Friday 16 April 2010

There are two distinct types of vehicle tracking

Vehicle tracking also know as GPS  vehicle tracking, GPS Tracking or Satellite Tracking is a major part of many vehicle telematics solutions.  GPS Vehicle Tracking is technology which enables the user to remotely locate and track the movements, status and behaviour of cars, vans or heavy goods lorries.

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.  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.
vehicle tracking cartoonA.V.L (Automatic Vehicle Location)

Automatic Vehicle Location technology is predominately used  when applying vehicle tracking to fleet or driver management solutions. 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.
The use of Automatic Vehicle Location is given in the following scenario;  A car breaks down by the side of the road.  The roadside recovery company has equipped its fleet with GPS Vehicle Tracking.  It has several vehicles operating in the area.  Without needing to call each driver to check his location the dispatcher can use his Vehicle Tracking System to pinpoint his nearest vehicle and assign it to the new job.  If you were to incorporate, in addition to GPS Vehicle Tracking, 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.

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.
Events activated Vehicle Tracking 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.

Regular topic and content updates are available here or shown now in full over at What are Vehicle Telematics and Vehicle Tracking? on the UK Telematics Online website.

2 comments:

  1. GPS car tracking system is really very helpful, especially for companies with company cars. With car tracking system, they can easily monitor where exactly the car is located, the route, if it's heading to unnecessary stops and all.

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  2. Automatic Vehicle Location technology is used when applying vehicle tracking to fleet or driver management solutions where as Events activated Vehicle Tracking technology is used when applying vehicle tracking to vehicle security solutions.

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