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

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike o ...

company headquartered in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

, with offices in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico. 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.

History

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

AirTouch AirTouch Communications, Inc. was an American Mobile phone, wireless telephone service provider, created as a Corporate spin-off, spin-off of Pacific Telesis on April 1, 1994. Its headquarters were located in the One California building in the F ...

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, MO.

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 The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

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 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 or private equity company (often described as a financial sponsor) is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of a Startup company, startup or of an existin ...

Vector Capital 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 global conglomerate founded in 1984 by brothers Steven and Mitchell Rales. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the company designs, manufactures, and markets medical, industrial, and commercial products and ...

; 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 (satnav) device or GPS device is a device that uses satellites of the Global Positioning System (GPS) or similar global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). A satnav device can determine the user's geographic coordinat ...

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. In 2024, Teletrac Navman was awarded best vehicle tracking provider by BusinessPrices.co.uk.

Products

The company's initial product was stolen vehicle location and corporate fleet vehicle location, using a technique called Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA) Multilateration. Specialized

base station Base station (or base radio station, BS) is – according to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Radio Regulations (RR) – a " land station in the land mobile service." A base station is called '' node B'' in 3G, '' eNB'' in L ...

s and receivers were installed throughout a city, and vehicles equipped with special transmitters could have their location determined on command. Once GPS receivers became affordable, Teletrac discontinued its network-based positioning system and began marketing products and services centered around a cloud-based GPS tracking 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 software can be used for basic GPS vehicle tracking 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 In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

-based TCU connectivity to brands in the UK, Europe, United States and

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

such as Ford,

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

and

Land Rover Land Rover is a brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by British multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR builds Land Rovers in Brazil ...

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