ANTI-THEFT SOLUTION

A global pandemic has changed consumer behaviour causing substantial online sales and door-to-door delivery services boost worldwide. Unfortunately, this shift has led to a rapid rise in package and delivery vans thefts too spreading like a wildfire country by country. To resolve this issue, here at Siliconfusion Telematics we have developed a highly effective solution dedicated to delivery service companies and relevant fleet

INTRO

CHALLENGE

Did you know, only in the USA alone 1.7 million packages are stolen or go missing from doorsteps, costing sellers around $9 billion every single year?.

Because of the global Covid-19 pandemic, lockdown and stay-at-home procedures in most of the countries, millions of consumers are unable or unwilling to go into a grocery and household goods stores. Thus, people are turning to an alternative option – online sales and door-to-door delivery services. For instance, a retail giant Walmart saw a 74 per cent growth in online sales this year, Target corporation – a whopping 141 per cent jump and Amazon has hired an additional 175,000 people to cope with a growing workload.

Unfortunately, this boost has led to a rapid rise in package and delivery vans thefts. For instance, about 20 per cent of households in the US have reported a delivery package stolen throughout March to May 2020 period, which is an all-time high number. Sadly, other countries keep following the same disturbing trend.

Furthermore, a good portion of delivery service drivers have some bad habits or practices and every so often (or even systematically) make mistakes too – forget to lock vehicle doors, leave a key in an ignition switch or inside on a dashboard or seat while taking the parcel to a customer door.

No doubt, these trends are noticed by offenders and thieves as ‘can’t be missed’ opportunities with a high reward with little effort and risk. More online orders, more deliveries, more drivers, more blunders and more stolen parcels, to say at least. And a vicious cycle goes on and on…

Keeping all above in mind, Siliconfusion Telematics team has come up with a sophisticated anti-theft solution helping delivery and courier businesses to resolve this significant issue for good.

SOLUTION

CAN-CONTROL adapter, in a combination with Siliconfusion GPS tracker, supported and compatible with it, grants remote control of vehicle door lock and windows-closing via GPRS or SMS text command.

Also, the adapter reads essential CAN bus parameters such as fuel level, odometer, fuel consumption or engine RPM, engine temperature, oil pressure, lights and handbrake status, etc. Thus, corporate fleet managers can swiftly identify areas of improvement to minimise vehicle maintenance overheads and optimise operating costs.

For the sake of example, we choose the Siliconfusion made with the latest generation of electronic components. Here, CAN-CONTROL is used to receive data about the states of various systems within a vehicle, and send them to a server as state flags.

This adapter connects directly to a vehicle CAN line, so there is no need to use additional relays or expensive car security systems for the remote lock control. Impressively, it supports over 1300 vehicles, and the list is growing.

Scenario #1. A driver forgot to lock vehicle front, sliding or back doors

A driver arrives at a destination, turns off the ignition (a server receives the event state flag), takes a key out of ignition switch (server receives another event state flag). At the same time, the accelerometer in tracker no longer detects vehicle movement.

A driver opens the door (state flag) and gets out and closes the front door (state flag), opens the back door (state flag), picks up a package to be delivered and closes the door (state flag) but forgets to lock one or all vehicle doors (state flag).

Based on specifically pre-configured settings and known each vehicle door status, all closed but unlocked doors will be locked automatically in 15 seconds by sending a dedicated command remotely. Even though the driver made a mistake, all parcels are secured and remain safe in a delivery van. Motor/goods theft has been prevented.

Scenario #2. Door/s left unlocked, a key is in an ignition switch, the engine is on.

A driver has arrived at a destination, parked a vehicle, left the engine on (state flag), and went to pick a package from the vehicle booth by opening a back door (state flag), closing the door (state flag) and went to the customer address without locking it (state flag). The ignition key is left inside (state flag), a vehicle engine is up and running (state flag).

Thanks to state flag data, it is known that vehicle ignition is on and the key is in. An integrated accelerometer in tracker indicates that the vehicle is not moving, back doors have been opened and closed but remain unlocked. Based on specifically pre-configured settings, unlocked doors will be locked automatically in 15 seconds by sending a dedicated command remotely. Once again, even though the driver made a mistake, all packages are secured and remain safe. Motor/goods theft has been prevented.

When a driver comes back, there are two ways to unlock door/s and get access to the vehicle:

A driver will have to call a company local monitoring centre, so they can remotely unlock a van via the server by sending a dedicated command. Usually, this procedure works as a disciplinary measure not to leave keys inside a vehicle. Also, a driver could be penalised if the mistake is being made repeatedly or a driver is being ignorant.
Alternatively, there is an option to unlock vehicle doors via a mobile application, developed by your team or 3rd party developers. Events in the app can be registered too and a driver could be penalised for inappropriate actions.

To sum up, usage of rich CAN bus data readouts powered by CAN-CONTROL adapter is a perfect solution and the right choice not only for courier and delivery service businesses but also for car sharing, car dealerships and car rental/leasing providers, etc. Siliconfusion trackers Immobiliser feature makes a delivery van even a less appealing target for motor thieves.

TOPOLOGY

BENEFITS