Stolen vehicle recovery targeted in Latin America

In parallel, the company is planning to strengthen its reach and to increase the penetration of its telematics and fleet management solutions, including the StarLink modular telematics product line as well as products like eSafe for driving behaviour monitoring and eFuel, which is designed to provide alerts on fuel theft.

ERM is already active in a number of Latin American countries and is expected to utilise its teams, technology and know-how to customise the company’s products to meet the specific demands of the Latin American markets. This will enable ERM to offer dedicated and customised solutions to its local partners’ needs and allow the provision of various additional options such as white labelling products with the branding of the partner incorporated into the product.

Eitan Kirshenboim, CMO at ERM Telematics, stated: “The demand for telematics solutions in Latin America stems from the need for vehicle security and tracking systems, which provide immediate support in emergency cases - such as panic buttons for vehicle hijacks, tracking for recovery of stolen vehicles and voice options for further assistance. Many of the fleets in the region use basic fleet management tools, which limit their ability to monitor and improve the fleet performance in order to reduce costs.

"We believe that ERM’s advanced solutions and business strategy can help these fleets to improve their fleet performance, lower their operational costs and maximise their ROI.” He adds that ERM is introducing to the Latin American market a line of unique solutions, that are backed up by patents and are flexible in design and customisation abilities, to support a wide range of scenarios and a variety of needs.

Kirshenboim also noted that the company welcomes cooperation with leading players in the automotive and fleet management sector in Latin America. ERM’s business model is based on its customers being long term partners, with whom the company is in close and ongoing relations, enabling them to define their demands and for ERM to supply a customised technological and service solution, backed up by a Spanish website, salespeople and customer support.

ERM offers different solutions for fleet management and Stolen Vehicle Recovery operations. The solutions vary from basic implementation to more comprehensive solutions, in order to better control and manage the fleets and to assist in the retrieving of vehicles and to enable each of ERM's partners to adopt a solution that is best suited for them.

ERM’s SVR basic implementation consists of vehicle location tracking and added accessories such as immobilisation system, which requires drivers to identify themselves by using a code or other identification methods. Additional accessories include an alarm system, break in sensors, tow detection, remote door and windows control. Some of the more sophisticated technological solutions include CANbus integration for advanced diagnostics of the vehicles' mechanical and computerised environment. The diagnostics helps evaluate in real time the use made of the vehicle and helps to remotely identify in advance events which might affect the vehicle’s performance.

Some of the more comprehensive solutions offered by ERM include tracking devices equipped with WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities, and a variety of add-ons to enable safety and fuel monitoring, voice capabilities and other alerts. The add-on features are based on the wide range of ERM sensors and hardware applications, as well as applications from third party vendors.

Some other possible solutions for assisting ERM’s partners in SVR operations include a patented solution for jamming mitigation that enables the tracking of jammed vehicles by transmitting a distress message that is being picked-up by nearby vehicles. Another patented solution is designed to locate leased vehicles whose owner stopped its payments – ‘Parking Habits’.

The need for SVR solutions in Latin America is backed up by a market study by Berg Insights, which found the level of car theft in Brazil is four times that of the US and that the situation in other Latin American markets like Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela is about the same.