There are various ways you can track your car using your mobile phone today.
For starters, most newer cars come with an in-built GPS tracking feature. For instance the mbrace system by Mercedes. This system allows you to connect remotely with your car via the Mercedes me app. From the App, you can track the car remotely, perform vehicle diagnostics, remotely lock and unlock the doors, etc.
But how about cars that do not have this feature? We have to improvise and use the available resources at our disposal.
In Kenya people have come up with very creative ways to track their cars with their phones.
Let’s look at a few of them next.
How To Track Your Car Using Your Phone For Free
During my escapades on Facebook, I stumbled upon a discussion about car tracking in a certain car group and one member caught my attention.
He was talking about how he tracks his car with his phone with another phone in the car, I was perplexed and so was everyone else as most of us had never heard of this before so I asked him to enlighten us.
“You need to buy a Kambambe” he started. A kambambe is a popular Kenyan name for an analog mobile phone that’s usually very small.
Install a normal Safaricom or Airtel Simcard in the phone and ensure it’s fully charged, then proceed to hide this phone at a discreet place inside the car. Now, in case you ever happen to lose the car all you need to do is go to the Police and ask them to track that Simcard.
At this point, my mind was blown away! I have to admit that’s one clever way of doing it. Even if a malicious person stumbles upon the phone they would probably pay no attention to it because It’s a Kambambe after all.
However, this method has a downside to it, first, the tracking is not real-time, secondly, you might forget to charge the phone, therefore, making it impossible to track the Simcard, and therefore it’s not a very effective method for vehicle tracking.
Luckily, there’s another way of doing it that’s more effective and modern. Let’s look at it and see how it works.
An Effective Way Of Tracking Your Car With Your Phone In Kenya
For this method, you will also need a phone but in this case a smartphone. You will also need to have a tracking device installed on your car.
Car tracking companies like Scepture Empire have made it easy to acquire a tracking device in Kenya. You can simply order one online from their online store and have it delivered to you countrywide.
Once installation is done you’ll then download a tracking app on your phone from where you’ll be able to track your car in real-time.
One such App is Itrack. The App gives you the ability to track your car in real-time as it’s displayed on a Map.
The vehicle status is shown on the map, that is if the vehicle is static how long has it been static also when it’s moving you’re able to see it moving and the speed at which it’s moving at. The engine status is displayed as well, that is if the engine is on or off and for how long it’s been in that state.
The app is equipped with other functionalities as well such as:
- Route Playback – With this feature you can see past trips of your vehicle, the route taken and all the stops made along the way.
- Remote Engine Cut off/Restore – A tracking device is usually installed with a relay. The work of a relay is to turn off/on an electric current. Using the App a user can issue commands to the tracker to cut off the engine or restore the engine remotely.
- Instant Alerts – The app is able to alert the user when the vehicle’s engine is turned on and off, when the vehicle is speeding, when the vehicle is idling and so much more.
- Ge0-fencing – A geofence is a virtual electric fence of a real-world geographical area. Using the tracking app you can set up a geofence and get alerted when the vehicle leaves or enters that area.
These are just some of the basic functions the app can perform, a more detailed guide can be found here.
Verdict
With this information in mind, it’s very clear that even if your car doesn’t have in-built technology for GPS tracking there are other ways you can use to track your car using your phone.
Using the car tracking app is no doubt the most effective way to track your car as it’s fast, easy to use, and modern.
However, should you choose to go the kambambe route ensure it’s always charged and carefully tucked away from plain sight.
That said, should you need further advice, get in touch with a car tracking expert for a free consultation here.