GPS Vehicle Tracking

How Does GPS Vehicle Tracking Work

Global Positioning Systems originated from the US Military and it was many years before the US military allowed it to be used by the general public. Today GPS tracking systems are common place in businesses throughout the world. GPS tracking systems work through a combination of satellites to ascertain their location.  A GPS vehicle tracking system can be accurate to within ten metres.

The satellites communicate with the tracking device to give information about their location and the time of that location. The tracking device communicates with a minimum of at least 4 satellites. This information is then used by the tracking device to work out its location in longitude and latitude.

This information is then sent via the mobile phone network back to a central computer. This central computer or server as they are known as displays this information via a web application which can be viewed by the user by logging onto a secure website. Location is displayed on a map, often a Google Map application or Bing Map application.

For the tracking device to work it must have at least four satellites to communicate with. Any less than four satellites will mean that the tracking device will no longer be able accurately pinpoint the location.

GPS signals can be obstructed by metallic objects which reside near to the GPS antenna. For this reason it is important that this is taken into account when fitting the GPS antenna to make sure there are no metallic objects in its line of sight.

Also employees have been known to put foil around the GPS antenna to block its signal, but of course this stops it from working completely and managers and business owners will soon know that the tracking device has been tampered with.

GPS is not the only way of tracking vehicles, but at the moment it is the most accurate and fastest way of tracking a vehicle and therefore is the most widely used method by a long way.

The Popularity of GPS Tracking Systems

With mobile phone networks being so comprehensive in the UK and cheap to utilise, vehicle tracking has now become widely used in businesses with company vehicles as a way of lowering costs and keeping a tighter control over your mobile workforce.

If you need to know where your businesses vehicles are at all times you will have this ability with a GPS vehicle tracking system. The location is updated approximately every minute. You can also track more than one vehicle at the same time.

Finding out just what a vehicle does when it is not on company property is also part of the GPS vehicle tracking system package. Your business can get alerts if a vehicle is being used for non business related travel. If you think that your drivers aren’t following the speed limits while on duty you can find this out using a tracking system.

They really can deliver a great ROI and can save you money in multiple ways, increase productivity and increase company profits. This is why it is unusual for big businesses running fleets of vehicles to not have some sort of tracking system in place.