The ability to utilise new technology to remotely disable vehicles in an effort to eliminate theft could soon be adopted by hire car operators and possibly even the military. Fleet M8, the vehicle-tracking organisation based on Tyneside, has announced the details of its new tracking system which will be promoted firmly at organisations with large vehicle fleets along with departments related to national security. This means the government and rental operators will soon be able to benefit from the anti-theft developments.

The scheme will predominantly feature the capacity to disable a vehicle’s ignition function via email request from the owner. This would see hijacked or stolen vehicles unable to be started again once the engine has been stopped.

In addition to this pilot scheme the group’s experts are also working on a system, nominally for use by the military, which would allow a remote signal to halt a vehicle dead.

Fleet M8 is now in discussions with a major rental car operator to roll out trails of the new technology as the case of theft by dishonest customers still presents a real threat to hire companies. The most frequent instances of this are when overseas based hirers simply drive out of the original country never to return, something which represents a huge problem in Asia in particular. To that extent, Fleet M8 is working with national security organisations with a view to constructing a virtual geo-fence around ferry ports across the UK which would interact with onboard software to alert the company to attempts at any overseas travel.