Dec 06/Jan 07

ALK Technologies is the latest satellite navigation specialist to make the big leap across into vehicle tracking and fleet management.

The company's new CoPilot Live FleetCenter package offers a range of features such as tracking, messaging and despatch, and allows fleet managers to see real-time status reports and historical tracking information over the Internet.

Unlike satnav suppliers using dedicated dash-mounted hardware, ALK has the advantage of supplying satnav that runs on mobile phones or Pocket PC devices, with their own inbuilt GPRS communication capability.

This means it has been able to integrate the tracking system without having to add new hardware. The satnav already relies on an external Bluetooth-linked GPS unit, and the tracking simply taps into the same system to establish the vehicle's position.

 

ALK is refreshingly open about its pricing. In basic form the subscription-based service costs between £4 and £12 per vehicle per month. For £4 you get multi-vehicle tracking, messaging and "destination-sending", while the top rate adds exception alerts and historical reporting.

These rates come on top of the basic cost of the CoPilot system itself, for which prices start at £170.

Fleet managers can view vehicle activities on Web-based digital maps, as well as using various reporting tools, which can provide geographical, speed or mileage details for individual vehicles. There is also provision to monitor groups of vehicles, filtering results by group, status or estimated time of arrival. Coloured symbols are used to group and display vehicles on the map.

Rival TomTom launched its TomTom at Work system in 2006, offering a comparable package of resources for business users. Previously, it was left to tracking systems suppliers to integrate satnav into their systems, but it looks as though the boot is beginning to shift to the other foot as the satnav suppliers realise that there is a potential extra market for them in offering basic tracking facilities.