What does ‘Thatcham approved’ mean?
Thatcham Research was established by the motor insurance industry in the 1960s to reduce the cost of insurance claims, but at the same time maintaining safety standards. Thatcham has been a name synonymous with the car security market since the 1990s, when it introduced the Vehicle Security Assessment (NVSA) alongside a system of categories for alarms, immobilisers and vehicle trackers, to try to reduce the rate of car crime. Their certification system and logo gives you the peace of mind that an approved Thatcham vehicle tracker offers a high level of performance and functionality.
A vehicle tracker is called an ‘aftermarket’ safety product because it is not normally installed before you buy a new car but following the sale. An aftermarket tracking device is therefore not made by the manufacturer of your car, but a specialist vehicle security device manufacturer.
How does an aftermarket tracking device work?
Basically, a Thatcham vehicle tracker uses GPS satellite navigation to relay information. The security device in your vehicle simply transmits important information such as vehicle and driver data to satellites, which then relay the data to a specified smartphone, tablet, or computer. Although a vehicle tracker is similar to a sat nav system, it tracks your vehicle’s journey history and its current location, rather than giving you precise instructions on how to reach your destination.
There are two types of aftermarket tracking device:
Passive
Usually the less expensive option, these security devices store all the GPS data to be downloaded at the end of your journey.
Active
Active vehicle trackers provide the GPS data in real time and can, therefore, relay it to a managed service, for example the transport manager of a fleet, a warehouse delivery hub, or the control centre for police vehicles.
Thatcham vehicle tracker
All tracking systems are designed to meet the Thatcham standards required to enable certification before installation. All Thatcham approved tracking systems carry annual subscription fees in order to transmit the data. There are two main categories of Thatcham vehicle tracker, the S5 and the S7.
What are the differences between categories S5 and S7?
The features of S7 Thatcham vehicle tracker:
- 24/7/365 monitoring
- RF frequency & GPS communication
- Tracking if your car should be stolen
- Accurate tracking to within a three metres
- A low level alert if your battery is disconnected
- A motion sensor alert
- A lower annual subscription fee
- Internal battery back-up
It is worth noting that the S7 tracker does not feature any protection against key theft, and although the annual subscription is lower, so is the police response level. It does not offer remote immobilisation should your car be stolen. In addition, an S7 vehicle tracker does not include driver identification, so the system would be unable to tell the difference between you and a car thief. However, the benefits of installing an S7 tracker are that it is cheaper to fit and offers great value for money as well as giving you peace of mind. If you need a basic tracker, then this would be the category of vehicle tracker to choose.
The S5 Thatcham vehicle tracker is a higher specification of security device and is often required by insurance companies for high performance cars worth above a certain value. In fact, it may be almost impossible to obtain insurance for a high value new car without the installation of an S5 vehicle tracker.
Along with all the S7 category features listed above, which are common to all categories of vehicle tracker, the S5 category also includes extra features:
- Level one police response
- A higher annual subscription fee
- Remote immobilisation (optional)
Should your car be stolen, and the police cannot reach it for some reason, they can request that your car is immobilised remotely. This means that once the engine has been switched off, it will not restart, enabling the successful recovery of your car. The police can also request this function if your car is involved in a high-speed chase. Although remote immobilisation is an optional feature, it does offer you the best chance to recover your car, and quickly.
- Driver ID
If you were to install one of these security devices in your car, you would be required to carry a driver ID card. Subsequently, if your car is started with the correct key but the driver ID card (transponder), is not present, an alert will automatically be sent to the operations centre, which will relay the alert to both you as the owner of the car, and the police. It is worth noting that this is a proactive system, but if you keep the driver ID card with your car keys and they are stolen, the system will not realise something is wrong and it would be up to you to report the theft.
What is the benefit of driver ID?
An S7 category vehicle tracker is reactive. It will not alert you if your vehicle is driven away, only if the power to the security device has been disconnected. It does not have the ability to detect whether it is you driving your car with the correct key, or a thief with cloned keys. (Read our blog about key cloning car theft.)
However, if you opt for an S5 vehicle tracker installation, the system detects immediately that the driver ID card was not present and sends a silent alert to the control room. Someone would contact you straight away to inform you where your car is located, and you could confirm that you are not driving it at that moment in time. So, you would know your car had been stolen within minutes of the theft taking place, giving you the best possible chance of a speedy recovery.
AJT Installs can help you with any aspect of vehicle security, including vehicle trackers. We can provide information and advice as well as an installation service to ensure the Thatcham vehicle tracker in your car offers you the best level of protection for your needs.