Jan/Feb 2005

People using the RAC's breakdown recovery service can now elect to have the RAC service vehicle find them by tracking their mobile phone's location.

The service is being provided by Verilocation, one of the leading phone-based tracking service providers. Tests began in April last year, and now the scheme has been launched nationwide.

Normally mobile phones can only be tracked within a closed community of users, in which the holder of each unit has to give explicit permission for the tracking (usually by text message). The new RAC service avoids this complication by enabling staff at the RAC's contact centre to make a simple verbal request to allow the location fix.

Staff then enter the number via a Verilocation interface, and the system is said to come up with a best estimate of the unit's location "within seconds". Staff can then use maps and their own experience to estimate the disabled vehicle's exact location and instruct the attending recovery crew.

 

It seems details are not at this stage passed to mobile units as online map references, but that would be a logical extension of the process.

Verilocation says one of the factors that influenced its selection was its ability to integrate the new service into the RAC's iCAD (Intelligent Computer Aided Despatch) breakdown recovery system.