Zonar, smart mobility solutions, announced the availability of its latest iteration of ZTrak, a ruggedized asset tracker designed for long-range connectivity in remote, harsh environments. Zonar built ZTrak with GPS, cellular, and Wi-Fi technologies. It can also withstand temperatures from -40 degrees Fahrenheit to 185 degrees F as well as rain, sleet, and snow.
ZTrak helps fleets fight back against cargo and asset theft. In 2020, cargo theft reached a five-year high in the US. The construction industry alone loses between $300 million and $1 billion to asset theft annually, according to the National Equipment Register and National Insurance Crime Bureau.
ASSET TRACKING WITH ZTRAK
An upgrade from legacy versions, the latest compact ZTrak shrunk in size from approximately a brick to a golf ball. Fleet operators and managers can easily and discreetly install ZTrak on all high-value assets to simply and cost-effectively monitor locations. Seamless integration with Zonar Ground Traffic Control® fleet management platform provides full visibility into each asset’s entire location path.
This new ZTrak intelligently tracks and records an asset’s location every five minutes. It uploads six points every 30 minutes while the asset is on the move. Most importantly, if a burglary occurs, ZTrak has a new feature that remotely enables Theft Recovery Mode. This mode provides near-real-time pings once every minute, to track a stolen asset in motion or at rest. For budget-constrained fleets this is a critical feature to minimize any losses.
“ZTrak has saved us thousands,” says Justin Brands, company fleet manager for Hot Line Construction. “One of our trucks was valued at $300,000 and had $100,000 worth of equipment on board. As soon as the truck was stolen, we were able to track its moment-by-moment location to set up a roadblock and catch the thief before the truck was lost forever.”
“This latest release is even more practical, allowing us to track more than just trailers,” Brands adds. “We plan to use the new ZTrak release on high value tools, materials, and even when shipping items just to have real-time updates on their location. It’s remarkable how easy it is to install and that it only needs standard 3x Energizer L92 batteries.”
USING GPS, WI-FI, & CELLULAR
Legacy asset tracking GPS systems can be prone to lost signals for fleets in any industry. This including those that work in underground sites and rural highways with reduced cellular reception. Even forestry operations where trees might hinder the view of the sky needed by the GPS can experience lost signals. When the GPS signal is lost, location can only be tracked from the last known coordinates. This leads systems to estimate the most likely location, which can create inaccuracies and misinformation.
Zonar equipped the new ZTrak with Wi-Fi and cellular triangulation coverage to provide more comprehensive location resolution capabilities. If GPS and Wi-Fi connections fail, the new ZTrak system can now use cell tower triangulation fallback to track assets.
“At Zonar, we understand how detrimental the loss of a high-value asset is for fleets and the impact it can have on their bottom line,” says Nick Grandy, general manager of vocational industrial services at Zonar. “Our ZTrak solution not only improves asset utilization but ensures the security of all assets. It’s unlike any other tracking devices in the field with its compact, discreet design for easy install, and near-real timing location alerts.”
ZTRAK FEATURES
Building on the success of the legacy ZTrak, this next-generation iteration has new, advanced features including:
- IoT-enabled LTE and Bluetooth Connectivity: Supports LTE CAT M1 technologies to provide widespread coverage while using minimal battery power, whereas legacy systems only have LTE capabilities.
- Wi-Fi/GNSS/Cellular Triangulation Coverage and Wi-Fi Indoor Positioning: New capability to enable connectivity beyond legacy GPS coverage by concurrently looking for both GNSS (GPS) and Wi-Fi signals during a location report to ensure location resolution reliability when GPS signals are weakened or non-existent.
- Deploy-Once Battery Life: With a 10-year battery life averaging two location reports per day, ZTrak can last 2x longer than the legacy ZTrak system. Designed for low-maintenance, user-replaceable, off-the-shelf batteries power the Zonar ZTrak.
- Intelligent Battery Life Management: Built-in balanced, low-power, and ultra-low power network registration strategies optimize power consumption while providing advanced notification for low batteries in need of replacement.
- Theft Recovery Mode: New ability to remotely enable near-real-time pings once every minute to track and recover stolen assets.
Find out more, visit www.zonarsystems.com.
