10.20.com Launches Innovative Vehicle Geolocation Service Across North America
Independent of cellular networks, system has continent-wide coverage
Laurel, Maryland, September 13, 2002 – The 10-20.com company announced the immediate availability of their innovative vehicle geolocation service across North America. Using a small and easily installable GPS locator/transmitter and antenna, the 10-20.com device reports the precise location of the vehicle back to a web-accessible database at regular intervals. Anyone with a web browser can readily access location information overlaid on a choice of either street or topological maps. A running history of more than one year of position points can be reviewed and plotted.
“With 10-20.com’s service installed, you can locate a loved one taking a cross-country trip, track field engineers moving from site to site, or have a shipping manager automatically paged as a truck approaches,” said CEO and founder John Todd. “Businesses can get a better idea of fleet utilization for insurance purposes and decrease the use of vehicles for unauthorized usage.”
Cars, boats, trucks, buses, and other vehicles can be swiftly tracked, with alarms that can be set for geographic boundaries of city, state, or country. Alarms can also be triggered on average speed between two points, vehicle movement, or upon a stationary report for a set period of time. Alarm triggering can deliver either an e-mail or pager notification. Depending on the service plan, the reporting interval can be set between thirty minutes and twenty-four hours.
Special features of the 10-20.com system allow users to share waypoints between themselves and anyone with Internet access, giving travelers the ability to give others views into their past trips, interesting map points, or current location. Users can apply five privacy levels to each person who has been granted access to any data, ensuring track data is accessed only in a way that is acceptable to the owner of the device. Additionally, users may incorporate current position maps into their own web pages, allowing views of current track data from within existing web applications or personal home pages.
Unlike other GPS locator systems, 10-20.com uses 2-way satellite technology to report position data, enabling true ubiquitous coverage on land or water away from civilization. By using this bi-directional satellite communication network, the 10-20.com system overcomes the shortfalls of systems that use cellular phone or 2-way paging towers as relays for positional data.
The 10-20.com locator device is about the size of a paperback book and can be easily installed in the trunk or other place on a vehicle. It requires a standard 12-volt constant power supply (available on all cars) and can be installed within 30 seconds if the included cigarette-lighter adapter is used. An antenna is magnetically mounted on the trunk or roof of the vehicle and resembles a cellular phone antenna.
Service plans for 10-20.com start at as little as $20 per month for a daily status report with a one-time equipment charge of $995. More frequent reporting plans at 3 hour, 1 hour, and 30 minute intervals are also available and charges can be billed to any major credit card.
About 10-20.com
Based in Laurel, Maryland, 10-20.com is a privately held company formed in 2001. It provides intracontinental vehicle tracking services for individuals, organizations, and small commercial firms across North America and the surrounding regions. “10-20.com” refers to the radio shorthand “10” codes, where “What’s your 10-20?” means “What is your current location?” More details are available on the company’s web site: http://www.10-20.com/