May/June 2004

FleetOnline.net, one of the original providers of mobile phone-based tracking, has added a scheduled polling option to its service, allowing businesses to track mobile users without logging on to the service on every occasion, so long as users' phones are switched on. They can select which phones to track, and set the frequency of polling.

FleetOnline vice president Roelof Derickx says the service has been introduced in response to requests from users. "Many users, especially transport and service customers, would like to see a trace of where their mobile workforce is by locating them regularly rather than having to log on," he says.

A classic implementation is one by a company called Open Systems Help, which is involved in setting up a courier business. "The scheduled polling is great. I can leave it to get on with the tracking for me," says company's Neil Adamson. "I now have an audit trail of what's been going on."

FleetOnline.net allows users to trace the current location of a mobile phone over the Internet, displaying it on a street-level map. Each location instance costs around 20 pence.