Apparatus tracking options
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Looking for the best option that Volunteer agencies can put on their vehicles to track their apparatus in COTAK and how that might work. Fire agencies in the county are interested in both a battery operated and a hardwired option for vehicle tracking of their apparatus. Anyone have success stories with this type of device and integrating it.
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One thought is something called Optimus Tracker. It's super easy and like $40 plus $190 per year. There are other things llike SinoTrack (via amazon) that I suspect are cheaper but they're set up to do things like kill the fuel pump remotely and such. Ultimately, putting a TAK device with cellular service. Another option is inreach mini 2. It's $50 per month but works via Iridium. It provides two minute tracking versus every few seconds with a TAK device.
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SinoTrack might be your best option cost-wise but its a more DIY thing and we haven't yet integrated it, so there's a little unknown there. I think it's $20 for the equipment. Some cost for your own data sim. Those can be super cheap. Optimus and inreach are already integrated
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Thanks Ben. Much appreciated. I will pass on the info and let those folks decide the route they like. the irdium option sounds more like what they need as they are mountain agencies mostly and have no cell coverage. They may have grant money so if there is an option that integrates without a subscription but costs more on the front side(doubtful) that could be an option too.
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We've used the iridium devices and they are quite reliable. Unfortunately they are $50 per month per device. Depending on the number of devices you'd need, a company called EverywhereHub can manage devices with every possible configuration that garmin has and most consumer plans do not. I would highly recommended them as we have a fleet of 20 that they manage. A significant advantage is that they can configure them to ping out at a fixed interval regardless of if the device moves -- a standard plan cannot be configured this way. While this doesn't seem significant it is by far the best way to keep track of your apparatus or personnel once they dismount from the vehicle -- that's a nice possibility as well. If you firefighters leave the truck you want to know where humans are primarily rather than objects.
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We also support integrating SPOT devices into COTAK, and the service plans on those is generally a bit cheaper than Garmin. SPOT generally has a bit less capability as well, but for just seeing a dot of the user's location in COTAK both options work about equally well!
