Mobile phone tracking

[Rob S]

Can anyone recommend a company who can provide mobile phone tracking without buying expensive handsets.

We have a team of off-site tradesmen, some of who appear to not be where they should be and we want to be able to track them using their company mobile phones.

Obviously we would advise them and follow the required HR procedures.

 

[Chunkford]

If they use smart phones then Google latitude springs to mind. Might not be perfect solution but it's a free and will give you something to work with.

 

[Rob S]

Unfortunately they don't. They are just fairly basic phones.

Google Latitude is an excellent app.

 

[oush]

What are the handsets?

 

[giffgore]

If the phone has no GPS then I don't think you can do it.

 

[RoseRover]

A quick google brought up this http://www.followus.co.uk/blog/uncategorized/mobile-phone-tracking-–-need-a-gps-mobile/ so you don't need a GPS enabled phone.

If you tracked them a few times then they may get the message so you may not need to do it all the time to keep costs down.....

 

[giffgore]

A quick google brought up this http://www.followus.co.uk/blog/uncategorized/mobile-phone-tracking-–-need-a-gps-mobile/ so you don't need a GPS enabled phone.

If you tracked them a few times then they may get the message so you may not need to do it all the time to keep costs down.....

That site looks a little iffy to me (or badly made at least), but while it is possible to track phones from the masts, you only get a general idea of where the "target" is, and sometimes it can be inaccurate.

Bit scary that anyone can just register to track someone from their phone number though.

 

[Moneyman]

you can, but it depends on the nearest mobile phone mast so it can give an area but not necessarily a street. In city centers it can get quite accurate.

 

[xylen]

I would highly recommend Romex who specialise in this area. I used to work with them but my business has now moved into a different niche market.

 

[TickledPink]

A few months ago I considered developing just such a system but, although there was some interest, I deemed there wasn't enough to justify the time and effort it would take.

There are systems out there that triangulate the position through the service providers' masts. However, they do have flaws. Firstly, they lack the accuracy of GPS, although you can get a general idea of where a phone is. Secondly, they can be disabled by swapping the sim card.

They're also not particularly cheap.

I might resurrect my GPS-only solution but would need to find a web developer/designer to work with me on it. It was the thought of doing another web site that killed it for me.

 

[giffgore]

For a GPS solution, can't you just use Google Latitude or iCloud or something?

 

Just out of curiosity is it a must that it has to be mobile tracking?
Have you thought about vehicle tracking. You then not only tracking that will not be turned of but also various insurers also reduce premiums when using various systems?

I ask as we have clients in the construction industry who use a fixed tracking solution for the exact reason you are describing. It was more beneficial to them as the employee could not then use the excuse the phone battery had died, turned of by accident etc etc etc and they new they where always close to there van.
They now have the extra benefit of having there vehicles tracked so this helps them with there fleet insurance as they not only see how they vehicles are driven but also from a theft point of view have that extra security.

If you would more info on this let me know i will be happy to help.

Ross

 

[Rob S]

Hi yeah

We managed to do it via Google Latitude.

 

[VSpy1]

Can anyone recommend a company who can provide mobile phone tracking without buying expensive handsets.

We have a team of off-site tradesmen, some of who appear to not be where they should be and we want to be able to track them using their company mobile phones.

Obviously we would advise them and follow the required HR procedures.

Is it not possible to 'turn up' at the place they're meant to be a few times - they'd get the message then!

 

[Panaramix]

Hi there,

I think I might be able to offer some advice here. We are a mobile services specialist based in Suffolk and were providing vehicle tracking as part of our product portfolio. We did decide to invest in creating a mobile tracking product and it's taken a long time and a lot hard work to build.

I'm happy to have a chat through the technology options on the phone if it helps and show you how ours works so you have a benchmark if you're still looking.

We considered all kinds of technology and features for our tracking and it actually took quite a bit of restraint to limit it to useful 'real life' features - i.e to keep it simple.

Network based systems are not always accurate - it does vary from let's say 50m in 'normal' urban / town center areas to several kilometres in rural areas. It's all down to the density of the cell sites for the network being used and due to the mobile 'traffic' in towns being higher in town more masts are needed and closer together. We opted against network positioning because running a business myself I wouldn't find any great value in knowing where my people are to 'several kilometres' accuracy and as a provider could only envisage dissatisfied customers using this method.

So you have GPS and Wi-Fi as the two common positioning methods for mobile tracking. GPS is a predominantly outdoor method and can be accurate down to about a meter and wi-fi generally being used as an 'indoor' or infill location method.

So for any kind of usable accuracy you really are looking at GPS as your positioning method. This does mean smartphones - however you can now pick up Android mobiles for around £50+ which will do everything required.

Be aware that all these systems have to send the location data to the providers server so you can view it - either by SMS of via 'data'. As a guide our system uses about 3-4Mb when tracking at 10 minute intervals for a 40 hour working week which, depending on your provider you should be able to cover with a small data bundle shared between your handsets.

Cost - pay as you go systems or pay per track tend to be expensive. Try to go for a monthly subscription - it shouldn't cost you a great deal - we offer ours at £3.99 per user per month (+VAT) as a guide. Don't accept -'set up' charges or anything else of that nature.

Hope that helps - as I said if you want to chat through your options by all means drop me a message at my email below or check out the site.

We also offer a 'Smartloan' service - we'll lend you a low end Android smartphone with our app installed so you can try it out for real. Free service. I am half way through writing a buying guide for mobile services for UK businesses ...but only halfway!

Thanks
Chris

 

[crystalballltd]

Hi Rob, I see you mentioned you decided to use Google's Latitude, how are you finding that, does it meet your needs?

Should you find it doesn't meet your requirements going forward, I'd also like to suggest my company Crystal Ball Ltd

We are the only UK solution to offer Mobile, Vehicle, Asset & Lone Worker Protection, GPS tracking solutions on the one platform, allow our customers to mix and match to their fleets needs and budgets.

All our mobile tracking applications use GPS and provide you with handsets battery life status, speeding, geofencing, phone usage when not in 'hands free mode' and a host of historical reporting.

Our apps currently runs on Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile 6 & 6.5 professional and Symbian operating systems.

Happy to demo the system to you when your ready.

 

[crystalballltd]

Hi Rob, I see you mentioned you decided to use Google's Latitude, how are you finding that, does it meet your needs?

Should you find it doesn't meet your requirements going forward, I'd also like to suggest my company Crystal Ball Ltd

We are the only UK solution to offer Mobile, Vehicle, Asset & Lone Worker Protection, GPS tracking solutions on the one platform, allow our customers to mix and match to their fleets needs and budgets.

All our mobile tracking applications use GPS and provide you with handsets battery life status, speeding, geofencing, phone usage when not in 'hands free mode' and a host of historical reporting.

Our apps currently runs on Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile 6 & 6.5 professional and Symbian operating systems.

Happy to demo the system to you when your ready.

Adam Casey
Crystal Ball.tv