tracker isn’t going to be much good once you take it out of the car. In fact, you can’t really take it out of the car to be used on your teenage daughter as she goes through Central Park. Devices like the Zoombak provide comprehensive tracking support for most personal tracking needs.

Another feature of the portable trackers is that they are often easily concealable. If you are trying to track a vehicle incognito then something small is definitely going to be what you want to go with. While it still isn’t the very best money can buy for this type of application, you will still get a lot of bang for you buck.

Other possible applications:

  • Most non-vehicle GPS tracking functions, including:
    • Sport tracking
    • Pet tracking
    • Child tracking
  • Covert tracking of cars

The Cell Phone As Vehicle Tracker

Sony Ericsson w995 cell phoneA word here needs to be said about the ubiquitous cell phone. Did you know that these devices are the most common GPS trackers on the planet? They can easily be utilized to become full fledged vehicle trackers. Even if you don’t have a cell phone to spare you can install some sweet (and free) cell phone tracking software for your phone. If you are looking for a good program for your phone then you should check our list: free GPS cell phone trackers.

Do I Need A Vehicle Tracking System?

Now that you have gotten a little bit more information about the devices that are going to make up your vehicle tracking system you have a decision to make. Is GPS vehicle tracking something that you actually need? The costs associated with this type of real time tracking is certainly not cheap. The cheaper devices start at around $100 and they only go up from there. Then there is the monthly subscription fee that all tracking providers require to operate correctly. In the first year alone you can reasonably expect to spend around $500.

Businesses obviously have the most to gain by implementing these devices as part of a fleet management system. Private individuals may save some money on insurance premiums by having a tracker, but the real offset is the value that you receive from having one of these devices. Is it enough to justify purchasing a vehicle tracker?

Car Tracking Devices: Considered and Evaluated

Car tracking devices are anything but cheap. If you are going to buy one of these high tech, expensive products there are several things that you should know about them before committing your finances (and in some cases, your security) on a device that you know will work in theory, but have no experience in practice.

The first area that this article is going to examine is the different ways that people often use car trackers. After a brief examination we will examine some of the tracker characteristics that any potential customer should evaluate before making their final decision.

Ways To Use a Car Tracking Device

There seem to be four main reasons to use a GPS tracking device inside a car. They are to track inexperienced, immature drivers, verify suspicions of infidelity, improve business operations, and recover property.

Teen Drivers

We have gone into great detail about the different reasons why a parent would install a tracking device in their teen’s car. We have even discussed some of the ways that a tracking device for cars can be leveraged to help make teens safer drivers. Needless to say we won’t go into a lot of that stuff here. You just need to know that more teens die each year from automobile accidents than any other cause. These are all preventable deaths and are often the fault of the teens themselves.

If you knew that a tracking device would save your teens life, would you spend the $400 for it?

Catching Cheaters

Cheaters suck. They often lie. They also need to be caught. Most of the time the person being cheated on needs help in pinning the cheater into a corner so that they have to admit their infidelity. GPS tracking can often help them in this endeavor. Simply install a tracker in the vehicle of the suspected cheater (but only if you own that vehicle – tracking another person’s property without their consent is illegal) and you can know for certain if they are staying at work late or doing something a little more suspect.

Fleet Vehicle Tracking

Car GPS tracking has a long and proven track record in commercial applications. It has been shown to improve worker productivity, reduce costs, enhance the customer experience, and improve vehicle maintenance. What more could a business owner want?

Theft Recovery

Theft happens. Having a device that will tell you where your car is in real time when you wake up in the morning and your car isn’t out front can be invaluable. It is also nice to know that the crooks that stole your car are going to prison rather than profiting off of your property.

Considerations For Choosing A GPS Car Tracking Devices

If you come to the conclusion that you need a device to track a car then you have to take several things into consideration when making your decision. These devices are anything but cheap, so making sure you pick something that is going to meet your needs is very important. Here is a list of some of the main things you will want to think through:

Hardwired Vs. Stand Alone

This may not sound like that big of a decision, but it is probably one of the most important decisions that you need to make. The main reason for this is battery life. Tracking devices, especially real time tracking devices, run through battery power very quickly. Some GPS car tracking devices, like the Zoombak, only have an active tracking life of several hours. That is extremely low if you need to track the vehicle for longer than that.

Hardwired car tracking devices have the benefit of getting their power directly from the vehicle itself. As long as your battery is live your tracker will be able to give you the position of the car. Some hardwired trackers can be installed covertly so that they are not easily seen or accessible. Others are installed under the steering wheel in the OBD-II port and can be easily seen if you know what to look for.

Stand alone devices do not benefit from the car’s power source and must rely on their own battery. This means that you can have an active tracking life of several weeks to just a few hours depending on the type and size of the tracker you are using. This can be fine – it just depends on what you are using the tracker for and how much money you want to spend on it all.

Real Time Vs. Data Loggers

GPS logger

Probably the next most important thing for people to think about when going with a car tracker is whether or not they want to see the position information in real time or if they are alright with recording the data and looking at it later, after the device has been retrieved from the vehicle. Most people want to do the tracking in real time. There is just something special about being able to watch your asset move from location to location.

The price tag on real time car tracking devices is nothing to sniff at. They are often much more expensive, two to three times as expensive, than their data logging counter parts – and that doesn’t even take into consideration the monthly subscription fee required by most tracking providers. When that is taken into consideration it can cost four times as much just in the first year alone!

But if your need is for a real time tracker then you are going to fork out the cash.

Web-Based Vs. Software Based

Many people looking for GPS tracking want something that they can access from any web enabled computer. This is most often available with real time GPS tracking devices. This is because the tracking device will transmit the position and vector data over a wireless network to your tracking provider. The provider will then make this data available to you on a secure website available on the internet. Only you are going to be able to access the information since you are the only one with the user name and password for the tracker.

Here is a graphic of how this all works:

How web based tracking works

Software based car tracking devices are generally data loggers. Most of the time the data logger comes with a CD that contains some sort of tracking software that you need to install on your computer to make sense of the data the device records. For example, the i-Got U GT-600 comes with this type of software on a small mini-CD. The software works with the device to display your trip data on pretty Google-based maps and helps you integrate photos into your journey. The software then lets you post this information out on to the web if you want to share the data with friends or family.

While most car tracking devices don’t need some of the features available on the i-GotU (that device is designed to help people share vacations, hikes, or other fun excursions), they will have some sort of software that will help you make sense of the data on the tracker. This is helpful for users because it means you don’t need to know a ton about telemetry in order to make sense of your tracking information.

Covert Vs. Open

You are wanting a car tracking device for a certain reason, and that reason is going to determine whether or not you want to use a covert tracker or something that is a little more easily seen and accessed. Above we mentioned 4 different applications where are GPS car tracker would be useful. Here are some of the defining characteristics of a covert vs. open deployment in each category:

CovertOpen
Teen Drivers
  • Engaged in or suspected of illegal activity
  • Extremely rebellious and likely to destroy or bypass car tracker
  • Acts also as a good theft recover device
  • Parents have a relationship of trust and mutual respect
  • Teen sees tracker as safety device and is clearly aware of consequences of bad driving
Catching Cheaters
  • Cheater is suspicious of you knowing
  • Cheater could turn violent and abusive if your search for truth is discovered
  • Cheater is observant or tech savvy
  • None
Fleet Vehicle Tracking
  • Acts as an excellent theft recovery device
  • Catches wasteful employees in the act
  • Reminds employees to work their best all the time
  • Allows for integration with dispatchers, increasing efficiency in workforce
  • Promotes healthy employer/employee relationships
Theft Recovery
  • Hidden trackers will be overlooked by less accomplished criminals
  • Ability to work as long as the battery is still giving power to the car
  • None

As you can see, there are some applications where having an easily accessible car tracking device is not really in your best interest. You can still use it in these instances, you just run the risk of wasting your money.

Should You Use A Car Tracking Device?

Not everything labeled as a car tracking device is going to be what you are looking for for your particular needs. Be sure to carefully consider the purchase you are making. Ask questions of yourself and the potential supplier. The more questions you ask, the better informed you are going to be and the more successful you are going to be in your desire to track a car with GPS.

New Teen GPS Tracking Devices From Spy Centre Security

Spy Centre Security, a GPS tracking and “spy” device store has announced a new line of GPS tracking devices that they are marketing specifically for parents of teenagers.  According to their press release they have devices starting at $199 the “[make] it possible to get constant updates on your teenagers’ car.”  My initial thought was that if they have a real time teen GPS tracking device for that price then they are going to be pretty competitive in the tracking market.  The only other real time device that I am aware of is the Zoombak and that is retailing right now on Amazon for $125.  Most other real time trackers are going to cost from around $250 and up.

But upon further investigation, it appears that the claims made in the press release are a little misleading.  To those that don’t understand the distinction between a data logger (passive GPS) and a real time tracker (active GPS) could have been duped by the claim made by the following sentence:

At Spycentre.com we now sell GPS products starting at just $199 making it possible to get constant updates on your teenagers’ car.

(While this sentence does come from a site not associated with Spy Centre Security, it does contain their contact information and is very similar to a press release posted on the companies website on September 11, 2009. This leads me to believe that the message is legitimate.)

Consumers need to know the difference between a data logger and a real time tracker if they are to really understand how to best track their teen and to sift through clever marketing attempts of GPS manufacturers.

Teen GPS Tracking Data Loggers

A data logger is a GPS tracking device that simply records the position of the device at set intervals determined by the user or by the device itself.  In order to access the information that the device records, you must retrieve the device and download the contents onto your computer.  GPS tracking software then interacts with the data and plots it on an interactive Google Maps like interface.

Canmore USB GPS Tracking Stick

This type of tracking is great when you only need to know somethings trip after the fact.  For example, if you enjoy launching hobby rockets and you want to know how high and how fast your rocket travels then using a data logger is a great way to get that information.

One of the newest types of data loggers to hit the market are GPS tracking sticks.  These devices are as large as a USB stick and very similar in build and shape.  They even have a male USB connection built in for a simple downloading process.  Just plug the device in and watch the software take over and do the work of analyzing the data for you.

Certainly powerful stuff, but not what most parents think of when they want to know where there teen is. These devices can be great for getting a good understanding of your teen’s driving habits – but they are not good for knowing where your teen is when they are late in getting home. They are not good when a natural disaster strikes and you need to know where your teen is right now. For that, you would need a real time GPS tracker.

With that said, a data logger is what is currently being offered for $199 on the Spy Centre Security website. I wonder how their tracking stick compares with this $145 one from Amazon?

Teen Real Time GPS Tracking

A real time GPS tracking device is one that is able to send its position information from the device to a third party so that the position of the device can be seen in real time.  This is what most parents are going to think about when they are looking into GPS trackers for their teenager.  They are also fairly expensive devices that will end up costing you hundreds of dollars up front and a regular subscription fee for the data transfers between your tracking device and the company’s servers.

The real time trackers available through Spy Centre Security are certainly expensive.  The cheapest models that they offer run $450 and have a service plan of $30 a month according to the press release mentioned above.  The first year of use will run $810 – a steep price to pay for being able to track your teen’s car with GPS.

The Cell Phone Tracking Solution

The obvious solution to this issue is to find a cheaper, real time tracking solution for parents of teenagers.  The best solution that I have come across is to turn a teen’s cell phone into a GPS tracking device.  Many of today’s cell phones already have a GPS antenna inside the phone that allows them to pick up GPS signals from outer space, eliminating the most obvious hurdle off the get go.  And since most teenagers want the latest and greatest cell phone you know that they probably already have a GPS enabled cell phone on them right now.

All that you now need to do is download some GPS tracking software for cell phones and you have a fully functional GPS tracking system in the palm of your teen’s hand.  There are plenty of paid services out there for parents looking at a paid option.  Most cell phone carriers offer something that you can take a look at that will add a nominal monthly fee to your cell bill.

Another option open to parents is to go with free GPS tracking software for cell phones.  This might take a little more work on your part of monitoring and installing the system, but can you beat free?

In the end, whatever you decide to do with your teen is really up to you.  Teen GPS tracking devices are relatively new, but that should not deter parents from taking advantage of this new and powerful technology to help them raise honest, law-abiding children who drive safely and come home on time.  While some might balk at tracking their teen with GPS, here at GPS For Today we feel like there are plenty of reasons why parents have every right to track a teen driver.  If you are interested in reading more about what we have to say on this topic here are some of the more important articles:

Subprime Lenders Get a GPS Tracking Solution Just For Them

Owners of  Buy Here Pay Here (BHPH) car business have a new weapon to lower skips and repossession.  It is a new GPS tracking device from Proconn and it is called The CUBE.  The new, credit card sized tracker is available through Proconn’s subprime automotive finance brand GoldStar GPS.

This technology could not be making it onto the market at a better time, consider the economic climate we are in and this quote from a business owner in the industry, ” … BHPH used car dealers [are] closing their doors all around me….”  Business all around are feeling their profit margins shrink and find themselves needing to run a much tighter ship.  GPS tracking has historically been able to provide this for all sorts of business in types of circumstances.

Why Use GPS Tracking In BHPH?

GPS tracking devices have been proven to be incredibly useful already in several similar applications. Probably the most similar use that I am aware of is in the theft recovery market. In particular, police have been very successful using GPS tracking bait cars to recover vehicles that are specifically designed to get stolen. BHPH GPS tracking works in much the same way.

But what does this doe for a BHPH car business owners? Here are a few benefits:

  • Lower the cost of repossession by saving time – If you know exactly where a vehicle in need of repossession is, you save tons of time in the search process. You can find the car in just minutes and have it towed away in no time at all.
  • Get a grip in your assets management – another major issue that some owners face is having too many cars out and not enough resources to keep track of them all. Once you reach a certain number of vehicles on the road you need some help keeping track of them all and a GPS system is just the thing the doctor ordered.
  • Increase your loan portfolio with less risk – The obvious outcome of the two reasons mentioned above is that you can increase the number of cars that you lend at a reduced risk to yourself and your bottom line. This means that the company can bring in more money, which is always a good thing.

The Cost of The CUBE and GoldStar GPS Tracking

Now the question remains, how much does all this cost? The short answer is that it depends. There is no cost mentioned anywhere on their website and a Google search did not generate any results.

This is to be expected since most business-to-business deals are negotiated. You can certainly contact GoldStar GPS for more information on their pricing structure.

GPS Tracking Features

The CUBE GPS Tracking DeviceWhat is clear on the company’s website are all the features that come with their GPS vehicle monitoring system. Here is a quick run down of some of the feature that this car recovery system sports:

  • Daily Location Report – You will automatically be given the location of the vehicle that you own at least once a day.  This is a “free” location check and will not count against the total number of locates you can make in a given month.  The information is also stored to create a vehicle history so that you can easily get an idea of where the vehicle has been while out of your possession.
  • Stop Report – Another way to get information on your vehicle is to set up stop reporting.  Once a device is no longer in motion for a specified period of time the device will send the location to you so that you can know where the vehicle is making stops.
  • trakSMS™ – This is a wonderful feature for the The CUBE GPS tracking device.  It is a way for a user to remotely control certain aspects of the vehicle’s GPS tracker.  With a simple text message from any text capable cell phone you can find out the speed, direction, and address of the unit as well as have the ability to lock or unlock the doors  and to cut the engine.  How would a person evading repossession like that!
  • Warning Buzzer – This feature lets car owners send a buzz to car users letting them know that a payment is due soon.  If payment is late, dealers can then disable the vehicle.  Fear is a great motivator to get payments in on time.
  • Real-Time Alerts and Notifications – The GoldStar GPS tracking system lets you set up custom alerts that will notify owners of when the car is on the move or whether or not the car has traveled outside one of the six owner generated GeoFences.  This is great when you think a customer may be trying to skip town with your car.
  • State-of-the-Art Mapping and Imaging – This vehicle tracking system utilizes the latest and greatest in GPS tracking software user interfaces.  You can either use Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth to see the units location in a wide variety of views (road map, satellite, or hybrid).

This is a well rounded device that is relatively easy to install and incredibly powerful for business owners looking to improve their profit margins and ensure the safety of their business by keeping tabs on their assets. If you have never though about using a car GPS tracking device for your BHPH car business then now is the time.

Police Use GPS Tracking To Make Bait Cars More Effective

Car theft is a huge problem in the United State. According to some reports, every 25 seconds there is a car somewhere being stolen, with the majority of the thefts occurring in metropolitan areas. This is all about to change as police are getting savvy to emerging technologies and employing GPS tracking devices in specialized bait cars designed to nab would be criminals in the act. How far do you think a thief is going to get with the watchful eyes in the sky peering down on them? Police in cities all across America know that they will not get far.

While the practice of using bait cars is certainly not new, the recent integration of several different technologies together has made them much more effective. Things like real time GPS tracking as well as a few other features generally used in a fleet management context, like remote engine shut off, are now being employed to help police track down bait cars once they have been stolen and nab the suspects. Also, hidden cameras installed inside the vehicle make sure that police are able to gather solid proof that the person they apprehend is in fact the person that toke the car.

As you might suspect, these bait cars are very helpful for police trying to reduce automobile theft. There are four things that are particularly helpful for the police:

  1. Reduce cost associated with operating a bait car sting – In the past, whenever the police would try and use a bait car technique they would always have to have an officer present around the vehicle to make sure that when the car was taken it could be easily tracked and recovered.  Since these vehicles can sit for days without any action, the police would “waste” precious tax payer dollars watching a car.  Now that GPS tracking systems have been installed in these vehicles  the police can know whenever the automobile is on the move, dispatching the closest unit to the scene to take care of the situation.  Once the squad car comes onto the scene the dispatcher can turn off the engine of the bait car and the suspect can be easily apprehended.  This saves metropolitan governments tons of money since they can use existing resources in the field, resources which they are already paying for.
  2. Increase effectiveness in tracking down suspects because of the GPS tracking device – As was mentioned in the previous point, having the GPS coordinates of the stolen vehicle is a very useful for tracking it down and recovering the vehicle.  By using real time GPS tracking for cars, the police will be able to monitor the vehicles movements and capture it on their own terms.  Perhaps they want to wait on the car to see if it taken to a chop so that they can crack down on the larger criminal ecosystem that runs in hot cars – no problem, they can let this happen with confidence knowing that they will know the location of the vehicle at any moment.
  3. Generate an amazing conviction rate – According to one insurance provider involved in these GPS tracking bait cars, Nationwide, the conviction rate is 98 percent for suspects picked up in connection with their use.  That is excellent.
  4. Reduce the number of car thieves – One of the consequences of such a high conviction rate is that less crimes are occurring in cities that use these high tech techniques.  For example, Las Vegas, Nevada has seen an amazing 44 percent reduction in the number of car thefts after just two years of using GPS tracking to recover the stolen vehicles.  Another city, Charlotte, North Carolina, has seen a 20 percent reduction in just one year of use.  This leads me to believe two things about this technique.  The first is that the longer this technique is used the larger the drop in car thefts will be.  The second is that using GPS tracker equipped bait cars is effective because it nabs repeat offenders, taking them off the street and behind bars.  Since only a few thieves are responsible for a large potion of theft this is a very effective tool at reducing the number of thefts in the future.

When police use GPS vehicle tracking they are very effective at convicting criminals, reducing costs, and running a more effective and efficient government.

But this type of tracking is certainly not without its hazards.  The one main thing that could seriously inhibit the polices use of bait cars are GPS tracking blockers.  If a criminal were to use this technology the police would be unable to locate the car.  If they were then to use some sort of cell phone or radio jammer as well then the police would also not be able to shut off the car remotely.  The criminals would win and the police would be out a very expensive tool in the fight against crime. Luckily, many are not aware of GPS blockers or how to effectively use them.

This is another clear example of the good that governments using GPS tracking can accomplish.  Do you think that this is a valid use of GPS tracking by a government agency?  Should the police be limited in doing this?  Is it an appropriate use of tax payer dollars?

How To Use GPS Car Tracking Systems

There are many different uses for GPS car tracking systems.  How you decide to use this technology and for what purpose is almost entirely case specific.  There are some things about this technology that do transcend your particular use of it, namely, that the device is going to be using the Global Positioning System to determine its location through the process of trilateration and that the device will either store this data locally (a data logger) or will send this data to a third party (a real time GPS tracker).  Once this data is ready to be processed, users will then interact with their GPS coordinates through a map interface that is going to resemble the ever popular Google Maps.

Each tracking company is going to provide certain features or UI bells and whistles that might appeal to certain submarkets of individuals looking to use a GPS car tracking system.  For example, a tracking system designed to monitor teen drivers is going to differ from a system designed as a theft recovery system even though the same fundamental process is going on in the actual GPS tracking device and in the GPS software behind the scenes.  But because the information that end users want is going to be different the different companies generally tailor their products for certain purposes.

What follows is a listing of some of the more common areas where a person may want to use a car tracking system, with each area having a few tips on how to best make use of GPS tracking to get the most out of the system.

Track a Teen Driver

When it comes to driving, one of the most important things for a parent with a teen driver to do is to make sure that they are correctly and safely operating the vehicle.  You often spend hours with your teen showing them how to drive properly, how to obey the speed limit, how to make safe lane changes, and how to maneuver the various hazards that driving throws at you.  Your efforts are painstaking and appear to produce a lot of results.

Little do you know, however, that once your teen is out driving alone or with their group of friends they turn into an entirely different driver.  They are reckless, risk takers who live in the moment without thinking about the potential consequences of their actions.  They get a little hot headed and that is very dangerous.

GPS tracking can be particularly helpful in assisting a parent both in determining their teen’s driving habits when they are not around and in monitoring their progress so they can discipline their teen’s driving appropriately.

But how can one use a GPS car tracking systems more effectively when tracking their teens?  Here are some ideas:

  • Make sure your teen is aware of the tracking device.  It won’t act as a deterrent to bad driving habits if the teen does not know that it exists.
  • Set very clear guidelines for how your teen should be driving the car as well as the rewards and punishments associated with good and bad driving.  Honest and open communication works best for teenagers and for parents, that way if you have to bring the hammer you can point to your conversations and show that you really meant what you said when you talked about the family driving rules.
  • Monitor your teen’s driving in small bits each day.  If you wait until the end of the month to look at the driving data then you will have to sift through 30 days of driving to find out if any rules have been broken.  It is much better to spend 5 minutes going over the GPS tracking software than it is to spend 3 hours at the end of the month doing it.
  • Get a real time GPS tracking device.  These are superior pieces of technology when compared to simple data loggers.  While real time trackers do generally have battery issues, this can easily be overcome by hard wiring the device to run off of the car’s power supply.  You will appreciate the ability to know where your teen is at any given moment of the day when they are using the car.

If you want to track your teen but want to do so very cheaply then you might want to consider going with a cell phone as your tracking device.  These powerful gadgets can easily be outfitted with some free GPS tracking software, making it some of the cheapest GPS tracking around.  You might not get a full fledged GPS car tracking system like you would if you went with a more commercial package – but GPS data is GPS data and you should be able to figure it out.

Monitor a Wayward Spouse

Another important use of car tracking systems is to help spouses find out the truth.  It is very sad some spouses cheat on one another (in my opinion this should never happen, but it does require a lot of explaining and now it not the place).  What makes it even worse, is that the cheating is often ongoing and done in secret – all the while the cheater is acting normal.  This can put the spouse who is being cheated on in danger of contracting various diseases in addition to being an incredible emotional and psychological blow.

As I have mentioned before, it is perfected acceptable for a spouse to track their spouse with GPS.  I don’t see it as any violation of trust and it certainly isn’t wrong.  Now you can do evil with GPS tracking, but that doesn’t mean that the actual act of tracking was wrong in an of itself.

For those that want to use GPS tracking to see if a spouse is cheating you might want to consider the follow things:

  • Get a covert vehicle tracking device.  Chances are that if you are going to be tracking a potential cheater then you want to do so in a way that will not let them know that you are tracking them.  There are plenty of small, highly portable GPS devices out on the market so you will have your pick. I would probably recommend getting a data logger since these generally let you track for much longer periods of time than a real time tracker would normally allow (weeks instead of days).
  • Be secretive. This not only goes for the GPS car tracking device you purchase, but also in how you go about installing the device, retrieving it, and monitoring your spouse’s activity. When you install the device do so at night or when the car is parked in a secluded location, like a garage. Retrieving the device should follow a similar pattern. Also, when you look at the tracking data on your GPS tracking software be sure that you hide your tracks. This will involve deleting any web browsing history that your session logged as well as the cookie that your log in created. This isn’t absolutely necessary, but is good if your spouse has a habit of checking internet histories.
  • Tell a friend about it. The last thing you want to do is keep the fact that you suspect your spouse of cheating and have installed a tracking device in their car a secret. Don’t just tell any friend, but only hold a very reliable, tight lipped friend with the information. That way you can release some of the burden from your own soul and get some input on how to go about doing things.
  • Don’t do something evil with the knowledge. Once you find out the truth on whether or not your spouse is cheating you need to make good decisions with that knowledge. If you find that they are cheating tell a close friend and get immediate help. The blow to your soul can be very grave indeed and you are going to need to do a lot of healing.  Just don’t make matters worse by doing something illegal, immoral, or dangerous to yourself.

In most instances, creating your own spouse tracking GPS is not going to be an option – so you might expect to shell out a good chunk of change to pull off this type of tracking effort. I think a safe estimate is anywhere between $150-$250 for the tracker.

Improve Fleet Performance

Another important use of GPS systems for cars is in the role of fleet tracking and management.  Since this is mostly a commercial application it is probably going to be outside the scope of most of the readers here, so suffice it to say that businesses of that employ commercial fleets of one shape or another can benefit significantly from having one of these devices employed.

Generally speaking, they offer a functionality and features that are hard to find in the consumer market and are designed to create efficiencies that most normal people are unconcerned about – like cutting down idling time, optimizing routes, and monitoring driver activity.  As such, I will keep my recommendations short and few:

  • Plan how to implement the system before you make your purchase.  If you need to talk with several different providers to see how they recommend you employ their system.
  • Roll out the plan to your employees in a non-confrontational manner.  They need to know that this system is going to improve the business, not be used to watch employees like Big Brother.
  • And finally, use common sense in how you move your workers toward an effective use of the fleet tracking system.  Not everyone is going to be gun ho about it at the beginning so make sure changes happen slowly but deliberately so that they can see the improvement first hand.

Fleet managers and business owners should really consider using car tracking systems since they have been shown to significantly increase the efficiency of fleets, reduce costs, and increase revenue.

Theft Recovery

Finally, the last category under which most GPS car tracking devices fall is theft recovery.  While it is certainly not the most common use of GPS in cars, it certainly is an effective one. Just imagine how useful it would be if you actually suffered a stolen vehicle?

You wake up and realize that your car is no longer in your driveway.  A small, sudden panic slow crescendos until your heart is beating so loud you can hardly hear yourself think.  A million thoughts scream in your mind until one voice calms them all.  “Check where your car is online.”

You race to the computer and log in to your online GPS car tracking system.  In the time it takes to boot up your computer and start using Mozilla Firefox you have an exact location for your car.  You immediately phone the police who thank you for your GPS coordinates and let you know that they are going to recover you car.

A few hours later, the police have recovered your vehicle and apprehended a suspect in relation to your car theft – all thanks to GPS car tracking.

Here are some tips to make sure that you understand how your GPS auto tracking device is going to work best for you and your theft recovery hopes:

  • Install the tracking device in a hidden location near the back of the car.  The reason I like the back of the car is that it is often not searched by thieves and might be out of range of any GPS tracking blocker that a thief might try to use.
  • Make sure that the battery is charged or is hard wired to the vehicle’s power supply.  The later option is a little more difficult if you do place your tracking device at the back of the car, so some might want to put the tracker at the front of the car anyway.
  • Use a reliable service.  Lojack is probably the biggest name out there when it comes to theft recovery systems, but there are certainly others.

A short word about home made theft recovery systems: it doesn’t seem wise to me.  There are a lot of things that could go wrong with a homemade GPS system, so making sure that you have all your ducks in a row is super important.  It is certainly possible, I just wouldn’t recommend it.

Conclusion

GPS car tracking systems are going to be the norm in a few years or in a decade or two.  This is without question the way that auto makers, cell phone companies, and personal GPS navigation device manufaturers are taking the consumer market.  As this happens we are going to see even more ways to use this new, fun, and innovative technology to make our lives better and create a more verdant future.

Car Tracking, Google, Cell Phones, And Real Time Traffic Updates

The folks over at Google are turning car tracking into a public service, using the data in an impressive effort to provide traffic information for free to users of their popular Google Maps for Mobile cell phone application. This is a great leap forward in providing useful and reliable information to users all over the globe, but especially in the United States. Being able to get traffic information for free on your GPS enabled cell phone is just another reason to begin ditching those cumbersome and increasingly obsolete GPS navigation devices.

Many traditional GPS navigation devices end up charging you for a traffic service – $50 for a year of MSN direct on one device or $90 for a lifetime subscription on one device (Some devices give you traffic updates for free, like the Garmin Nuvi 265WT). If you turn this into a monthly charge, most people are going to end up spending an additional $4 a month to get traffic. This is no comparison when it comes to the free, real time traffic updates provided by Google.

Another advantage to the Google data is that it is crowdsourced. Crowdsourcing is when a task is given to a large crowd of individuals to perform. Generally speaking, crowdsourcing is a great way to gather information. Google is able to do this because they have thousands of customers who currently run their free cell phone tracking application Google Maps for Mobile. All a current user has to do to make their information available for Google to use is turn on the GPS location sharing feature on their phone. This will add your phone’s speed and location to the massive amounts of data already being sent to Google by users all over the roadways. The more information they have, the more reliable their traffic data is going to become.  GPS tracking for cars is now becoming useful for everyone.

Now why is Google doing this? Is it just out of the kindness of their own heart that they are making this car tracking information  available to anyone who wants to use it, free of charge?

Google Maps Real Time Traffic DataWell, there are a couple different things that this Internet giant could by trying to accomplish by using cell phones to track cars and get accurate traffic information. The first is the most obvious: they want to improve their current product and services. Google Maps is a wildly popular web application and is becoming just as popular on mobile phones. If they can increase this application’s usefulness they can solidify their user base and create lots of Google Maps evangelists. This could cut into the market share of other online map providers like MapQuest and MSN.

Since cell phone make great car tracking devices it is pretty obvious why they chose to leverage their existing cell phone user base instead of creating a brand new Google GPS navigation unit.  That just wouldn’t make any sense for the long term since car navigation units are on the decline (or at least so say I).

This strategy also has a long term objective as well, creating Google brand loyalty. That way, when they produce something new – like the Android cell phone – they already have a customer base that will become interested in their new product offering. In fact, the Android cell phone is probably going to receive a marked boost from Google having a strong presence in the world of mobile applications. While it is my understanding that this GPS enabled cell phone is not doing that great in terms of market share, I’m sure that Google is in this one for the long haul.

So it would appear that in addition to wanting to help out there users they are also are interested in making some money. This is obviously going to the be goals of a corporation so users should not be too concerned about this fact.

There are, however, a few things that you will want to look out for if you are going to be letting Google take a peak at your GPS coordinates and your speed information. The first is you will want to make sure that Google is going to watch out for your privacy. If you want to find our more information about how they plan on keeping your private data safe I recommend that you read their official announcement made here: The bright side of sitting in traffic: Crowdsourcing road congestion data

For those that don’t feel like jumping to another page I will sum up their privacy measure. They are as follows:

  • Google makes all phones anonymous, so no one using the data will know for certain that your phone is the one providing the traffic information
  • They also will delete your starting point and your destination point from their database, essentially crippling someone wishing to use the info to know exactly where you came from and where you are going – even Google
  • Another layer of privacy protection is expected in the sheer volume of traffic data they plan on collecting, if you are one of a hundred motorists handing over your personal information to Google then it stands to reason you will be harder to find

This is all important information given the fact that some companies (*cough*Palm*cough*) like hijack your personal information, including your phones unique identifier, and send it back to Palm HQ with their unwanted cell phone tracking software.  Companies need to take privacy concerns seriously if they want user to entrust their data to them.

The second key consideration is how sending all this data is going to affect your data plan.  This is probably the more important of the two considerations since this is mainly going to be about money for a lot of people.  I have not extensively tested this, so take it with a grain of salt, but I am assuming that if you are already using Google Maps for Mobile extensively and you are fine with your current data plan then you won’t have anything to worry about.  But if you push your data plan to its max with your current use then adding the load of sending your GPS coordinates to Google will probably push you over the edge.

For some people, this can mean hundreds of dollars depending on what your cell phone provider’s policy is with account overages.  This will turn your free real time traffic updates into fairly expensive traffic update.  But this is the problem with free GPS cell phone tracking.  If you can’t cover the expense of sending your data over the network then it isn’t going to be free.

In the final analysis I think that most people are going to benefit a lot from this type of data.  According to one recent report released by Navteq, a major supplier of GPS maps, people spend 18% less time when they have access to real time traffic updates.  If you extrapolate that data over the course of an entire year that will turn into 4 whole days of time saved.  Now that is car GPS tracking that I can live with.

But is Google going to succeed with this car tracking system they have created or will it fail?  Are cell phones really the tracking device for cars that everyone thinks they are or will the data provided by the modern marvels fail to live up to expectations?  Only time will tell for certain, but I for one am extremely optimistic.

Yet Another City Considers GPS Bus Tracking

GPS bus tracking can be extremely useful for municipalities and public transportation authorities who want to provide top notch service to their customers while at the same time equipping their fleet with superior vehicle awareness and maintenance capabilities.  Several major cities have already adopted this type of tracking to help provide useful information to their users and to aid fleet authorities to better understand the condition of each and every bus in the fleet.  Some notable cities that use one type of bus tracking or another are Washington D.C, Chicago, and San Francisco – with both Boston and New York City considering some form of tracking for future use on some of their bus lines.

There are several benefits that users of these systems list.  Probably the first thing that users love about a publicly available tracking system for buses is that they provide users with more time.  When a user wants to catch a bus to head off to work, to school, or just out for a night on the town then they would normally just go to the bus stop around the scheduled arrival time of that specific bus.  If a bus is late (or heaven forbid it is early) then you have to wait for the bus to arrive – this could take 5 minutes or it could take half and hour in the case of the early bus.

But if the bus is being tracked with GPS then you can be certain of the buses location at any given point in time.  Some bus tracking systems, like NextBus, even employ a complex arrival time algorithm that will give you an estimated time of arrival for your bus given current traffic conditions.  Equipped with this knowledge, bus riders can make more informed decisions about then they should head out to catch the bus resulting in more time spent at home with the family or more time spent at work earning money for their family.

Another benefit often cited by users of these systems is that they help them feel safer.  I suppose that this has a lot to do with minimizing the amount of time that they spend waiting for the bus.  This is probably very useful for women who might feel at risk if they need to catch the bus in a less than stellar neighborhood or who don’t like being outside in the dark very long by themselves.  The less time they can stand waiting around for a bus the safer they feel when using the bus to get from place to place.

For those cities that experience a rather rough winter, bus tracking systems also help people stay out of the cold.  Again, this all goes back to being able to make better decisions about when to go out and catch the bus that bus GPS tracking software give to users. If they were not able to know where the bus is then they could not decide when a good time to head out to catch it is. If they don’t know when to go out to catch it they begin to play it safe and head out well in advance of the scheduled time so that they can be sure to catch the bus that is going to take them where they want to go.

This type of bus real time tracking seems like the future to me. I can totally see a country 10-15 years from now where every major metropolitan area has its bus lines tracked with GPS. It is efficient, useful, and provides a great service to the public. Also, if cities could spread this type of real time tracking to more than just buses and somehow link up all their transportation services this could really help consumers in their effort to make use of the most efficient transportation available to them. People wouldn’t want to travel by car when they could use the laser like precision of public transportation.

The only way we are going to get away from the energy inefficient modes of transportation is by providing superior alternatives – and it seems like GPS tracking is one of the key components that can make public transportation superior to driving by car.

GPS Car Tracking Device’s Effectiveness Highlighted By Musician And His Lost Violin

What would you do if you lost something worth approximate $500,000 (£300,000) in a taxi cab? Well, a GPS car tracking device helped reunite one musician who lost his concert violin in a taxi cab that brought him home late one night after a long day of practice for his New York city debut. Tired and barely awake from his strenuous day of practice, the young violinists careless left the cab without grabbing his violin. Shocked and in a panic about the loss, he quickly realized his mistake and immediately called the police. The police were then able to contact the taxi cab service that brought the musician home and access the GPS car tracking log of the taxi that that brought the musician home. Thank God for technology and honest taxi drivers!

Here is a quick video of the musician, Hahn-Bin, telling his story on the Early Show. GPS tracking isn’t mentioned in the video, but it helps you get the gist of what went down.

This little episode really helps us understand some of the overall benefits that we can experience when we begin using GPS car tracking in a much larger scale. These benefits include:

Better customer service from service fleets.  GPS fleet tracking is often seen solely as something that will help companies better manage their own fleets and be more efficient in their routing capabilities.  It is no doubt that taxi cabs benefit a great deal from this ability to route the closest taxi to a call on the fly – it ensures that the company saves the most money on gas and can make more service calls, both of which will end up increasing the company’s revenue.

But what is often overlooked by many who want to use  fleet tracking is that it will also help them be better at serving their customers.  Would this taxi company have been able to track down the violin in less than 12 hours if they had not had real time car tracking devices installed in their cabs?  I doubt it.  It would have taken them forever to find the taxi that drove Hahn-Bin to his apartment because they would have had to rely on traditional method of finding the cab rather than on GPS tracking technology.  Hahn-Bin would have had to go down to the local police precinct and looked through a bunch of taxi driver photos and even then he might not have recognized his driver.

With GPS tracking this was all taken care of because all the cab company had to do was plug the pick up coordinates and the drop of coordinates into their GPS tracking software and the would have had the cab ID number of the car in question. Then all they had to do was get a hold of the cabbie and get the violin back into the hands of Hahn-Bin. Now that is great customer service brought about by GPS fleet tracking.

More accurate and effective law enforcement assistance. Another thing that this episode highlights is how much more effective the police can be when they have GPS assistance. Sure, it can also be a little scary when you start giving a government entity information like your GPS coordinates, but it can also be extremely helpful if those people are actually seeking your good and not your harm.

In this case, the police were able to respond in a very timely manner thanks to the GPS tracking device for cars installed in the taxi cab. Just imagine what type of good they could do if they also had the GPS coordinates of every one in a given city? They would be able to find out all the people who were in a 1 mile radius of a murder or other violent crime, helping them track down witnesses and gather information on suspects in the case. While information like this could also be used for evil and it is probably decades before such technology would even be possible, it sure would be a great way to reduce crime or at the very least punish criminals faster.

Increased honesty.  If people know that you can be very certain whether or not they are lying they will generally be much more truthful with you. When you have a GPS tracking device for a car installed in your personal vehicle you are probably going to be much more honest with someone when they ask you where you have been driving. When there is a high level of verifiability there is also a high level of honesty.

This is one reason why covert GPS vehicle tracking can be a mixed bag. Sometime it is necessary to help us understand what someone (maybe a spouse or a rebellious teen) is doings, but other times we would just rather have them stop being self destructive and be honest with us. I foresee that as GPS tracking become more prevalent in GPS cell phones and other portable GPS devices we will also see an increase in the level of honest that we have with other people in our lives. This honest is will make the whole world a better place.

These are just a few of the types of benefits that we can see when GPS car tracking devices begin to become even more prevalent in society.  Sure, there is still a long way to go, but this example of the returned violin is a very promising story if we are to develop into a society where GPS tracking is used for the greater good rather than as a tool in the hands of evil. We still have a long way to go before we can say that GPS tracking is safe, but I think that one day soon we just might be there.

Covert GPS Vehicle Tracking: Tips And Tricks On Making It Work

Sometimes, there is a need for covert GPS vehicle tracking. There just is. You might not like the fact that at any point someone could be tracking your movements with a GPS tracking device, but I think we can all agree that there are some instances where it is appropriate and permissible for this type of device to be installed in a vehicle. While we might not appreciate it if it were us being tracked, we definitely understand its use in variety of different situations by a handful of people.

For example, I think most people are going to agree that having a policeman install a GPS vehicle tracking device on a suspects car is going to be okay. We might disagree on whether this can be done without a warrant or it requires a warrant, but I think we all agree that the police should be able to do this.

Another area that might be a little more of a gray area for most of us is the use of covert tracking on our children and teens. While I personally believe that such tracking is well within a parents rights and responsibilities as a parent, I certainly don’t think that it is a very wise parenting decision in most circumstances. It just seems to me that other types of GPS tracking for teens would have a much better outcome than secret, covert tracking – but there are certainly circumstances where it might be a good idea to secretly track a teen. It is just not the norm.

Still more gray is the notion of setting up a covert GPS vehicle tracking system for a spouse or lover who you suspect of cheating. Of the two, I think most people would be most on the fence about tracking someone who is just a boyfriend/girlfriend – but even here I would suspect that the majority of people would find that this type of tracking is permissible as long as there is good reason to suspect them of cheating. This is especially true if the couple is physically intimate (which, I would suggest, should really only be done in the confines of a monogamous marriage relationship). If there is cheating going on (or even a suspicion of infidelity) in this type of relationship then I strongly encourage the person who suspects the cheating to discover the truth.

We have just outlined several situations in which it might be feasible to employ a GPS vehicle tracker covertly, so now it is time to discuss some of the different ways that we can make the most of our tracking device and find out the information we are seeking undetected by our target:

  1. Install the device in an accessible, yet hidden, location.  This could be inside a wheel well, under the back bumper, or even inside an unused glove box or storage bin inside the cab of the vehicle.  You obviously don’t want to put it on the dash of the vehicle like a navigation GPS as this will be a curious sight to the person that you are wanting to track covertly.  With the placement of the device you want to avoid detection at all costs.
  2. Install the device when you will be undisturbed by your target or by others.  If your target is about to leave in five minutes and it is 1 PM it is probably not the time to be under the wheel well of their car installing a GPS vehicle tracking device.  They will probably end up seeing you down there or notice the schmutz on your back and ask what it is that you were just doing.  This is bad as most people are terrible liars.  If they suspect that you are tracking them then you will never get the data that you need.
  3. Choose the type of tracking system that is going to best fit your needs.  Sometimes it is better to forgo real time GPS vehicle tracking for a safer data logger.  Why is a data logger safer?  It boils down to two words: battery life.  A lot of the real time trackers on the market have a dismal battery life when it comes to gathering information on a target vehicle.  One particular tracker, the Zoombak, will only let you have the device on for 5 days before the battery dies, and that doesn’t include a single position call!  Data loggers can often last weeks, providing you with a complete picture of a vehicles activity for extended periods of time.  Also, you have to retrieve the device to replace its batteries less if you go with a logging GPS vehicle tracking system – making it less likely that you get caught in the retrieval stage of your tracking effort.
  4. When retrieving the device follow the same procedure in point #2.  Remember, you don’t want to get caught with the data even after the tracking has been completed.  You want to be able to decipher the coordinates and there meaning before you confront your spouse, or your teen, or a suspect in a criminal investigation.

If you follow these steps carefully, taking special care in point #2 and point #3, then you should have no problem installing a GPS vehicle tracker covertly.  While your own personal experience with this type of tracking may vary, the use of covert GPS vehicle tracking is certainly legitimate and useful in certain circumstances.

Understanding Real Time GPS Vehicle Tracking

We are living in an increasingly complex world where we are constantly bombarded with massive amounts of information every day.  Our world is not so simple as it once was, and while technology can be a great assistance to us in our endeavors to understand the world around us it can also be a hindrance.  Some technology is better left undiscovered by those that would seek to use it, the complexity that it takes to understand its function being too much for some people.  Luckily, real time GPS vehicle tracking is not this type of technology.

It is relatively easy to understand, and can be reduced to overly simplistic terms extremely well.  Even thought it makes use of some the most complex and powerful technology that the 21st century has to offer, the actual function of the technology itself is easily intelligible and intuitive. You can understand real time tracking without having to have the smallest bit of technical understanding. It may appear to work “magically” to some people, but it can be relied upon in its “magic.” The information it provides is easily translatable, meaning that people of all positions and stations can understand what the GPS tracking system is communicating.

Real Time Vehicle Tracking Basics

Even though you don’t need to understand much about how a real time GPS vehicle tracking system works in order to get some benefit from it, it is still a good idea to try and understand the way this technology works so that we can better ascertain its limitations and costs. We need to be thoughtful consumers if the things we buy are to have the maximum amount of positive impact on our lives or our business.

With all things GPS, we should start with the Global Positioning Satellites that orbit the earth. There are over 20 of these satellites continuously transmitting data on a specific radiowave frequency that can be read by specialized receivers. The information contained in these transmissions is critical for how portable GPS devices are able to calculate their position. The data contained is the position of the satellite and the time that the transmission was sent.

Once a GPS device has received enough of these signals (3 signals from 3 different satellites) it is then able to calculate its position using a process called trilateration. What it does is it takes the know location of three or more objects, in this case the GPS satellites, and uses the known distance from these locations, which is calculated by taking the amount of time between when the GPS signal was transmitted and when it was “heard” by the GPS tracking device and then multiplying that time by the speed of the radiowave, to find out exactly where the GPS device you are holding is.  It is a little complicated when talked about this way, but it is actually quiet easy to understand when properly explained.

This video does a great job of communicating the basic principles of how a GPS device figures out its position (it is made for kids, but the information is great):

The acting in this film is, in a word, terrible, but the information contained within it is pretty informative if you ask me.

Now that we understand how a GPS device calculates its position we now need to understand what give real time GPS vehicle tracking its real time component. After all, such things as GPS navigation, golf GPS, and data logging GPS do not have a real time component to their GPS capabilities. So what makes real time GPS tracking real time?

The answer to this question is found in cell phone technology.  Once a GPS tracking device has figured out its location it needs to be able to communicate that data to a third party so that tracking can occur in real time.  Otherwise the device is just a simple GPS data logger.  While some GPS tracking systems also employ radio signals to transmit the data to a tracking unit (such as the Garmin Astro GPS pet tracking system), this is not the norm and is not really feasible for vehicle tracking applications.  GPS vehicle tracking depends on cell phone technology to transmit the data from unit to server where it can then be processed by GPS tracking software.

Because real time vehicle tracking depends on both GPS signals from above and on cell phone signals from below there are some limitations to its ability to track a vehicle.  One of them is that if they are obstructed from receiving a signal from the GPS satellite then they cannot be tracked.  While GPS receivers have grown considerably in strength over the last several decades, there are still some issues with being able to receive a signal in some conditions.  Extremely inclement weather, traveling under ground in a tunnel, or even navigating amidst tower sky scrapers can affect your GPS’s ability to get a lock on your location. A-GPS (Assisted GPS) tries to mitigate these problems by getting help from cell phone signals and has proven to be more accurate than simple GPS, but even that is not fool proof.

The second limitation for a real time GPS tracker is the need for a constant connection to the cell phone grid. If a device looses cell phone reception is no longer is effective at being a real time tracker. There are several things that could result in a signal being lost, but the most common are that the area is remote and has not access to cell phone towers or that the terrain interferes with the signal, like in a gully or ravine.

Another thing about relying on a cell phone grid is that you generally have to pay extra fees for using it. Most real time tracking systems are going to come with a monthly subscription fee that can run you anywhere from $9.99 to $50 depending on how many location requests you make or the capabilities of your providers GPS tracking software. This can be a real back breaker for those that have barely enough to fork out the considerable up front device purchase price.

But if you can stomach the expense and have a need for GPS vehicle tracking then adding a real time tracker to your repertoire is going to be very nice. They are very powerful at what they do, and if you plan on tracking a vehicle that mainly uses the urban landscape for its activities you should have no problem getting a real time, 24/7 picture of the vehicles activities. If you can hardwire the real time GPS vehicle tracking device to the car or truck then you should continuous tracking capabilities. This set up is particularly useful for fleet tracking, car tracking, and teen tracking.