Oonagh Charleton on why tracking systems are here to stay - so watch out!
Your mobile phone rings, and it's your car on the other line. Unusual? Well, yes, in that it could be calling to say it's just been just been clamped, clipped, stolen or the driver has broken the speed limit.
Or, you run a busy services company, and allegations are made that one of your fleet vehicles was involved in an accident. Using a satellite guided tracking system you can locate to the nearest square yard where your staff are at any given time, how fast they have been travelling and indeed whether or not they've been involved in any incidents.
Five former US army satellites, decommissioned in the 1960s and purchased for commercial use, help make this happen. Using basic Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, a device fitted to any car or vehicle can pinpoint the location with an accuracy of three to five metres.
RM Distribution Ireland is one of a number of firms in offering this tracking system in conjunction with the GSM phone network. GSM allows you to communicate with a specially fitted box in your vehicle which itself contains GPS and a phone system.
The range of the service is also not limited to Ireland. It covers the greater European area and can keep those in west Kerry informed if their car is stolen/damaged in, say, the south of France. It's not new but the technology, which has been available for over a decade, has only now become affordable to the average Irish car owner.
So what exactly is it and how does the system work? Well to start with, a Lexus owner awoke at 7 a.m. several weeks ago in a quiet Dublin suburb only to discover that intruders had broken in and taken the keys of his SC430. As a result no car alarm went off and the car had been gone for several hours. Contact was made by the owner to the call centre and using the system phone number and his own user password, the GPS co-ordinates of the vehicle were obtained via the satellite link. The Garda were called with the precise location and the owner was able to immobilise his Lexus to ensure it wasn't moved.
Brendan Conway of RM Ireland says "immobilisation is really the fantastic part of this. I can immobilise my car from my couch, from my office, anywhere in Europe". Using your phone and a unique password, you can "stop the car, check the speed, listen to what's going on in your car and, if you do stop it, it can only be restarted with a further electronic instruction".
Eilish Minihane explains the device is tied in with speed wires so, if the car comes to a halt for three seconds or more, it will cut out the engine. Alternatively, it is connected to the fuel pump which cuts the fuel.
There are obvious built-in safety measures here, however, as it would be reckless to cut the engine of a car while travelling at speed. "The car can't be cut out while driving. It must come to a halt, the ignition lights come on."
The beauty of this is that you don't have to immobilise your vehicle until you know exactly where it is and, if it is a theft, you can wait until the Garda have been informed of the co-ordinates so as to catch the perpetrators. There is an added advantage to security services in that it limits the need for high-speed car chases. Once they locate the street, or building or indeed field, the thief still will not have realised he is under surveillance until the final arrest.
John Goggins, director of Monitcom, the Irish agency of Minorplanet uses the satellite tracking system to provide companies with management information. With 90 per cent of business coming from the services sector, Monitcom fit devices in fleet vehicles which allow businesses access to precise data on where their staff are, how fast they are driving and which employee is nearest to a customer.
"The advantages to this system," he says, "are that it encourages safe driving practices as vehicles are monitored for speed, but that headquarters can locate their engineers, for example, down to street level."
As for fears of a big brother factor, he says the idea is to help businesses to run better, and staff should be included in the process. "It's not like drivers can't stop and have a break."
Sociologists argue that a decrease in workplace privacy while increasing company security can also lead to greater stress levels among staff that know their every move is being recorded or watched and, as a result, cause a decrease in productivity. However, there can be serious commercial - if not security - advantages with systems like this where customer support and relations improve, as companies are better able to navigate their base.
"It's like when mobile phones first came in," John Goggins points out. "Some people didn't want them as they were regarded as an invasion of privacy. Can you imagine any business in Ireland today not using them? Tracking systems are going the same way."
Brendan also argues that not only is it a security system, it's also "peace of mind. The car is telling me things that are happening to it. I can put a speed limit on it as well so when it goes to the limit or over, it will ring me and tell me that this has been breached."
Ideal for one of his customers with a BMW 520 who installed the system having heard of its speed monitoring function. His two sons borrowed the car at weekends and, terrified that they would drive at excessive speeds, he set a speed limit of 60mph. If this limit was exceeded, the car would call his number which was pre-programmed into the system. Sure enough, the speed limit set was broken, his mobile rang to alert him so he dialed into the device installed in his car, checked it's speed, location and then opened up two-way communication with his son.
"This is a combination of three technologies that has been available for 10 to 15 years. It's only now that it has become completely affordable. Companies especially want to know where their fleet is - rental companies with top of the range Mercedes, for example."
Theft and crime aside, tracking systems also have merits in regard to the safety of family members and are not just for valuable cars or transport vehicles. If a family member becomes ill while travelling, or has an accident, the location of the vehicle can be found in seconds anywhere in Ireland and the greater European area.
So where is the catch? With real time location, anti-theft immobilisation, a call alert cycle, incredible ease of use and that so-hard-to-get peace of mind, why doesn't everyone already have one? "No one really knows about it yet," says Brendan.
Mr Binman knows about it however. A private waste disposal company in Co Clare, the firm has been using a commercial tracking system for some time. With devices fitted in all its trucks, director Martin Sheehan claims that it has dramatically increased customer care. "Our reports show the exact location of our trucks and the times and dates collections have taken place. If a customer requires a skip, we can detect at short notice the nearest one which reduces time delay." The unit also records fuel consumption, generating maps, timesheets, records of deliveries and allowing head office constant access to vehicles.
So whether it is personal security you are after or up-to-the-second information on where your fleet of cargo is located on the continent, tracking systems are now becoming readily accessible to the consumer and business market. It may be simply just a matter of when, where and what grid reference.