Modern day asset tracking and car protection

No matter what you're driving, there's always a risk of theft - classic and supercar owners know exactly why thieves target their vehicles, while people with more budget choices often end up targeted by criminals looking for inconspicuous vehicles. The police have gotten pretty good at bringing back stolen vehicles nowadays, with around half of stolen cars coming back to their owner eventually.

That's a better recovery rate than you'll see for most stolen goods, but it's really not a number I'd gamble on. Once you consider how long it takes to bring some vehicles back you'll realise just how dangerous it can be to leave your car without the protection it needs.

Asset trackers are built to stop thieves by signalling a stolen vehicle's location, usually using GPS signals and computer software for relatively simple and low-cost tracking. GPS-based trackers are a great way to defend your car against the average thief, but there's a whole group of professionals against who that kind of tracker won't have much of an effect at all.

If you've ever tried to use satnav in a tunnel (or at all, really), you'll know how easy it is for a GPS signal to get cut out accidentally. Groups of thieves generally won't have much of a problem stopping your GPS tracker from working and making your vehicle essentially unrecoverable - they'll end up finding and removing your tracker. You'll pretty regularly see gangs of thieves targeting particular cars for international clients, essentially stealing on a commission. As you might expect, once your car is taken overseas there's pretty much zero chance of recovery.

Thankfully GPS asset trackers aren't the only products available on the market. There's a couple of ways to defend vehicles against anything the average thief is going to try. Most pro thieves use GPS blockers during the initial theft and end up storing cars underground until they can be worked over entirely to remove trackers. The CanTrack asset tracker is built using a set of signals that aren't vulnerable to blocking and which still work in pretty much any location, so you can actually track your car back down (with their recovery team, not by yourself).

Most trackers need some kind of external power source with the average GPS device getting wired straight into a car's power. That might seem like a pretty good start for security but when faced with experienced thieves it turns out to be a liability. There's a relatively limited range of areas where GPS trackers can be placed while still working, so thieves will absolutely find them.

Again, as an actual anti-theft asset tracker the CanTrack device is built to avoid this vulnerability. It's powered by a long lasting internal battery so it can be stuck pretty much anywhere. The device is pretty tiny so it's really not particularly hard to hide as long as you're not just sticking it in the usual GPS spots (under the bonnet, in the wheel arches). It's pretty pricey, but it's obviously giving a fair bit more protection than cheaper devices.

All in all, a move away from GPS-based asset tracking seems like something of a certainty. Rising technological adoption by pro thieves has made a fair few security features obsolete over the years and with GPS blockers constantly getting cheaper, I think we're close to seeing a complete change in the market.

Promoted article by Robert Tidswell - 27 Oct 2015