Skip to main content

Fleet-tracking technology aids arrest of car-theft gang

According to figures published by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, about 150,000 vehicles were stolen in Spain during 2013. According to Spanish communications specialist GMV, most drivers are unaware that a tracking device will make it much harder for thieves. Last November, a vehicle fitted with GMV’s fleet-tracking and -management system Moviloc was stolen in Madrid. The car owner reported the theft to the police and showed them the vehicle’s last recorded position on the tracking device. They w
July 31, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

According to figures published by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, about 150,000 vehicles were stolen in Spain during 2013. According to Spanish communications specialist 55 GMV, most drivers are unaware that a tracking device will make it much harder for thieves.

Last November, a vehicle fitted with GMV’s fleet-tracking and -management system Moviloc was stolen in Madrid. The car owner reported the theft to the police and showed them the vehicle’s last recorded position on the tracking device. They were then able to pinpoint the warehouse where the stolen vehicles were taken before being broken up and taken off to Poland.

The seven-month investigation enabled police to identify parts corresponding to 13 stolen vehicles and arrest two Poles who were working from the warehouse in the industrial estate.

“Moviloc offers a wide range of services and functions to give users exhaustive control over all driver activity, recording, for example, the runs and mileage and also whether the scheduled routes were covered in due time and form, all in real time”, explains Ramón Dávila, product head of Moviloc. “The report offered by this service tells you the number of stops made by any vehicle during any working day, the place and the time each stop lasted. All this information gives an instant snapshot of the vehicle’s movements on any particular day”.

“The onboard equipment is fitted invisibly so that no thief is aware of the tracking device”, explained a police spokesman.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Future of US cooperative infrastructure networks
    July 31, 2012
    Peter H. Appel, the new Administrator of the USDOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, on his vision of the US's future cooperative infrastructure networks. Peter H. Appel comes to the post of Administrator of the US Department of Transportation's Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) from a background in transportation-related work which stretches back over 20 years. Most recently with management consultancy A. T. Kearney, Inc., where he focused on busin
  • Georgia DoT showcases its connectivity
    March 3, 2020
    Georgia DoT’s regional connected vehicle programme could be a model for the rest of the US. Adam Hill speaks to two men involved in making it a reality – and takes a look at the state’s first-ever Tech Showcase
  • Rear-view cameras ‘more effective than parking sensors’
    March 14, 2014
    Rear cameras are more effective than parking sensors at helping drivers avoid objects while travelling in reverse, but they don't help in every situation, a new Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) study shows. The study, conducted with volunteer drivers in an empty parking lot in the Los Angeles area, indicates that cameras would help prevent more reversing crashes into pedestrians in the vehicle's blind zone than parking sensors. Surprisingly, cameras by themselves worked better than sensors a
  • As US edges to four million road deaths, 'something must change' says GHSA
    February 21, 2024
    'Grim and tragic milestone' requires renewed sense of urgency for road safety action