The CEO of Trafficmaster seems to think that this is positive move for the company and will lead to the company being able to better capitalise on opportunities in their core areas.

As well as fleet tracking products they are also involved in anti theft tracking and navigation devices.

Although the company is British it generates 70% of its sales in the USA. This market is obviously much larger than the UK market as they have a larger number of businesses and vehicles on the road.

Fleet tracking products are particularly popular in the USA with fleet often having to cover larger areas than they do in the UK.

This latest takeover of a large vehicle tracking company is a sign that many businesses see fleet tracking and fleet management companies are a sound investment due to the potential growth in the market. Many believe fleet tracking products are not yet at their peak and further price reductions should help to increase the market penetration.

There is a vast and untapped market for vehicle tracking. The problem is that many companies do not realise the benefits that vehicle tracking systems can bring to their business. If vehicle tracking companies are to widen their scope of sales they need to educate the vast majority of companies with fleets.

There is another problem. Many companies that do realise the benefits are not convinced that the cost of tracking will be outweighed by the savings they can make. This is also a job of educating potential customers.

It is thought that over the next few years vehicle tracking will come down in price considerably and when it does this should help to increase the number of people who take up GPS tracking. Eventually it will become more of a commodity. Once this happens more and more people will get it and then it will become a trend and sale could rocket.

Until then the vast majority of fleets go un tracked and therefore are unaware of the huge potential tracking has to save money and make your business more profitable without making extra sales.

The value of a tracking system is in the software and data. Both of these are intangible assets which the lease company cannot repossess if the deal goes bad.

Yes some vehicle tracking companies offer pay as you go tracking, but it is more expensive and you are still required to pay some money up front for the tracking system. Something you don’t have to do when leasing a tracking system.

Some companies still sell their tracking systems purely via leases, but now many more lease underwriters are pulling out of the vehicle tracking market. With this happening it is becoming ever harder for vehicle tracking companies to find lease underwriters.

Some vehicle tracking companies underwrite their own lease deals, but usually only the bigger players can do this. Other companies use high risk brokers to underwrite their tracking systems, but this forces costs up and with tracking being a competitive market the tracking company usually has to absorb this cost meaning that their profit margins are made smaller.

They have already started adding them to Berlingos, Relay and Dispatch vans, but now they will be adding them to all their LCVs.

Now that Citroën have offer satnav and anti theft tracking as standard on all their LCVs it will be interesting to see if the other car manufacturers follow suit. Indeed the question is probably not if they do it, but when they do it.

This could set a new standard that other manufacturers follow and it could be good for the consumer as it will not only save them money on their insurance premiums, but could cut down the risk of their vehicle being stolen at all. If thieves know that vehicles are fitted with anti theft tracking as standard then they are much more likely to avoid stealing vans and other light commercial vehicles.

The only problem I do foresee is if criminals work out ways to disable the tracking systems. They will have to be made tamper proof or at least made so that they are hard to tamper with.

Although there has been considerable cut backs on the size of the fleet due to the introduction of vehicle tracking they have made better use of their existing fleet and have managed to grow and increase the quality of service.

This is a great example of what vehicle tracking systems can achieve. Lowering overheads is always a goal for the NHS and with vehicle tracking being so effective in this case, no doubt that vehicle tracking will be taken up by other trusts within the NHS.

Range Rovers, BMW M3s, Land Rover Defenders, Audi TTs, Porsche 911, Subaru Imprezas, Porsche Boxters and Audi Q7s are all cars in Trackers top 10 most stolen cars and this top ten has not changed a great deal although there are some movements in it. What has changed is the way they are stolen. Now more than ever cars are being stolen using the owners keys. In fact this method of stealing cars has gone up by 80% since last year.

The most common way to steal the owners keys is to break into the house and get hold of them this way. It has been known for thieves to also load the car up with a few expensive house hold items such as televisions, stereos and anything else which a high resale value and easy to sell. Although many of the more professional car thieves tend to stick to just stealing the car as this is their main objective.

London, Manchester and Essex are the places in the UK that suffer most from car crime.

Car theft is a big problem in the UK and anti theft tracking helps recover tens of millions of pounds worth of vehicles every year. Even if you have a cheaper vehicle it could be a target for car thieves as criminals look to steal cars which they can easily sell and these include more affordable cars such as older Fords and Vauxhalls.

With the new application for the iPhone will enable you to view it on your iPhone which will mean that you are now have the flexibility that you require wherever you are.

If you need to make operational decisions regarding your fleet you will have this information to hand to make an informed decision. You can also send instant messages to your drivers from your iPhone using this application.

The problem with it is you have to have an iPhone which is a little restricting. Maybe this will change. I certainly hope so as iPhone’s are expensive for what they are and there are other smart phones on the market which present better value for money. We shall see how things progress. Maybe they will extend this type of application to other smart phones if it is a success on the iPhone.

As we have discussed previously on VehicleTrackngSystems.org.uk this is due to the lack of commitment the customer s have to give when entering into a pay as you go vehicle tracking purchase,

Quartix agree and say that the pas as you go vehicle tracking product is particularly popular due to many clients being nervous of investing in a tracking product via leasing due to the number of telematics companies that have gone out of business over the past two years.

With Quartix’s pay as you go tracking you can opt out after the first three months which is leaves companies with no financial obligation and a great deal of flexibility if for any reason they would like to get out of the contract.

Pas as you go appears to be popular with not only small companies, but also large and medium sized operations as well.

They have released a poster and e-guidance campaign pack that fleet managers can order for free to advise them of the advantages of having vehicle tracking installed and how it can help increase the safety of your fleet by monitoring driver behaviour and driving styles.

Not surprisingly the pack is sponsored by a vehicle tracking company. The tracking company that has sponsored the pack is MiX Telematics. It’s wise move on their part as it will help to promote their products and increase sales.

It is true that vehicle tracking systems can help to increase road safety of fleet drivers. The reason is very simple, if someone knows they are going to get into trouble if they drive too fast or break and accelerate to hard then they are more likely to make an effort to drive more safely and slow down a bit.

The only technology capable of dealing with these problems is a GPS vehicle tracking system. A GPS vehicle tracking device fitted to an ambulance is capable of directing a vehicle can direct a crew to the scene by the fastest and least congested route. A GPS costumed device is also capable of sending the ambulance from the scene to the correct hospital that is best suited to treat patients injuries.

It is an unfortunately slow business in fitting and getting a GPS vehicle system up and running, but it is well worth it. In the long run it can save money by cutting down on wasted fuel searching for there destination, and more importantly saving lives.

The United Kingdom is quickly fitting all their ambulance services with GPS vehicle tracking systems, and hopes to have all their ambulance services equipped by 2015, whether they will be able to reach that target is yet to be seen.