Vehicle theft has become a real issue in the UK. Fortunately, there is a solution to prevent it from happening or to at least minimise the damages car owners face. Advantages of equipping automobiles with trackers include real time updates – to know where your car is and to be aware of the current weather conditions and traffic situation, route optimisation – to act more efficiently when planning journeys, phone tracking – to view vehicle information from any location, and driver behaviour monitoring for fleet management – to improve driver behaviour and to reduce strain on the automobile and fuel costs, as you can gather data on speed.
As you can find various types of car trackers on the market, it’s understandable why you may struggle to make a decision about which one to purchase, since you’re unsure which one is the best for your own vehicle. In this guide, the FitMyTracker team has helped to differentiate between all of the Thatcham categories for GPS trackers. Below you can read about the 4 kinds that are available.
1. CAT 5 Trackers
The Category 5 GPS trackers are among the most efficient car trackers you can find on today’s market. They’re especially suitable for high-speed vehicles that have great value and they offer the best SPEC (Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation) rating in stolen automobile recovery. The car’s owner will get an immediate alert if the vehicle is driven, without the card being detected by the device. Category 5 trackers also come equipped with starter motor immobilisation. This allows the vehicle to be immobilised in the event of a fast police chase. This increases the chances of recovery after theft, which saves you both the loss of your automobile and the money you would have otherwise spent by replacing car pieces and fixing damages.
2. CAT 6 Trackers
Category 6 trackers are the standard tracking device for day to day use. They’re mostly used by car owners who want to keep their insurance premiums down. These Category 6 trackers monitor vehicles nonstop (24 hours a day and 365 days a year). This helps you to keep track of your automobile’s location all the time. If your car is stolen, the control room monitoring the trackers can inform you of any unusual activity regarding your vehicle. They liaise directly with the police to guarantee the fastest recovery. Although the CAT 6 tracker has a slightly lower SPEC rating, installing a category 6 Thatcham approved tracker will increase the chances of your automobile being returned in the event it is stolen from you.
3. S5 Trackers
Thatcham now considers that S5 trackers provide the best security and theft recovery out of all the other ones that are currently available on the market. This type of tracker is the one that your insurance company might refer to when recommending the installation of a tracking device to your vehicle. Insurance companies may require you to install an S5 tracker if your car is highly valued, as this one has a great SPEC rating. The S5 trackers are essentially just an improvement of CAT 5 trackers, which means that they still offer the same benefits as a CAT 5 tracker.
4. S7 Trackers
S7 trackers are the latest ones that Thatcham approved as a tracking technology. They’ve started to replace the Category 6 trackers because insurance companies are requesting that car owners install these to conform with their most recent policy. S7 trackers can and will help you locate automobiles both at home and abroad, as they’re in use in over 100 different countries. The majority of the S7 trackers on the market allow you to track your car using any smartphone, tablet, or PC. Popular brands like Vodafone now manufacture S7 trackers, so the market provides a wide range you can choose from.
