Citroen’s stolen vehicle tracking pays speedy dividends

CITROEN’S Teletrac Navman telematics platform has proved its stolen LCV recovery credentials again – following the theft of a brand new Dispatch van.

The platform, which includes Smartnav intelligent sat-nav and Trackstar stolen vehicle tracking, is fitted as standard to all Berlingo, Dispatch and Relay panel vans. It has enabled 94% of all Citroën LCVs stolen to date in 2015 to be recovered on average within two hours.

The new Citroen Dispatch van, which was stolen on 9 December, had just been collected from supplying dealer Citroen Redditch by the customer the day before. Overnight, thieves broke into the customer’s house, stole the keys and drove the Dispatch away.  Once the customer discovered the theft, the van was reported stolen to Teletrac Navman’s Cranfield HQ and tracked by the standard-fit Trackstar stolen vehicle tracking system.

This enabled West Mercia police to recover it within an hour of notification.

Statistically, thefts of Citroen LCVs are becoming far less common thanks to their range of standard security equipment, including engine immobilisers, deadlocks and steering locks backed up by the Trackstar stolen vehicle system, incorporated in the unique Citroen telematics package.

What few thefts there are now of Citroen LCVs are virtually all the result of either the keys being left in the vehicle or thieves breaking into the customer’s premises to steal the keys.

Jeremy Smith, Citroen’s head of commercial vehicles & business sector operations, said: “We are delighted the unique Citroen telematics package has again resulted in a stolen Citroen LCV being recovered by the police within the hour. Citroen is the only LCV manufacturer in the UK to offer this efficiency, security and safety boosting package on its LCVs.”

Citroen’s advanced Teletrac Navman Smartnav system not only provides detailed navigation but also works out routes to avoid traffic congestion. It does this using live traffic information gathered from Trafficmaster’s network of roadside cameras to calculate the optimum route.