GPS Tracking Item on Watchdog

balsingh

I'm sure many of you watched Watchdog last week where the Meet & Greet parking company were racing the cars etc.

For their car, they used a GPS device which could be conncted to a PC and then have all the journey data downloaded.

As these available to the public? I too will be using a similar company for parking later this year and a device like this would deter them from usin gthe car for the wrong reasons (provided they are cheap enough).

Any experts out there?

Loobeylou

Sorry I cannot help you, but I have used a meet and greet company a couple of times in the past a couple at Manchester airport, and would be absolutely horrified to learn that they were doing this with my car.

superscaper

balsingh wrote:

I'm sure many of you watched Watchdog last week where the Meet & Greet parking company were racing the cars etc.

For their car, they used a GPS device which could be conncted to a PC and then have all the journey data downloaded.

As these available to the public? I too will be using a similar company for parking later this year and a device like this would deter them from usin gthe car for the wrong reasons (provided they are cheap enough).

Any experts out there?

I don't know of any devices as such but my economical first thoughts were simply putting prominent GPS Tracking stickers in the car.

balsingh

Loobeylou wrote:

Sorry I cannot help you, but I have used a meet and greet company a couple of times in the past a couple at Manchester airport, and would be absolutely horrified to learn that they were doing this with my car.

This company were based at Gatwick and have now been closed down anyway. You might be able to find some info at the BBC website ... the jist is that customers cars were being parked at roadsides etc and being used by the drivers for personal use. The Watchdog car with the GPS device was driven at over 100mph on 4 different occassions during the 1 week that it was supposed to be parked up securely.

nej

I have a tracker in my car (benefit of working for a tracking company!) and I used it to good effect to prove the dealership that they hadn't in fact been "working on it all day" and taken it for a 30-minute test drive.

More like, it was looked at for about an hour in the morning, then taken back outside the workshop, then back in for about 20 minutes and then taken for a five minute run. They were rather apologetic!

albertross_2

How will a tracking device stop them unless you tell them you have one?

Why not just pay to park at the airport.. then it won't happen. Or use public transport.

Claudie

There are quite a few tracking options available for both private vehicle security and corporate fleet management. It may not stop someone taking your car but it will show when it was used and where it was.

There are many many company vehicles out there with tracking fitted, in some cases it is fitted with the drivers knowledge, in some it is fitted covertly.

Blacksheep1979

I'm assuming here that you don't want someone using your car and running up loads of miles? If thats the case a simple photo of the mileage should do - and if you want to be 100% get a copy of that days paper in the shot as well.

superscaper

Blacksheep1979 wrote:

I'm assuming here that you don't want someone using your car and running up loads of miles? If thats the case a simple photo of the mileage should do - and if you want to be 100% get a copy of that days paper in the shot as well.

Just this week a car hire company invoiced an £11 surcharge to my dad's company for fuel replacement. Luckily he had taken photos of the mileage and fuel when he got the car and when he left it. The fuel he left in was actually more than when he got the car. Needless to say the claims dept at his work love him now, since it's indisputable proof the hire company were obviously trying it on.

balsingh

Blacksheep1979 wrote:

I'm assuming here that you don't want someone using your car and running up loads of miles? If thats the case a simple photo of the mileage should do - and if you want to be 100% get a copy of that days paper in the shot as well.

Thats a useful tip but most of these parking companies do state in their T&C that they may need to move the car to another location. Either way, it doesnt stop their drivers testing out the top speed of your car from a cold start!

HARDM2000

An old post i know but could'nt help throwing in my view these devices are readily available for around £70- £100 depending on what your after and simply put will record all travel data from when turned on and left to when they are downloaded to computer and the data uploaded to something like google earth etc, a simple ebay search will throw up a good few.