Over the years what was invented for military applications has found its way into the mainstream civilian technology space, we are talking about global positioning system (GPS), today it is impossible to imagine a world without GPS and it numerous accompanying applications, a number of industries in the global economy depend on GPS, whether it is aerospace, automotive, geospatial surveying, telecommunication among others, GPS and other similar systems namely GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou plays central roles.

So what is GPS and how does it work? GPS consists of a constellation of satellites that are able to communicate with a receiver, call it an enabled device, the receiver is able to calculate its position based on data received from a number of satellites and store this information in its memory, the information is then passed to an application that meets a specific need, this could be for navigation, location or timing purposes.

In most parts of the world one of the main applications of GPS technology is in car tracking systems, this function is realized through installation of devices called GPS trackers.

In technical terms GPS trackers are basically devices with GPS receivers for location determination and having the capability to communicate that information wirelessly through cellular networks, mostly global systems for mobile communications (GSM)/universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS)/and long-term evolution (LTE).

Once the device is installed it becomes possible to acquire location of the vehicle and process this data into meaningful insights for the vehicle owner. For example the vehicle owner may be interested in exact location of the car, its speed while in motion or other key metrics, it will be the role of the car tracking system to present this data to this particular user in the desired format.

Since the first mobile networks rolled in our country in the late nineties, a number of industries that ride on mobile technologies cropped up, among them are enterprises dealing with car trackers in Kenya and in the region, mobile terminals shops and some IT startups providing value added services like bulk SMS and content.

A strong ecosystems was thus created whose impact is far and wide across the sectors of the economy, name it, transport, insurance, banking etc. Therefore, nearly all car owners in Kenya have in a way heard about car tracking systems.

First it is simply because it is considered a safety pre-requisite by insurance companies when advancing risk covers to motor vehicle owners.

Secondly it is because the banking industry that happens to be a huge player in the Kenyan automobile sector through financing demands that all assets under loan contracts be in a bank approved car tracking system in Nairobi headquarters where monitoring is centralized, this is to enable impounding and attachment in case of loans default.

Thirdly, there are several car tracking companies in Kenya that have been founded, through their aggressive marketing,  the word has spread across the population that the country is a known hot spot for motor vehicles theft, hence driving up demand for car tracking system in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu cities where the crime is rampant.

With this proliferation of vehicle tracking companies in Kenya the next big question for the motor vehicle owner is how to select the right provider for this crucial service that keeps thieves at bay, for a beginner it is quite confusing to distinguish between good providers or reliable ones against the rest of the players in the market place.

In our considered opinion as smart embedded systems limited, the key considerations are first and foremost the quality of the hardware device that is being used, there are different manufacturers of GPS tracking devices, some have reputation for producing high quality devices that can withstand many years of use while others are of low quality to the extent that failure rate is beyond acceptable limits. The quality question has a lot to do with the electronic circuit board resiliency and the level of protection against voltage and current spikes; to the ordinary end user this means a lot of nothing so the only way to be sure is to work with reputable and licensed tracking companies in Kenya.

Secondly it is worth mentioning that having a high quality hardware device yet the software that picks data from the hardware to present to the vehicle owner is not user friendly or robust enough means that the user experience will not be satisfactory, from our analysis this is where most customer complaints are concentrated; a vehicle tracking software is supposed to provide exceptional level of trail accuracy with system  availability in the region of 99.9 % since it is serving a mission critical purpose, a system that goes offline for hours, days may not help much, what if the car is stolen when the system is down?

Worth considering would also be the kind of support service provided by the car tracking companies, it must be appreciated that the reason for fitting GPS devices is for security as nothing cools the mind of the car owner than knowing that  it is possible to track and trace their valuable asset in-case of theft.

On the hand organizations dealing with transport business cherish the ability to feel in control, to streamline operations, to reduce operational expenses and to boost customer satisfaction, GPS tracking helps in making important decisions regarding operations, therefore it is incumbent upon the GPS tracking companies in Kenya to provide important reports to aid in this as mandated even by government through its licensing for telecommunications related businesses.  

Lastly is where it matters most – the money, being a technology solution, worth considering when sourcing for a company to provide vehicle tracking in Kenya is performance with regard to features and functions vis a vis the cost, car tracker price in Kenya for example is in the region of a few thousands Kenya shillings, but a device alone is not sufficient to provide a solution, there is the engineering, you can call it installation and configuration, thus the vehicle owner must put into consideration the cost of installing car trackers in Kenya as well.  At the end of the day however, it is upon the vehicle owner to find a provider that balances between the above factors so as not to pay too much for what one doesn’t need or pay too little and miss on what is important in a particular scenario. Smart Embedded Systems limited is one such provider of reliable, cost effective solutions and is listed among the best tracking companies in Kenya and Africa in general.