GPS tracking; a Business automation Solution

GPS Tracking; this is the first of a few articles about business automation solutions. I try to suggest a stable but also as affordable as possible. This can be implemented by business that might not have enough to pay for a tracking company or just do not want to do it and they want to have their own tracking system.

Tracar System image...

Tracar System

For GPS tracking there are a lot of solutions that might work for different purposes. In this case I’ll focus in feet tracking. Some companies have a few vehicles or a lot of them and they do not really know what are they doing most of the time. How much fuel have they spent? how many girlfriends is the driver visiting per month? In how many illegal recces have their cars participated? How much time are my cars IDE? and a whole lot of things that people tend to do when some resources are available without the proper control.

Well this GPS tracking article will help them to know that there are solutions out there that you can implement and that some of them are not very expensive. To implement any of this solutions you need a computer (server), a Real IP address so that your devices can see it from internet. A receptor of messages. And the GPS tracking device to be installed on what ever you want to track, a CAB, a truck, a ship, an air-plain. Check out GPS tracking picture to see how the system works. Basically the GPS tracking device contacts something (in the image the satellite) that says to it the current position and then the device sends it the receptor and the receptor to the server, the servers processes the information and stores it on a database that can be acceded from every where using a web browser.

Note: If someone is trying to sell to you a solution like this in this century that is not accessible from the web from every where; they are behind or they are not serious.
Schematic GPS tracking image

GPS tracking

Just to clarify, actually you always need a Receptor, but sometimes is more convenient for you just to rent the service to someone like a telephone company and they send it to you, so that you do not need a receptor of the data from the device directly and you do not have to pay too much at once.

It is also important for you to know how to that this schematic is just a possibility of the many ways of tracking devices, you can track basically any thing and in the way you want.

The other important part is the software that you are going to use, you can use a few software for this purpose, there are really good paid solutions, but this article is about making it cheaper so I will talk about two solutions that are currently out there for free and that you can have access to the code; OpenGTS and Traccar both of them are completely free based on java.

“OpenGTS™ (“Open GPS Tracking System”) is the first available open source project designed specifically to provide web-based GPStracking services for a “fleet” of vehicles.

OpenGTS image


To date, OpenGTS™ has been downloaded and put to use in over 110 countries around the world to track many 1000’s of vehicles/assets around all 7 Continents. The types of vehicles and assets tracked include taxis, delivery vans, trucks/trailers, farm equipment, personal vehicles, service vehicles, containers, ships, ATVs, personal tracking, cell phones, and more.


This is how OpenGTS defines their own project, you can visit the website.

Now the other system that I have talked about is Traccar. and they define them selves as:

“Traccar is open source system for various GPS tracking devices. At the moment server supports more than 30 different protocols. Versions starting from 1.0 include embedded http server and web interface (view demo) to track devices. Traccar is written in Java and portable between different operating systems and platforms. At the moment installation packages provided for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.”

Traccar image


And you can get information about the project on this page.

That is what I had prepared for today. Just to say that depending  on the environment you might need a custom solution, not exactly what I have proposed. But if you know what you need or you get the right help you can implement it in your company. Enjoy, and feel free to leave any feedback or reply.


6 thoughts on “GPS tracking; a Business automation Solution

  1. dear abel,
    can you kindly suggest me the way to host the open gts or traccar system in a manner I can host my own webserver for tracking and create the entire system where I can provide user name and pwd to people I provide the device and the system to track their own devices with their own username .
    the crux of the matter is how do I host it with a different name altogather

    thanks and regards

  2. Hi vikk:
    The systems are both multiplatform, that means you can use them in windows or Linux or what ever, but you are going to need a real OS, you need to rent a virtual server in internet or have your own with access from internet (Real IP address), for other people to be able to login from every where and also probably to be able to send the messages to the server about the location of the devices. After you have the server you just need to meet the requirements of the system install and configure, there is documentation about it in both websites. I recommend you to use Linux if you are familiar with it.
    In both of them you can create different priviledge users.
    I will come to you with more info later. If you have any other question just leave it here and i will try to answer.
    Best Regards

  3. If you are running a business and you want to know that is your vehicle is in safe hands and your workers are doing well. And you want to know are your workers using your vehicle for office work or any other work. Then you may install GPS tracking device on your car, trucks and planes, trackers gives you the location of your vehicle as it connects to the internet on your computer it also give satellite image that says your vehicle current location.

    • George Baken said: “GPS tracking device on your car, trucks and planes, trackers gives you the location ”

      Thank you for your comment about the tracking device, George
      Well what does trackers means?
      To have a tracking device does not mean you can see the location. To know the location you need a ‘Software’ also, not only the devices.
      This post is about having your own server to track your fleet. No payment attach, no third company dependence, no hidden payment every year. This is a good option maybe for companies with a lot of vehicles or a home customer who don’t want to spend a lot and knows computing stuff.

      Hope it helps…

  4. Hi Abel,
    I am impressed with your post, I have a small business organization so Gps tracker is much important to find my vehicle location. Vehicle Tracking Devices deliver real time information on the location, activity and mobile inventory to improve business performance and customer service. GPS tracking devices also provide valuable protections in the event of vehicle theft or recovery. I have a little bit confusing to your payment and any hidden charge applicable???

  5. Thanks for this epic detail article. Yes Gps vehicle tracking system costs money but this time it is a must. The adoption rate of GPS system is more than 60% in US, Uk and Canada.

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