November 2002

A comprehensive upgrade has been announced to the Communicator fleet management system from Tracker, bringing refinements and enhancements in almost every aspect of its operation.

Particularly noteworthy is the fact that Communicator II now uses the GPRS mobile data system, providing an always-on link that allows more frequent positioning updates - yet has enabled the company to lower its "polling" charges.

The on-board unit now has dual-band GSM capability, allowing it to operate on any of the UK's four main mobile phone networks. And the introduction of higher-performance Trimble 12-channel GPS positioning technology is said to have made the tracking function 50 per cent quicker.

Security has been given special attention. A built-in motion detector allows monitoring of any unauthorised movement, even if the vehicle is out of GPS range. A high-speed odometer input also helps monitor movement, while a battery backup interface indicates if the main battery has been stolen. A neat feature called "ignition faking" senses alternator voltage levels to decide whether the engine is running, rather than just relying on checking if the key has been turned.

 

The whole unit is now attached to the vehicle behind an anti-tamper bracket.

Tracker is claiming a breakthrough in trailer management as a result of an association it has formed with trailer braking equipment manufacturer Haldex. Faults are monitored and even anticipated by the Haldex system, and the data along with the trailer ID is passed to TRACKER Communicator via a CAN interface.

Connectivity has been enhanced significantly. An extra serial interface has been added to allow the system to monitor more on-board vehicle functions at the same time, and there is also a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface, making Communicator compatible with "plug-and-play" devices such as digital cameras and keyboards. An enhanced 4-20mA analogue port has been provided for connecting to peripherals such as fuel and oil-level indicators. Data can now be stored on a Multimedia card.

Recently Tracker upgraded the office-based interface to its fleet management system by introducing the Andes Streets range of raster mapping, which was supplied by Kingswood MapMechanics. This allows users to zoom through seven different levels of mapping, from whole country down to street level, and is supported by Meridian 2 1:50,000 vector street-level map data from Ordnance Survey. Tracker says it can now pinpoint vehicle locations to an accuracy of 5 metres for 90 per cent of the time.

Tracker Communicator costs around £34 per vehicle per month, including a fixed-price running cost.

Tracker was established in 1993, and has supplied well over 350,000 vehicle units altogether. Lately it has been delivering around 4,000 units a month.