Fitting a vehicle tracker to your vehicle is important. However, fitting the best one is tricky since not every brand on the market delivers what it promises. Most people trust their vehicle experts to advise them on the ideal tracker to install in their vehicles. But, before even contacting your mechanic, a little research is important.
As the vehicle tracking market attracts many players, choosing the best one becomes increasingly tricky. Thus, it’s best to avoid rip-offs and falling into the hands of unreliable vendors. If you want to secure your vehicle and monitor and manage your fleet, this guide offers the best tips when choosing a car tracker device.
6 Qualities to Look when Choosing the Right Car Tracking Device
When choosing the right device for you, these are some of the most important things you should consider.
Ease of Customization
When buying tracking devices for vehicles, choose reputable providers that provide customization to ensure they fit your needs. The goal is to get relevant information about the vehicles that allow you to make informed business decisions that ultimately cut fuel expenses, time wastage and destructive driver behaviors.
Normally, car trackers come loaded with software that allows them to transcode the data from satellite and make it easy to read for users. Apart from interpreting data, the software allows the device to perform other functions like fleet management, mapping, geofencing and driver monitoring. Not all devices come with the mentioned software features. However, if a device lacks the desired features, customization with your GPS tracker services provider features should be easy.
Type of Tracking Device
There are different types of vehicle trackers for vehicles. Thus, choosing the ideal one for your car is paramount. The devices are defined by the technology they use to allow the tracking process. The available trackers are RFID, Near Infrared, Bluetooth, and GPS.
Although all these are suitable for tracking purposes, their functionality and capabilities differ. For instance, Bluetooth, near-infrared and RFID can only serve short-distance tracking. In contrast, GPS trackers are ideal for more robust tracking and advanced functions.
GPS tracking isn’t limited by region remoteness or other factors; thus, you can track your vehicle anywhere in the world. The technology uses satellites in space to calculate the precise position of your vehicle. Apart from accuracy, these GPS-enabled devices also integrate well with other technologies like maps to enhance the experience.
Active Vs Passive Tracking Ability
When shopping for a vehicle tracker, it’s important to know you can get an active or passive tracking device. Active trackers collect the location and other information and relay it to your computer or smartphone. Using active trackers enables users to get real-time information about their vehicles. Thus, you can view location, speed and other vital information as they happen.
Passive tracking devices don’t transmit live feed; they gather and store data for later analysis. These trackers don’t have the capabilities to transmit real-time information and, hence, don’t need sophisticated applications. However, it is worth noting that the logged data is downloaded and analyzed using software once needed.
Although passive trackers don’t transmit data, you can download the data using software. Analyzed data can reveal vehicle route, time and other aspects. Due to a lack of live transmission, passive trackers require huge memory to store data.
Ease of Use
These days, every gadget, regardless of how complex it might look, must be user-friendly. Specifically, electronic gadgets these days are equipped with a user interface to allow easy interaction between device and user.
Mostly, car trackers don’t have built-in displays, but you can access data through a phone or a web platform. The ability to easily access and operate your tracking system is one of the features you should look for when purchasing a tracker. The easier to use, the better the device.
Ease of Installation and Maintenance
Vehicle tracking devices are available in different forms, hardwired or portable. Hardwired trackers connect to the vehicle’s electrical system. Therefore, these devices are more reliable since they don’t lose power like rechargeable. When you decide to go for these trackers, it’s worth noting that they require a professional to fix.
Wireless or portable trackers are simple to fix since no hardwiring is needed. The devices plug into ODB ports where they get the power. Other portable devices are rechargeable, which means they need constant charging. This means the connectivity is lost if the device runs out of charge.
Besides installation, your tracking device should be easy to maintain. The ideal tracker should have minimal maintenance, especially regarding software updates. An automatic sotware update feature is even better since the device uses the latest software.
Reliability
Reliability is another aspect you must be keen on when buying a car tracker. Of course, you don’t want a device that keeps losing network malfunctioning. The market offers you a variety of devices ranging from cheap to expensive models.
There is a probability that the more expensive the equipment, the more reliable it is. To know how reliable and durable the tracker is, look for online reviews and testimonials. This will give you a hint on the quality and reliability of your potential tracking device.
Conclusion
While it might be your first time to buy a car tracker, you don’t want to buy a device that will not deliver to your expectations. Before choosing your vendor, doing a bit of research is important in ensuring you settle on the ideal equipment.
With this guide, buying your car tracker without doubts is possible.
