Teletrac (branded as Teletrac Navman; formerly Trafficmaster) is a

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is co ...

company headquartered in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...

, with offices in the United Kingdom. It provides cloud-based GPS fleet tracking software, stolen vehicle tracking and connected services such as eCall, bCall and Concierge and is a subsidiary of

Vontier Vontier Corporation is a manufacturing company headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. It owns the brands Gilbarco Veeder-Root, Matco Tools and Teletrac Navman, including subsidiaries Hennessy Industries, Gasboy, and Global Traffic Technologi ...

History

Teletrac was founded as International Teletrac Systems in 1988. It received initial funding from a unit of

AirTouch AirTouch Communications was an American wireless telephone service provider, created as a spin-off on Pacific Telesis on April 1, 1994. Its headquarters were in One California in the Financial District, San Francisco, California. After a series ...

Communication (formerly known as Pacific Telesis) in exchange for 49% equity of the company. Teletrac launched two service offerings in 1990 for its flagship Los Angeles market: a consumer service called "Stolen Vehicle Location Services" and a fleet/enterprise service called "Corporate Vehicle Location services". Los Angeles was followed by Detroit, Miami, Dallas, Chicago, and Houston. In 1991, following the lifting of information services restrictions from the AT&T consent decree, AirTouch increased its equity stake and the company became known as AirTouch Teletrac. Teletrac was purchased from Airtouch in 1996 by James McQueen and its headquarters were moved to Kansas City.

Trafficmaster

Founded in the United Kingdom in 1988 by entrepreneurs David Martell and Ian Williams, Trafficmaster provided road congestion information to drivers, using a network of sensors on major roads. The company was floated on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

in 1994 and expanded into Germany and other countries; it added fleet management and stolen vehicle tracking to its services. By 2000, during the

dot.com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compos ...

, the company was valued at £650 million and had partnerships with several car manufacturers. In 2001, Trafficmaster purchased Teletrac in order to expand into the United States. The Teletrac brand was retained for the subsidiary. In early 2002, the company pulled out of the fleet management market in Europe after issuing two profit warnings.

Vector Capital

Trafficmaster plc was purchased by

private equity firm A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including lev ...

Vector Capital Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

in 2010, in a deal valued at $145 million. The company was taken private after the purchase. Prior to the purchase, the bulk of Trafficmaster's income came from its operations in the United States.

Danaher / Fortive / Vontier

In 2013, Vector Capital sold Teletrac to American conglomerate

Danaher Corporation Danaher Corporation is an American globally diversified conglomerate with its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The company designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services. The company' ...

; it was reported that Vector made three-times return with the sale. Teletrac was among the businesses spun off in 2016 to create Fortive, and in 2020 Fortive split out its transportation businesses to create Vontier.

Navman

Teletrac merged in 2015 with Taiwan-owned Navman Wireless, a maker of

GPS navigation A satellite navigation device (satnav device) is a user equipment that uses one or more of several global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) to calculate the device's geographical position and provide navigational advice. Depending on the s ...

devices, and the resulting company was headquartered in Glenview, IL. In 2016, the company rebranded as Teletrac Navman and the UK company was renamed from Trafficmaster Limited to Teletrac Navman (UK) Ltd.

Products

The company's initial product was stolen vehicle location and corporate fleet vehicle location, using a technique called

multilateration Trilateration is the use of distances (or "ranges") for determining the unknown position coordinates of a point of interest, often around Earth (geopositioning). When more than three distances are involved, it may be called multilateration, for e ...

. Specialized base stations and receivers were installed throughout a city, and vehicles equipped with special transmitters could have their location determined on command. Once

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

receivers became affordable, Teletrac discontinued its network-based positioning system and began marketing products and services centered around a cloud-based

GPS tracking A GPS tracking unit, geotracking unit, satellite tracking unit, or simply tracker is a navigation device normally on a vehicle, asset, person or animal that uses satellite navigation to determine its movement and determine its WGS84 UTM g ...

platform. It has been used for numerous purposes over the years including tracking stolen vehicles and monitoring fuel consumption. The software platform has built-in capabilities that track for compliance with EOBR and

FMCSA The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation that regulates the trucking industry in the United States. The primary mission of the FMCSA is to reduce crashes, injuries and ...

. The software can be used for basic GPS

vehicle tracking A vehicle tracking system combines the use of automatic vehicle location in individual vehicles with software that collects these fleet data for a comprehensive picture of vehicle locations. Modern vehicle tracking systems commonly use GPS or G ...

as well as compliance with electronic driver logs. Its capabilities allow for the tracking of a few vehicles or a fleet of vehicles for larger companies. Teletrac Navman diversified into connected services in 2020, providing cloud based TCU connectivity to brands in the UK, Europe, United States and Australasia such as Ford, Jaguar and Land Rover.

References

{{Fortive Software companies established in 1988 Software companies based in California Companies based in Orange County, California 1988 establishments in California 2010 mergers and acquisitions 2013 mergers and acquisitions Software companies of the United States