For some people, the idea of a tracking device in your car feels a little bit like James Bond supervillain surveillance - but this definitely isn’t the case. It’s actually really helpful to a wide number of businesses and fulfils many everyday purposes.
Telematics tracking is a great tool, especially for young and inexperienced drivers. It measures and monitors how you drive to calculate a score. Your score helps to determine a more accurate price for your insurance.
We use GPS tracking within the telematics device to monitor where you’re driving, measuring your speed and stopping time. Here, we’ve delved into telematics satellite tracking and how it works.
When is telematics satellite tracking used?
This type of tracking can be used across a wide variety of industries and niches including:
- Telematics car insurance - Black boxes track how you drive to calculate how much your policy should cost you.
- Fleet tracking - Businesses use satellite tracking if they have drivers and mobile workers out in the field, this means they can see where drivers are and manage their tasks more efficiently.
- Anti-theft - Everything from vehicles to building machinery can be equipped with a tracking device, so if it is stolen it can be found quickly and easily. This may also deter criminals from stealing them in the first place.
Can a tracking device see where you are at all times?
The GPS tracking system within your telematics device works in real time, so yes, it can trace your location while you are driving. This is an excellent tool if your vehicle is unfortunately stolen as we can track where it is and alert the authorities.
So, how does telematics satellite tracking work?
There are three main elements that go into tracking a vehicle:
A telematics device (such as a black box) is installed in the vehicle. A server holds all the data this telematics device captures. This data is available for your insurer to view.
1. Telematics device
One of our engineers will fit a GPS-equipped black box in your car or, in some cases, you might fit this yourself. The device isn’t visible and won’t affect your driving in any way.
The device collects information about how you drive - we measure the following things:
- How fast you drive and whether you stick to the speed limit
- What time of day you’re driving
- How aggressively you brake and accelerate
The device monitors this behaviour with the help of GPS satellites and the information is sent back to a server, which then stores it. The tracker in your car uses a GPS receiver to send its location to three or more of these satellites so your position is pinpointed. More than one satellite is used to improve location accuracy, with three being the minimum required to establish an accurate location.
ust imagine how much data is being sent back and forth right now as you read this!
2. The data is kept safe on a dedicated server
A server processes and holds all of the information that is recorded by your tracking device, ready for when it needs to be checked by our team and for any score reviews. You can also check your driving score via your online WiseDriving account - this means you can keep an eye on how you’re doing in real time, as it is updated every day.
This also means your policy price can change throughout the year, instead of having to wait for your renewal period. So, drive safely straight away and you could potentially save some money within a few months.
3. We view this data via our system
There isn’t a team of boffins standing around a big screen tracking your every move. We can simply take a look at the data being stored on the server that’s been collected from your vehicle, as and when needed.
So, that’s telematics and satellite tracking in a nutshell. If you’re considering taking out a telematics insurance policy on your car, get a quote today.
Correct at the time of publication. Information in this article has been gathered from various sources, therefore WiseDriving cannot be held responsible for any view or opinion expressed herein.
