For every 50 cars in the UK, at least one of them is stolen each year and more than 10% of plant machinery goes missing. Not to mention the 7000 boats, 4000 caravans and 35000 motorbikes, showing that vehicle theft is a real problem but how can you get your property back?

With the amount of cars being stolen everyday people are resorting to various types of security devices in order to protect their assets. Along with vehicle alarms and immobilisers which can sometimes be bypassed by the criminal, owners of high value vehicles are resorting to some form of tracking device. These tracking devices mean the vehicle can be located almost anywhere in the world using the latest GPS or GSM locating technology. This allows the vehicle's location to be monitored 24 hours a day and if moved from its location the owner can be notified and the location traced allowing the vehicle to be recovered and returned to its rightful owner.

The tracking devices are small and discreet allowing them to be hidden in your vehicle, and if the criminal doesn't know what he is looking for, he won't find it. Some of these tracking systems are battery powered meaning they are even harder for the thief to trace and have the ability to last for several years without the need for maintenance.

GPS based tracking systems utilise the dedicated satellites currently orbiting the planet to give out an accurate location allowing the vehicle to be traced to a pinpoint location just like a satellite navigation device can take you straight to the front door. The location is sent to a monitoring team which can keep track of the vehicle and the position of the stolen vehicle can be displayed on a digital map for the monitoring team to easily identify the location at a glance.

Tracking devices based on GSM technology make use of the existing mobile phone network, and can stay in a dormant state until either the owner activates the device if the vehicle has been stolen or the vehicle leaves a virtual fence set in the device. This is an area plotted on a map, if the vehicle leaves the area that has been plotted it alerts the monitoring team. This is useful if the owner leaves the vehicle for long periods and won't know if the vehicle has been moved such as going on holiday. Once the GSM tracking device is activated it will then begin to send its location to a monitoring base to be tracked and located. This allows the device to be in a stealth mode while dormant making it difficult for a thief to find the device, that's if he knows it's there. The dormant state also allows the device to preserve its battery life even more, making it last even longer.

Another form of vehicle tracking is RF(Radio Frequency) transmitters which can be detected though walls, garages or even buildings. Tracking devices may use a mixture of GSM and RF for an even more precise location allowing for even more successful recoveries of assets. RF tracking is useful when the vehicle does not have line of sight with the sky (needed for GPS based systems) or is not in range of a mobile phone mast (for GSM based systems) which is why some manufacturers of tracking devices will include both RF transmitters along with GPS or GSM technology.