FAQs

Stolen vehicle recovery units are monitored by our control room and provide information allowing us to track the vehicle when stolen to carry out a recovery. Fleet management systems provide the user access to data streamed to a website or server. The data is far more detailed than merely location and can range from providing details of speed, current and historic location right through to second by second replays of the vehicles actions over a period of time.

There is some confusion on the market as to what is Satellite Tracking. Every tracking device uses GPS to calculate positions and data. However most stream the data via GPRS (cellphone networks) and these are GPRS tracking devices. There are also tracking devices that stream data via GPS and these are pure satellite tracking devices. They are not as common and far more expensive. They do provide the widest possible coverage and reliability but due to the cost of satellite streaming they often send smaller packets of data than the GPRS devices. This is ideal for cross border and remote monitoring.

Yes. Our Cartrack products are specially designed with recovery in mind. Our units also incorporate Radio Frequency technology allowing us to track vehicles out of cellphone range and in basements.

Yes. As part of the Cartrack network we have access to Cartrack dedicated recovery teams across Southern Africa including South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Swaziland.

Both units have the same fleet management reporting abilities. The Cartrack Fleet Management Plus comes with a Stolen Vehicle Recovery Aspect to it whilst the Fleet Lite is a pure fleet management tool.

In simple terms yes and it is what most products tell you. However, some of our units are designed to significantly increase your chances of recovery. Most “tracking” products are mounted in the exact same place and are easy to find. They cannot be found in basements or containers. Our Recovery units are designed to be hidden and come with the added technology of Radio Frequency allowing us to find the car in basements, containers and areas of poor network. This is not available on all of our units as is not always needed so no point in paying for it.

Yes. An App has been developed for most smartphones and can be downloaded free from your normal App stores. Search for “Cartrack Fleet”. The App allows you to see where your vehicles are and what trips they have made. For the full site you need to access from a flash enabled internet connection.

A geofence is a user defined area. The system will record when vehicles enter or leave this user defined area. Simply click on the geofence icon and draw around the area you wish to mark off. You must click back to your start point to complete the geofence.

Yes, the Cartrack account comes with a choice of mapsets including Google Maps, Cartrack maps and Satellite imagery

Startrack streams data via satellite whilst the other products (and most on the market) use GSM technology (cellphone networks). This provides huge benefits to certain industries.
It means you can track your vehicle anywhere in the world that has line of sight to the sky
It does not rely on cellphone network coverage.
It has a fixed monthly tariff meaning there are no surprise bills including huge roaming costs when your vehicles are outside the country.
It allows you two way communication with your drivers via satellite rather than relying on cellphone network coverage.

The MS Track Pro View Menu give you access to the following:

Local Map – Loads the Local Map Engine
Linear Map – Loads the Linear Map Engine
Buffer Zone Allocation – Used to allocate created buffer zones to your fleet
Driver Management – Opens the Driver Module, allows for the creation, deletion, editing and allocating of drivers to vehicles
Fleets & Allocations – Quickly change which vehicles are assigned to which fleets
Geofence Module – Manage your geofences, create & assign Geofences to your fleets
Holiday List – Add public holidays/non working days to the system, when using the reporter, these will be taken into account and not shown on the reports
Message Centre – The MS Track Message Centre is used to send & receive messages from MDT’s & Cellular phones out in the field
Reports Module – Opens the MS Track Pro Reporter, a full blown Management Reporting Suite, are easily created using the wizard, reports can then be saved or a schedule can be setup to allow for automatic reporting sent to email
Sites – Gives the ability to view, add, delete or change site details
Vehicle Registration – Add, Edit or Delete vehicles from the system.

The Bufferzone Allocation module allows you to assign any Bufferzones created on the Local Map to your chosen Company/Fleet. To open the Bufferzone Allocation module go to “View Bufferzone Allocation”
To assign a Bufferzone to a Company/Fleet:
Select the Company from the drop down menu
Select the Fleet from the drop down menu
Select the created Bufferzone to assign from the drop down menu
Select the type of warning required for the Bufferzone
Press the “Allocate” button to complete the process.

Once completed the Bufferzone will be added to the list in the bottom of the Window, to delete a Bufferzone click the left hand column next to the Bufferzone to be delete and select delete Bufferzone.

MS Track Pro 8 can be set to Plot all vehicles when the Map is open. To turn this feature On or Off go to “Settings - Select/DeSelect Auto Plot All Vehicles When Map is Open”.

MS Track Pro is able to display distance and speed in either kilometers or miles.
To configure “Distance units” click on “Settings and select either Kilometers or Miles”.

From the Map Menu on the MS Track menu bar, you are able to do the following:
Clear Map – Removes all vehicles & information plotted on the Map by MS Track Pro
Plot All Vehicles – Turns the Plotting of All Vehicles On or Off.

This means that the key is full. This can happen if:

1. You are not downloading the key or holding the key in the PC downloader until you get multiple beeps.
2. You have turned off the ‘erase after download’ in the key reader.
Solution: Right click the Key reader icon at the bottom right hand corner of your screen and select ‘erase after download”.

If you change a key type or use a driver key for programming vehicles or for testing then you WILL ERASE whatever data was on the key.

Solution: To retrieve trip data that was accidentally erased on the key you will need to download the contents of the black box again. Note: only do this if your trip data on the key has been lost.

This could be any of the following problems:
A. There is data in the key but it’s not getting to the PC.

Use the key information feature in CHECKMATE to make sure that the key has information in it. (CHECKMATE MENU ->TOOLS -> KEY INFORMATION). You would expect at least 500 records per day. If there are very few records then this indicates that the unit can not see the satellites. See the section on “no data in the vehicle to download”.
If there is data in the key then make sure that the key reader is running and that you hold the key in the key reader until you get multiple beeps. You can then use the key information feature again to make sure the key was erased. At this point the information IS NOT YET IN CHECKMATE. You need to click the UPDATE button in CHECKMATE in order for the information to become visible. If you have changed the default location in the key reader setup for where the text information files are saved, then possibly the information will not be updated by CHECKMATE. Contact Trac-King support.

A. The data is not getting to the key. If you are running the black key version of GEOTAB hardware please contact Trac-King support. Questions include: Did you change the Driver Key type in CHECKMATE? Data Transfer Key is the default but if you change the key type to Non Data Transfer and then reprogram a key then that key will never download information – it is only used to identify the driver.
To fix this, change the option back and then reprogram that Key. Note this WILL ERASE any data you already have on that key.

Another common reason why data is not getting to the key is if the key has been made a vehicle programming key. This can be verified by clicking on the CHECKMATE software menu as follows: (CHECKMATE MENU ->TOOLS -> KEY INFORMATION). This will tell you what type of key you have. If you have a vehicle Key and you want to change it to a driver key, go to setup wizard -> Keys & Drivers, find the driver you want and then click Edit. Make sure that the key is set to data transfer key. Now Click the Create Key button and follow instructions. This key is now registered to that driver and will download data.

Please check the other reasons before assuming that the vehicle is not recording information. This is the least likely case.

First thing is to see if the key receptacle has a flashing red light. If it does it means the unit has power. If the unit does not have power, please contact Trac-King Support.

Next step would be to take a GEOTAB ‘TEST KEY’ (see the section on creating a test key), briefly insert this into the receptacle. The unit will now chirp twice a second. This condition means everything is working but it is not able to determine its position. Take the vehicle out into the open so the antenna has full view of the sky. The unit will continue to chirp like this until it identifies a satellite. When it has identified the satellite, it will now chirp only once a second. This means that everything is working. If after 30 minutes outside it has still not detected the satellites then the GPS antenna could be covered by something restricting its view of the satellites. The antenna wire could have been cut or tampered with. Replace the antenna and if the unit is still not working then there is a possible fault, contact Trac-King support. Insert the test key again to switch off the test mode. If GEOTAB is able to see the satellites and the test mode works then the only reason you are not able to download would be because you have the wrong type of key.

This means that the GEOTAB Key Reader is not running or does not recognize the downloader. You can run the key reader by START -> PROGRAMS -> GEOTAB 4 -> KEYREADER. If the key reader has a cross through it, then it has not detected a downloader, this can occur if some other application is ‘using’ the serial port. Try restarting the machine and if the problem persists you should contact IT support and let them identify where the issue is.

On the main checkmate screen click TOOLS -> CREATE TEST KEY -> INSERT KEY INTO DOWNLOAD PORT -> NEXT -> OK.