When it comes to buy GPS vehicle tracker? There are many factors that we should consider. Shall I buy GPS vehcle tracker from factory or trading company? Share I buy vehicle tracker online or locally? Check these questions and figure out which type of vehicle tracking device suit your needs most or where to buy the most suitable tracking device.

Questions:

1 Buy GPS vehicle tracker for self-usage or business?

For self-usage, we advise to buy online like AliExpress or Amazon or at local stores.

Buy online. You need first ask yourself if you can do the installation or not, or the device you are looking for can be installed easily. Otherwise, buy online is not an option. Online shopping has becoming very popular and online purchase is much cheaper. Open the APP or web, type certain keywords and get the right product. Always ask if you can get proper help after receipt of the device. Buying a GPS tracker without service means the device is not worthy to pay for it.

Buy locally. The advantage of buying from local store is that the sellers are professional, they can help you to learn the whole system, and give aftersales service whenever is needed. The cost will be higher than buying online.

For business, we advise to buy directly from suppliers or GPS Tracker manufactures.

GPS tracker manufacture can offer more professional service and better cost. They can also do OEM and ODM service to suit your local markets. However, if you want to test only a few units, you can also buy online or locally. Sample delivery is costly.

2 Do you need 2G or 4G tracking device?

2G GPS tracker uses 2G GSM module. China vehicle tracker manufactures mostly use telecommunication module of SIMCOM, MTK, Quectel and others. Mostly used modules are MTK2503, MTK6261, SIMCOM800, SIMCOM700 and their series.

4G GPS tracker uses 4G LTE module. China GPS tracker suppliers mostly use Quectel and SIMCOM module. Now SIMCOM module is more popular due to its competitive cost and worldwide good performance. SIMCOM A7670C is mostly used for China and India market, SIMCOM A7670E is mostly used for Europe market, SIMCOM A7670SA is for global market, specially for American countries and Australia.

Most countries have started sunset for 2G network service. Countries below have shut off 2G service several years ago, including America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Japan and Korea have also shut off 2G network. Due to their frequency uniqueness, SIMCOM A7670SA cannot work. More expensive modules need to be used.

3 Are you buying for small vehicles or big vehicles or heavy equipment ?

For small vehicles, we advise 4-wire or 8-wire hardwired GPS trackers, which are easy to install.

For trucks, 4-wire or 8-wire hardwired tracking devices can still do the job unless special features are needed, like truck fuel consumption monitoring, van truck temperature monitoring, dump truck load monitoring, etc.

For heavy equipment monitoring, mostly needed features are engine working hours statistics and fuel consumption monitoring. To the equipment owner, it is important to know if the fuel consumption is reasonable and also avoid fuel theft. To the equipment user, it is important to know if the excavator has worked to pre-agreed time or not, as the charge of usage is based on engine working time.

4 How do you like the installation to be done, Wireless or hardwired GPS tracker?

Wireless GPS tracker is easy to install. Wireless tracking devices include: OBD GPS Tracker, Car Charger GPS Tracker, Magnetic GPS Tracker

Hardwired GPS tracker diversifies per the functions. To install GPS tracker with wires, we need find out the power source on vehicle, normally from the vehicle battery. To detect vehicle engine status, we need connect ACC detection wire of GPS Tracker or vehicle ACC wire, and to remotely kill switch or engine, we need connect relay by finding the fuel pump power wire.

Wires of hardwired tracker:

1, 3 wire: Normally red wire for power +, black for ground, and orange or white for ACC/engine status detection

2, 4 wire: Same as 3 wire device, and one more yellow wire for connection with relay to kill engine remotely.

3, 8 wire: Same as 4 wire device, among the other 4 wires, 2 for SOS emergency button, 2 for microphone for remote voice monitoring.

4, 10 wire: Same as 8 wire device, the other 2 is for connecting with external speaker to do two way voice speaking.

5, 8 wire: advanced, same as 4 wire device, the other 4 wire is RS232 or RS485 port, they are used to connect with fuel sensor or temperature sensor or weight sensor, so as to do real time fuel consumption monitoring, temperature monitoring and loaded weight monitoring.

6, 12 wire: advanced-GPS speed limiter, same as 4 wire device, among the other 8 wires, 4 is used as RS232 port to config device, 2 is used for SOS control, 1 is used for fuel monitoring by connecting with analog fuel sensor, 1 is used for vehicle speed limit, the last 1 is used for speed signal detection.

7, 18 wire: advanced, same as 4 wire device, the other wires are used to connect camera by RS232 port, to connect fuel sensor by RS232 port, to connect temperature sensor, to detect vehicle door status, etc.

5 What functions do you need from the GPS tracking system?

When it comes to buy GPS vehicle tracker, we must have in mind what features do we need for our market. The GPS tracking system features includes 3 parts:

GPS Tracker hardware main features

• Real time location tracking
• Over speed alarm
• External power disconnection or tamper alarm
• SOS emergency alarm with SOS button connected
• Remote voice monitoring with built-in microphone
• Two way voice speaking with microphone and speaker
• Vibration alarm with built-in shock sensor

GPS tracking software features

• Real time location display
• Real time alarm status display
• History traces playback
• Various location based report: History report, Travel Report, Park Report, Mileage Report, Speed Report, Moving report, fuel monitoring report, temperature monitoring report etc.
• Alarm reports: SOS alarm, Overspeed alarm, Geo-fence, External power tamper, etc.
• Device manage: Add/Edit/Delete device
• User manage: Add/Edit/Delete user account

External fuel sensor features

• Fuel sensor, including external ultrasonic fuel sensor or capacitive fuel sensor. The purpose of connecting external fuel sensor is to monitor vehicle fuel consumption and alert when there is abnormal fuel operation like fuel siphon
• Temperature sensor. External temperature sensor is used to monitor the temperature in cooling cabinet, widely applied in food transportation.
• Weight sensor. Weight sensor is connected with GPS tracker to monitor loaded and unloaded weight.

6 Do you need branded service?

Hardware branding: have your own logo or contact or website on the device

Software branding: have your own logo and domain for the tracking software login

APP branding: have your own APP uploaded in the Google Play

7 Share I buy from factory or from any supplier?

We have to say that GPS tracker supplier are mixed with factory and trading companies. There are few real GPS tracker factory with their own software, hardware and manufacturing teams. To people who is not in China, companies that sell millions a year could also not be a real manufacturer. 10 years ago, difference companies use different protocol and the platform supports their own protocol. As well, there is only several software that supports all devices and the subscription cost is high. However, any software now in market can support any other brand or any GPS tracker from any factory. The border of a GPS tracker factory and GPS tracker trading company has becoming difficult for buyers to tell apart.

Consider above factors, buy GPS vehicle tracker that suit your market both in price, quality and service.

UniGuard has been a GPS tracker factory and solution supplier over 12 years now and we offer all the above services. Do not hesitate to contact us!