GPSVehicleFinder.ca - How do vehicle finders work?

Electronically Finding vehicles or tracking them requires a device that can obtain signals from the GPS system of orbiting satellites that are constantly circling the globe.

All GPS devices detect signals from at least 3 satellites to obtain information to calculate it’s position on the earth. Once it obtains the signals it then calculates where it is. That information is kept as a latitude and a longitude. In an onboard navigation device like a Garmin it looks up the Lat & Long in a data base stored in the unit and displays the information on a LCD display over a base map.

A vehicle finder does much the same thing, it gathers Lat & Long information, it transmits the information to a collection computer where it is stored until the customer asked for it to be displayed on a computer screen. There are two ways to transmit the collected data back to the collections computer or the DATA Centre, 1) is to transmit back over a satellite a very costly and very reliable way with coverage over all of North America or 2) now that there is cellular phone coverage over most of North America, over various cell networks.

The most affordable and currently most widely distributed type is # 2 the, receive satellite GPS information and send back the data to the data centre over cellular phone. The most cost effective method.

Of the affordable # 2 systems available today all use the above method to find and track vehicles.

Where they differ widely is in the internal components, the least expensive to buy, use the least expensive components (usually assemblies manufactured in Asia) then cobbled together into a cheap housing. Stamped as tier own and sold to customers. The better devices are engineered designed and programmed to operate optimally on North American cellular providers systems and attention is paid to the quality of the GPS receive antennas used. The old adage you get what you pay for applies here as it does in many of today’s electronics purchases.

The other area that is very important is the BACKEND The data collection computers that receives data from thousands of units, constantly. This is one area that you the customer can not measure or evaluate well. Normally the company that has been in the business for the longest time has most likely done the most to develop a strong robust backend with plenty of capacity to do the job today and allows them to add lots of new users in the future. Usually the same company will have a clean and easy to use web interface (the screens you see on your computer) with lots of flexibility that you as a users can access to manage your assets or your fleet.

The cost area that varies the most are the ongoing costs, The rule of thumb hear is; lower hardware cost higher ongoing costs. There are a number of ways to charge, cost per logon, cost per track, monthly fees, annual fees, limiting access then charging for adding options (similar to the telephone company charging for caller ID & call waiting) I’m sure there are others methods that I am not aware .

In general all the various companies offerings wok the same, in reality there are vast differences, this is most evident in the number of failed tracking companies that have come and gone over the last decade, most had a good idea and a good product but they didn’t have the people or the resources to build a system that could properly support the units sold.

Our company has been in the business for 13 years and has more than 500,000 devices in service today and is adding nearly 1500 a day. A considerable reinvestment in the company by improving the backend, the user screens, the device suppliers and customer service as well as merging with competitors demonstrates our commitment to providing a best in class offering for our existing and new customers. We provide full service GPS finders for; personal use, lenders services and fleet management. We are most interested in providing our products to Lenders wanting to keep track of their assets, Car dealers doing in house financing, service companies with field workers that they need to manage(Fleet customers) We know our business and we know it will help you and save you money.

Prepared and written by: Andrew Gubbels

Further information available from:

GPSvehiclefinder.ca
Phone: (705) 345-4505
Email: andy.gubbels@gmail.com