IMPROVING SECURITY OF LEASED VEHICLES WITH GPS TRACKERS

INTRO

The car leasing industry is growing rapidly, with a market size of more than USD 69 billion in 2020. Regrettably, like other transport sectors, it is affected by car-related crimes too causing significant financial losses and pricey inconvenience. Keeping that in mind, Teltonika came up with a 2G connectivity solution that allows not only reduces the risk of theft but also helps businesses and fleet owners to avoid the economic harm it causes..

CHALLENGE

Car leasing, contract hire or finance lease, has become increasingly popular in recent decades, both among businesses and private individuals. The research report on the global car leasing market by Technavio, a leading global technology research and advisory company, predicts the market to post an annual growth rate (CARG) of close to 14% during the period 2019-2023. Furthermore, according to Statista, the number of users in the car rental segment is expected to amount to 588.5 million users worldwide by 2025.

Unfortunately, thefts and car-related crimes remain a major problem including the car leasing segment too. For instance, Auto Express magazine recently published figures from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) that revealed a whopping 74,769 cars were reported stolen in the UK in 2020. On average, that is 1 vehicle stolen every 7 minutes! In the USA, the FBI reports that $7.4 billion was lost to motor vehicle theft in 2020. 810,400 vehicles were stolen, the highest annual number of vehicles stolen since the year 2008. Almost one in five vehicles is recovered after theft. Sad to say, returned cars do not always come back in one piece causing even greater financial losses.

Yes, vehicle GPS trackers can help in this regard, but experienced thieves are usually aware of them, deliberately seek and remove, disrupt them or jam signals. So, what can we do to overcome this challenge, prevent car thefts as far as possible and help car leasing companies?

SOLUTION

Anything that makes car thieves or joy-riders spend more time on a vehicle to steal it and get confused in a process makes it a much less tempting target. That is an effective way to prevent carjacking and force criminals to look for another object to steal or drop the idea overall. To begin with, we choose the Teltonika FMC130 model to present our solution - an ADVANCE category GPS tracker with an extensive set of features, 4G LTE Cat 1 network coverage (with fallback to 2G connectivity), flexible I/O options and CAN Bus adaptor support for a wide range of vehicle telematics applications.

Like any other Teltonika Telematics tracker, the FMC130 has GSM signal jamming detection, towing detection, unplug detection, auto geofence scenarios allowing to initiate preventive actions, such as trigger car alarm system, block its starter or lock all vehicle doors. You can learn more about the anti-theft solution and stolen vehicle recovery use case here.

But if a more cunning and experienced car criminal has managed to find and disrupt, remove or damage the installed GPS tracker, what then? Well, our colleagues at Teltonika Mobility, also part of the Teltonika IoT Group, have developed and manufactured the TAT100 model, an advanced autonomous tamper-proof Bluetooth LE tracker of 2G connectivity, designed to track various assets and provide additional protection against vehicle theft.

How it works - both GPS devices must be installed in the same leased or hired car in hidden locations. In this case, the wired FMC130 continuously operates as the primary vehicle tracking device (or master device), monitoring parameters and events of interest to maximise the benefits for fleet management and leasing companies, while the autonomous TAT100 is used only as a backup tracking device.

The latter remains offline in a smart sleep mode and is configured to check periodically that the FMC130 is still connected to the vehicle and working, as both devices are set to communicate with each other via Bluetooth. Should the master tracker be unplugged, removed, or damaged in any way by car thieves, the Bluetooth connectivity will be disrupted.

Right away, the TAT100 backup tracker wakes up, takes over GNSS/GSM tracking functions and sends an alarm notification at once to relevant authorities, fleet managers in charge, and a driver of the leased vehicle. Thanks to that, the appropriate actions will be taken immediately, and the stolen vehicle is likely to be recovered and returned undamaged within a few hours.

And here is the best part - the idea of a combo of two tracking devices, a main wired and a backup autonomous one, is primarily designed to help car leasing businesses and rental companies to minimise their financial losses to the greatest extent possible. The merger of both sets of features makes the solution quite unique and, above all, effective. Please note, this combination only works with GPS trackers manufactured by Teltonika.

TOPOLOGY

BENEFITS

• Lower losses, higher profits - improved security of leased vehicles ensures a lower ratio of auto thefts. Even if it happens, there is a way better chance a car will be recovered in a matter of a few hours and returned in one piece or undamaged at all, saving a significant amount of time and financial resources for leasing companies and police.
• Affordable solution - even though the method requires the installation of two tracking devices and slightly higher investment, it pays for itself many times over for leasing companies.
• Easy installation and hassle-free configuration - for greater convenience and practicality, firmware updates and configuration changes of Teltonika vehicle trackers can be swiftly made remotely for any size fleet using the FOTA WEB tool.
• Promotes the reduction of car thefts and car-related crimes in a city, country or region and makes roads safer, with obvious benefits for society and the public budget.

WHY TELTONIKA?

To effectively assist car leasing businesses, lower car-related crimes and save precious resources, we offer an indispensable and unique combo from Teltonika - an extensive variety of top-notch wired vehicle GPS trackers from Teltonika Telematics and the dedicated autonomous temper-proof backup tracker with dynamic operating scenarios from Teltonika Mobility.

We are the right place to get all you need to succeed - the most abundant variety of top-quality certified GPS trackers, accessories, and solutions for any use case imaginable in vehicle telematics. From the start of the company 24 years ago until today, Teltonika strong and growing team has manufactured 16 million IoT devices, helping to succeed thousands of customers and partners in over 160 countries across the globe.