The Complete Handbook of GPS Tracking Devices

I've been managing a construction fleet for a decade and have bought more trackers than I care to count. Most resources are either basic blog posts or sales brochures. This book is the first thing I've found that talks about power draw, antenna placement, and update rates like a real engineer would, not a marketer. The chapter on understanding the tech alone saved me from a bad investment in a satellite device we didn't need. It's now required reading for our Ops staff.

As a small business owner with a few service vans, I needed to understand if we were being ripped off by our current tracking provider. This book gave me the exact specs and questions I needed to compare our system against alternatives. The sections on hardwiring and troubleshooting are worth the price alone, since they helped me fix a common power drain issue without a trip to the shop. Highly recommended for any business owner who wants to have a clue instead of just trusting the vendor.

Good, solid information that fills a gap. I appreciated that it wasn't trying to sell me anything. The chapters on types and choosing the right device were really helpful for picking a tracker for our recreational vehicles. I would have liked a bit more detail on the software side of things, like what to look for in a tracking portal or app, as that's a huge part of the experience. But as a hardware reference, it's very strong.

Finally, a book that doesn't assume you're an idiot or an engineer. I'm a hobbyist building a tracker for a classic car restoration project, and the chapters on basic GPS theory and installation were exactly what I needed. The explanation of why a device might lose a fix in a parking garage or under heavy tree cover put a stop to a lot of my own troubleshooting. The clear diagrams in the installation chapter would have been helpful, but the text explanations were clear enough.

This is a decent reference, and I agree it's more practical than a blog post. However, I felt it was a bit too focused on traditional fleet management use cases. I work in wildlife research and was hoping for more depth on battery-powered devices and very long reporting intervals to conserve power. The maintenance chapter is great, but I would have traded some of the business opportunity sections for more on sensor integration. Still a helpful book to have around, though.

The book is definitely comprehensive and I used it to set up trackers on our rental equipment. The troubleshooting chapter is what sold me, and it didn't disappoint. That said, I took off a star because the first chapter, while accurate, felt a little like reading a textbook. I understand the author was going for a serious tone, but a few more real-world anecdotes would have made it more engaging to read cover-to-cover. It's a great reference to have, though, and I have already dog-eared several pages.

As an installer, I know the hardware well, but I found the chapters on business opportunities surprisingly useful. I've been thinking about expanding into consulting, and the book laid out a clear path on how to position that service. The sections on choosing the right type of device for an application are a good refresher, especially for clients who come to me not knowing the difference between an OBD-II plug-in and a hardwired unit. I'll be recommending this to my newer techs.

I bought this to help my company standardize on a tracking solution across multiple states. The book was instrumental in helping our team write a request for proposal, as it gave us the exact terminology and specs to ask vendors for. It didn't make the decision for us, but it made us much smarter buyers. My only slight complaint is that the price feels a bit high for a digital manual, but the quality of the information makes it a fair trade.