Tracking Auto Thieves With GPS

Fleet managers work in a wide range of different industries, with different business plans, and with different types of vehicles. And yet, there is one thing on which all fleet managers agree; losing a vehicle is bad. Very bad.  This is why fleets of all sizes look to invest in a smart fleet tracking system.

Recovering  stolen vehicles remains one of the most important uses of live GPS tracking. Police can literally follow the missing car or truck in real time and move in to make an arrest as soon as it stops. Without this technology, police seldom recover vehicles still in one piece, let alone with the cargo still on board.

There are plenty of other reasons to invest in GPS fleet tracking, and vehicle recovery is, of course, a benefit fleet managers hope they never actually need—but the idea that the technology can be used this way is not just an educated guess.

A pool maintenance company lost a van full of dangerous chemicals, some of which could become weapons in the wrong hands. GPS tracking got the van and its contents back safely and quickly.

A big rig in Florida vanished overnight. The owner had lost vehicles to theft before and did not want to do so again. Fortunately, the truck had a hidden GPS transponder. He called the police but decided not to wait. He tracked the truck himself and chased the thieves away as they started to remove the wheels.

When a limo company’s luxury vehicle turned up missing, the owner and the authorities used GPS tracking to follow the car through three different jurisdictions. Because the device was well-hidden (not even the owner knew where it was) the thieves could not turn the tracking off, the way they could have disabled an alarm. The car was recovered quickly by authorities and returned to its owner.

Without tracking, a case that crossed so many jurisdictional lines could have taken a long time to solve.

Being able to recover a vehicle and its contents quickly translates into lower equipment replacement costs over time, better service to customers (since theft does not interfere with business as much), and possibly even lower insurance costs. And if crime no longer pays quite so well, maybe there will be less theft in the first place?