With dealerships across Canada reopening and offering test drives again, Trackem GPS has developed a solution that could allow consumers to test drive a vehicle alone — without a sales representative onboard.
Known as Trackem Test Driver, the solution would provide a dealership’s sales representative with a magnetic tracker that can be installed in any vehicle to be test-driven. Access to the mapping app then ensures they can monitor the vehicle while it is being driven by a potential customer.
“The system provides the ability to know the vehicles real-time location, the route, speed of travel, stop times, and exactly when it leaves and returns to the lot,” said Trackem GPS in a news release. “The rep can specify a local route and time limit for the test drive and know by text or email notification of any irregularities.”
Each sales representative can be assigned their own magnetic tracker, and receive instant notifications regarding things like excess speed, harsh driving, leaving predefined areas, or prolonged stop times. They can also pair the solution with Bluetooth to communicate instructions to the potential customer, and/or to highlight vehicle features.
Trackem GPS also said reporting features available through the backend software, which can help dealership management remotely monitor sales. Administrators can have access to things like test drive reports on individual rides, test drives per rep, per day/week, fuel consumption, kilometres driven, and more.
“Having real-time tracking in vehicles, with the clients knowledge of it, will certainly discourage any misuse,” said Trackem GPS. “If not, the dealer will know the location and route for easy recovery by law enforcement.”
The company also said the tracker unit can be left in the vehicle on off-hours to protect it in the event of lot theft.
