If your business is like many, your operations and revenue depend on valuable items and equipment, all of which are constantly moving. If you manage a construction company, it’s your high-powered, heavy vehicles. If in retail, it’s the thousands of products that you sell to your customers. One thing is for sure, no matter your industry, theft is a frequent risk —one you may be concerned about already. 

Today, every third tradesperson has been subjected to asset theft in the past two years. And this risk of theft comes from both external and internal parties. Research shows that 5% of employees have stolen from their employer at least once. The consequential financial loss can be significant, with more than 30% of business bankruptcies being attributed to employee theft. 

Fortunately, GPS asset tracking is widely available to both recover stolen business assets and prevent theft in the first place. However, not all GPS tracking systems have the advanced features to practice theft prevention and recovery. Here’s what you need to know. 

GPS Asset Tracking

GPS asset tracking is the use of software to monitor the movement of valuable business assets like: 

• Construction equipment 
• Vehicles
• Trailers
• Machinery 
• Inventory 
• Dumpsters 
• IT equipment
• And more 

Attaching a GPS tracking device with motion sensor chips to these assets can provide you with: 

• The location of the physical asset
• An analysis of its usage
• And any other critical data about the asset's maintenance

Now let’s dive into the real stuff –how it can help you prevent theft and even help recover your stolen assets. 

How GPS Asset Tracking Aids Theft Prevention and Recovery

Businesses that lease or own equipment want to protect their assets at all costs, given the high cost of acquisition and the very real risk of theft. A business with tens or hundreds of assets would typically need to hire staff to track and recover business assets. 

However, with GPS asset tracking software, a single individual can keep track of hundreds of business assets at the same time. Real-time GPS tracking specifically offers foolproof asset protection that can pinpoint the location of all your business’s assets. 

This technology has made it easier and less expensive to find and recover assets while maintaining efficiency, and there are a few key features that help with this. 

Three Essential GPS Features for Theft Prevention and Recovery

Of course, not all GPS asset tracking systems are created equal. If you're choosing a solution provider specifically for theft prevention and recovery, you may want to choose a solution with these targeted features. 

1. Live Tracking

Live GPS tracking is the best option for businesses striving to prevent theft because it offers access to real-time data on your physical assets, giving you the ability to act immediately if something is not right. For instance, if a vehicle is stolen, a live tracker will alert you instantly and provide you with its exact location. 

So how does it work? Live trackers continuously emit a signal that can be tracked in real-time, wherever it may be. The data collected is transmitted to the user's phone up to the minute with the help of cellular wireless connectivity, as opposed to needing to be stored on a device and downloaded later for viewing. 

Live GPS trackers come with a range of features to help you manage your business assets and fleet more effectively. These include:

• Live map viewing
• Trigger-based alerts
• Landmarks and geofences
• Analytics
• Maintenance alerts
• Driver dispatching
• Mobile tracking

2. Smart Boundaries 

Smart boundaries or geofencing is a critical function available in a number of GPS tracking solutions. Geofences are zones that can be defined on a map, such as a radius around a single point, which you can leverage to enhance live GPS tracking. 

For instance, you can set up geofences around:

• Locations that contain your business’s physical assets
• Neighborhoods you want to avoid
• Customer locations
• Or any other region you want to keep an eye on

You can use geofence alerts to create a virtual boundary that triggers an immediate warning if it is broken. These triggered alerts enable you to observe GPS activities with less effort. Rather than continually monitoring live tracking, you can simply be notified when a geofence is crossed. 

For instance, many construction companies install GPS trackers with smart boundaries in their vehicles and heavy equipment that trigger alerts when they are moved outside a specified area or during off-work hours. Using their asset monitoring technology, managers can get warnings if an asset is operated during an unlawful time or if an asset is moved during off-hours or without authorization. 

Additionally, this asset tracking system feature allows for faster asset recovery if one is stolen. All you have to do is reference your tracking map to find the asset in question.

3. Time Machine

Last but not least, GPS asset trackers with a ‘Time Machine’ feature gives you a window into each tracker’s past—so you know exactly where your business assets went and when. This information is useful in a variety of business situations, including theft prevention and recovery. 

Designed based on feedback from our business customers, Time Machine provides:

1. A map of each tracker’s movement during a specific time period
2. Speed, distance, and environmental details at various “snapshot” locations along the way.

If you rent out vehicles or equipment, you know that accidents, theft, and damage are ever-present threats to your business. While you can’t always avoid these misfortunes, you can expedite the legal and insurance reimbursement process by having easy access to information like driver speed and weather conditions at the time of the incident. 

How You Can Get Started Today

No matter what industry or business you’re in, GPS asset tracking can play a crucial role in protecting your business against theft and offering faster asset recovery. Spytec GPS offers a mobile asset tracking system with all these core features to track your business assets in real-time –so you can protect assets, move assets to where they need to be, and get notified if something moves when or where it shouldn’t. 

If you’d like to learn more about how Spytec can help your business, contact us and we’d be happy to give you a demo or point you in the best direction.