"I need to know where my drivers are without having to install a tracking device to every vehicle"
We offer two accurate and real-time personal location products that can help you locate your people. BlueRanger is a dedicated device, while KoolTrax™ is software that turns a suitable mobile phone into a tracking device. Neither require installation in the vehicle.
BlueRanger is a compact, battery operated GPS tracking device that's designed to track the driver or rider rather than the vehicle. It's an automatic vehicle location system that provides live, real-time location data to 4 metre accuracy. It is battery operated and wearable, simple as can be to use, and provides an alarm button that's useful where security is a concern, whether that's because of the vehicle's contents, the area in which it operates, or because of the driver's job (for instance, community health workers).
Because it's hand held or wearable you can just take it with you, it's completely flexible. Use it to track cars, vans, HGV .. anything with four wheels, plus containers, trailers, coastal or inland boats, bicycles, touring or racing cycles, motorbikes, tractors .. almost anything that moves at any time. Just ask the driver to wear it or place it anywhere in the vehicle.
It's also a useful addition to a fleet management system where some of the fleet vehicles are temporary, hired or owned by the drivers themselves, or where vehicles change often (saving the cost of repeated re-installation and any additional loss to the vehicle's value when a fitted unit is removed).
If you provide a mobile phone to your drivers and the panic button isn't a big feature for you, you might like KoolTrax™ better. It's downloadable software that turns a suitable mobile phone into a GPS tracking device. You need a Windows Mobile 5 phone or PDA with GPS, and it won't provide a no-movement alarm (BlueRanger does) but, particularly if you already provide mobile phones, the low cost of the software may well make this a better option.
Our systems are also finding use in parental monitoring of new, young drivers who may agree to use a gps vehicle location system in exchange for use of the family car, and who might then be able to use the fact that they are tracked as a means to avoid peer pressure.
What are people using our systems for?
BlueRanger and KoolTrax™ can be used in business to:
- improve customer service
- increase productivity
- improve management control
- verify hours worked
- provide proof of service
- increase the safety and security of drivers and lone workers
- view the location of all drivers at all times
- reduce costs
They are also being used to monitor the use of one of the family cars, to keep track of a family member out exercising on a bike, or just to find someone after a day's shopping, at a festival or park.
BlueRanger and KoolTrax™ personal GPS tracking bring the possibility of fleet management to city bicycle couriers.
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How does the system work?
First, you need a tracking device. Choose either BlueRanger, the dedicated unit, or KoolTrax™, software for a mobile phone. From a tracking point of view the main difference is that BlueRanger provides a more easily accessible panic button, it's probably more rugged so you can just put it in the glove compartment or panniers, and it has a movement sensor so can form a basic man-down system. Using KoolTrax™, being installed on your mobile phone, means your drivers don't have to carry anything extra.
You can control both by installing BlueMap software on your Internet connected Windows PC. Enter your name and any other people involved.
Then using online maps, set up any alert states. Most often these are geofences, geographic boundaries which would raise an alert once the tracker goes beyond them.
Set how you want to be alerted .. by text message or email (as well as on screen) and who should get those alerts.
Once you've installed and registered everything, BlueMap on your computer will display the position of your tracker units.
You can set up as many boundaries as you like, and alert as many people as you like in all sorts of combinations, and you can track as many GPS trackers as you want on any number of BlueMap screens.
How it really works
BlueRanger is a GPS device (and KoolTrax™ requires your mobile phone to have GPS). That means it uses radio signals from military satellites to discover its position anywhere on earth to within 4 metres. Your in-car SatNav system does the same thing.
BlueRanger is also connected to the mobile phone network. Assuming your tracking device can get a phone signal, it transmits its location (and if it's a BlueRanger, along with some other exciting data such as whether it's being worn) to our server.
The BlueMap software on your computer talks over the Internet to our server to get the position of your GPS tracking unit, and then it displays where your person is onscreen for you. We currently use Google Maps (but reserve the right to change that without notice), so you can see the location as a road map, as an archive satellite image, or both.
If you are not familiar with Google Maps, enter your postcode here. By default you see the map view, but there's a button for 'satellite', and 'hybrid'. Some areas have stunning high quality satellite images, some only lower quality, but we think Google will bring high quality to all as soon as it is able.
Just to be clear, these are NOT 'live' satellite images, you will not be able to actually see your client, child, parent or employee walking down the street using this system. These are archive satellite images taken weeks, months or years ago.
We take Google Maps and overlay our symbols to show the location of your GPS tracking units. If you have more BlueRanger or KoolTrax™ units, it can display the location of all of them.
BlueRanger uses the very latest SiRFstar III GPS chip and the best active GPS aerial, so you get the most accurate position data, and much improved positional fixes when the BlueRanger is indoors.
Day to day operation
On your BlueMap PC, you can see the location of your drivers or riders in real-time on an on-screen map. If you set up a geographic boundary, you'll get an alert if they leave the area. You can see a breadcrumb trail showing you where they've been.
For staff who don't wish to be tracked, but who would appreciate the ability to call for help in an emergency, the system can be set to only provide location information when the alarm is raised.
What about signal strength and reliability?
GPS devices need to be able to sense the satellites that allow them to discover their position. Traditionally this is more difficult inside a large building or very built-up area, however our use of the best GPS components in BlueRanger minimises this.
We show our confidence in a position using a circle. The larger the circle, the lower our confidence, the larger the area to search. This is very rarely more than a few metres.
In the rare event that BlueRanger cannot calculate its position, or cannot transmit it through the mobile phone network, you still have a breadcrumb trail on screen which shows last position and direction of travel. BlueRanger is connected live to our server, so as soon as the signal is picked up again, your BlueMap software displays it. In this, unusual, situation, what you do know is that the person entered a particular building or poor signal area and hasn't come out. This is in contrast to competing products where you pay to send a text message that would return a "can't find them" message, leaving you to pay to re-send repeatedly.
Our server has an uptime of 99.99%. Occasional essential maintenance is undertaken at the quietest times.
BlueRanger has intelligent power management, so it reduces the number of times it calculates and sends its position as it runs low on power. We ran one down over two weeks and it continued to work, but was only able to send position data every hour. You can see the unit's power status on your BlueMap display, and there is a low battery alert.
Car barter
An interesting application of this technology has been picked up by the press recently, partly as a result of the sobering statistics about deaths and injuries on the road involving young and new drivers. BlueRanger provides information about speed of travel, and some astute parents have used this to give them peace of mind and help keep their driving-age children safe.
In this 'deal' the young driver agrees to use BlueRanger while driving in return for the parents buying or contributing towards them getting a car. The parents know their offspring is staying safe and within the law, they also know where they are, and at the same time they are providing an incentive (and a reason to give to their mates) why they won't exceed the speed limit.
KoolTrax™ is probably rather more desirable to the young driver, since it requires a high-end mobile phone and the fact of being tracked is more easily hidden.
Emergency operation
There are two main emergency situations: when the tracker wearer presses the alert button, and when the tracker exceeds a geofence boundary (although you might also define "not being worn" or "exceeds speed limit" as an emergency too). Incidentally, the alert button on BlueRanger is more easily accessed in an emergency than the software button on KoolTrax™.
In response, you can monitor the location of the GPS tracker unit onscreen and perhaps direct someone on the ground, verbally, using a mobile phone.
If you wish, you might also like to purchase a BlueMap PDA which would allow you to find your missing person or vehicle yourself using a hand-held unit that displays where you are in relation to each other. More on that later.
Our trackers must have a connection to the mobile network in order for any alert method to work. We currently use Orange to provide mobile services, their coverage map is here. The system is designed as a person location device and all populated areas are well covered. If your user is in a remote location, they would need a phone signal anyway to raise help, our system provides location data as soon as a connection is established, so for them there's no watching for a momentary icon on their phone and then being unable to connect for long enough to describe where they are. With BlueRanger, you always know where your driver is.
How much does a BlueRanger cost?
We have worked hard to provide a service that enables you to budget for the costs involved.
You can buy a BlueRanger unit for £299.00 including normal data for a year (plus £10.00 postage and packing). BlueRanger transmits its location data over a mobile phone link, so in the second and subsequent years there is an annual service charge of £60.
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In unusual circumstances you may incur some additional charges.
- BlueRanger is not, by default, set up to work outside the UK or Ireland. If you wish to use it, for instance, on holiday, you would need to call us and agree to pay the roaming charges set by the mobile phone company (plus 10% to cover administration), just as you would in order to use your mobile phone abroad.
- If you set up lots of SMS alerts, and alert states keep occurring, you might pass our limit of 50 SMS alerts per month. We will then charge 25p per additional SMS alert. We will try to let you know before that happens, but it's simply a matter of you managing your alerts well. No-one has yet passed this limit nor incurred any charges, it's really there to limit our liability if someone does set things up that way.
- If you need technical support, calling our technical helpline is chargeable at 75p per minute.
You may wish to purchase just one BlueRanger to begin with, and pass it around according to the day's plan. We simply track the BlueRanger unit.
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How much does KoolTrax™ cost?
KoolTrax™ is a very affordable, downloadable GPS tracking solution for mobile devices (phones and PDAs) using Windows Mobile 5+ and with GPS capability.
You can download KoolTrax™ for £39.95.
If you want to use KoolTrax™ with geographic boundaries, you can receive alerts onscreen and by email free of charge. Alerts sent by SMS mobile text, however, require you to create a credit balance with Blue Tree Services. They are charged at 10p each and may be bought in £10 blocks.
In normal operation KoolTrax™ sends its location information over your mobile's data connection. You would pay your supplier for that under your existing tarif. The amount of data sent is small, but it might be worth checking you still have the best tarif for your needs. You can switch KoolTrax™ off whenever you don't want to be tracked.
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Does it work outside the UK and Ireland?
BlueRanger is sold in the UK and Ireland set up to work in your country, but it does work in other countries, you simply have to let us know beforehand, and agree to pay the roaming charges from the mobile phone company (plus 10% to cover administration).
KoolTrax™ works wherever your phone works, just get roaming enabled on your phone.
How can I cancel?
If you change your mind and wish to cancel a new order, you have a statutory seven days to do so. You must let us know in writing or by email and return the product unopened, uninstalled and at your expense.
For data, 12 months is the minimum term. There is no obligation to continue to purchase data services, but the unit won't be useful without it.
Compare GPS trackers
Compare our BlueRanger dedicated GPS tracking device with our KoolTrax™ software that helps you add GPS tracking functionality to your mobile phone or PDA.
We've also included a third column that compares both to an example of our competition: we chose the one that came top in a Google search for a mobile phone location system.
| BlueRanger | KoolTrax™ | Competing mobile location systems* | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical accuracy | 4 metres | 4 metres | 400 metres |
| Real-time, continuous location display | √ | √ | x |
| Breadcrumb trail (up to 1 month) | √ | √ | x |
| Geofence alerts | √ | √ | x |
| No-movement, man-down alerts | √ | x | x |
| Panic alarm | Easy button | Software button | x |
| Low battery alert | √ | x | x |
| Alert methods | On screen, email, SMS text to mobile | On screen, email, SMS text to mobile | x |
| Number of people on alert list | practically unlimited | practically unlimited | x |
| 24 hour duty officer (to help in an emergency) | √ | x | x |
| Out of signal behaviour | Breadcrumb trail shows last position, time and direction | Breadcrumb trail shows last position, time and direction | "Can't find" or location of last call or text sent, depending on carrier |
| Discrete | About the size of a pack of cards, wearable | Invisible: in phone/PDA | Invisible: in phone/PDA |
| Can you pass it around? | √ | You won't want to | You won't want to |
| Availability | 10 days by post | immediate download, then approval | immediate download, then password sent by post |
| Price to buy | £299 + £10 p&p, includes data for a year | £39.95 | £176.19 |
| Ongoing costs | £60pa data charge year 2 onwards | Location data is sent using your phone service and charged by your provider | 40p per location request (volume discount down to 8p)** |
| SMS alert costs, eg. boundary | 50 free per month, 25p each thereafter | 10p each, buy topups in £10 blocks | n/a |
| International operation | Yes, but contact us beforehand as we have to enable roaming on your unit (and there are small additional charges) | Yes, just set up roaming with your provider | No, the person you want to track must be in the UK (or in whichever country you set up the service) |
| Requirements | Internet connected Windows PC | Windows Mobile 5+ mobile phone/PDA with GPS, Internet connected Windows PC | Any mobile phone |
*top provider at 11 October 2007
**Compared to our £60 annual data charge, a competing mobile location service for 1 location request every day for a year would cost between £146 and £73 depending whether you purchased your credits as you went along or up front for the year (£100 for 500 text credits). 2 location requests every day would cost between £292 and £116.80 (£200 for 1,260 text credits).
Guarantee
We want you to be completely satisfied with purchase, and we are absolutely sure you will be. You're going to love what we offer, so we want to make sure you get the chance to see what we mean, and feel the product working for you. So we offer an iron clad, no-quibble, fourteen day money back guarantee.
So that's that: if, after fourteen days of use, you're not absolutely happy with the BlueMap software on your PC or with your chosen tracking unit or with anything at all that we've provided for whatever reason, just return it to us in its original condition, and we'll refund your money in full. No questions asked. No hard feelings. No problem.
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What you need: system requirements
In order to use BlueMap software to manage the service and track the position of the person wearing your BlueRanger unit, you will need an Internet connected Windows PC.
In order to use KoolTrax™ software to turn your mobile phone or PDA into a personal GPS tracker, your phone needs to be running Windows Mobile 5+ and have NMEA compliant GPS capability.
If you don't know whether your phone is running Windows Mobile 5+, there's a screenshot on Wikipedia which shows you what it looks like.
KoolTrax™ also requires a device with GPS capability.
If your phone or PDA is incompatible but you want KoolTrax™, here are some options.
If your phone or PDA isn't Windows Mobile 5+, then you might consider taking the opportunity to get a new phone. If you're doing that, aim for a phone that has inbuilt GPS such as the Mio A701 available through Amazon
Alternatively if your phone or PDA supports Java, a Java version of KoolTrax™ is under development, so you might prefer to wait for that. Sign up to receive notification when KoolTrax™ Java is launched.
The most common phone operating system is Symbian. If you have a Nokia, Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic, Siemens AG, Samsung or BenQ phone it's likely it's running Symbian rather than Windows Mobile 5. We are developing a Symbian version too. Sign up to receive notification when KoolTrax™ Symbian is launched.
If you have a Windows Mobile 5+ phone that isn't GPS enabled, you can buy GPS devices that connect to your phone using BlueTooth, for instance those provided by Garmin or the Holux GPSlim236 Wireless Bluetooth GPS Receiver, again available through Amazon
In addition, to manage the service and display the position of one or more KoolTrax™ user, you will need an Internet connected Windows PC.
Track your BlueRanger while you are mobile too, using the BlueMap PDA
The BlueMap PDA is an optional fully featured Personal Digital Assistant running BlueMap software, so you can see onscreen the relative positions of you and the person wearing a Blue Tree Services tracker together with the direction of travel. To find them, you just travel or walk towards them. We haven't seen this capability anywhere else.
It's also a fully functioning PDA. We are currently using the Mio A701, so it gives you satnav, it's a phone, camera, video and audio player, and comes with Microsoft Office mobile, a calendar, contacts list and much more. So now you have a great reason to get a gorgeous, state of the art PDA.
BlueRanger works well without the BlueMap PDA, but with it, finding an errant runaway is fast and easy, and if, during a search, you still have someone watching BlueMap on your home computer, they can see the relative positions of both units.
Our price for the BlueMap PDA is £351.33 + £10.00 per order for p&p. You have a choice regarding the data charges. You may buy a BlueMap PDA and put your own phone sim into it, so you keep your number and contacts and you pay for the data charges through your existing phone contract. Or you can buy a new sim from us at £141 per year.
All BlueMap (parent or manager) units are able to track more than one BlueRanger (child or client) unit at no additional cost.
What you are getting
Our service provides
- the ability to track the real position of anyone (assuming they accept being tracked)
- 4 metre positional accuracy
- real-time, live location data
- a breadcrumb trail of where they have been
- the security of knowing you or your child, parent, client or staff member has an alert button that, when pressed, shows you exactly where they are
- control of the setup of any number of geofence boundaries of any shape, that you can switch between at will
- the ability to set up alerts by email and/or text message to any number of people
How to order
A wide range of currencies is supported after you've clicked to buy, see the national flags at the top right of the screen to pay in dollars or Euros (and more).
BlueRanger
Click the 'buy' button below to buy a single BlueRanger unit through our secure payment pages. If you want more than one, click the button and change the quantity on the next page.
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KoolTrax™
Click the 'buy' button below to buy and download KoolTrax™ through our secure payment pages. If you want more than one, click the button and change the quantity on the next page.
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Rapid Emergency Response
Rapid Emergency Response is an emergency callout service available to BlueRanger or KoolTrax customers while they are in the UK counties of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire.
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Purchasing the BlueMap PDA and quantities of BlueRanger
If you wish to purchase one or more BlueMap PDAs and/or more than one full BlueRanger, please use this form. Remember to click 'recalc' before pressing 'buy now'.
If you wish to combine KoolTrax™ with BlueRangers, please place two separate orders.
Product prices are shown here excluding postage and packing (p&p) at £10.00 per order.
ENSURE YOU PRESS RECALC BEFORE PRESSING BUY NOW
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What happens after I've bought?
Software products are immediately downloadable along with instructions for installation. You will require an activation code from us which is dispatched by humans so please allow a business day.
For physical products, we currently try to ship every Tuesday by Parcel Post, so if you order by mid-day on a Tuesday you are likely to receive it next day. If you order on a Wednesday it will be just over a week.
When you receive your parcel, if you have BlueRangers, set them charging.
You will be asked to agree to our terms and conditions and to request the unit be activated. Privacy laws require this step.
Once you've done that, we send you a login code. You install BlueMap software on your PC, enter the login, turn on the BlueRanger and you will see its position on your screen. Well done, you're tracking!
Set up boundaries using BlueMap software by drawing them on an on-screen map, and enter the details of who is to receive alerts, under what circumstances, and by which method (email/SMS).
Hand out BlueRanger to whoever is to use it that day, and get tracking!
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