Kubota UK, a tractor and heavy farm machinery manufacturer initially founded in Japan, has announced that it has re-upped its deal with telematics and vehicle tracking company Trakm8, in a deal said to be worth over £340,000. Trakm8 initially teamed up with Kubota two years ago, and clearly the relationship is one they want to continue, as this new deal is their largest to date.
Understandably, considering that tractors and other farm equipment don’t spend much time on the road, Trakm8 won’t be providing much in the way of driver profiling, so there won’t be any tracking of fuel economy, acceleration, braking and cornering, considered but there will be tracking features to aide in security. Kubota customers will be offered an ongoing tracking package at the time of purchase, so that if their new farm vehicle goes missing, they’ll be able to pull it up online and see just where it is. On top of that, the police can be informed also, allowing for the recovery of the vehicle and for its thieves to be prosecuted.
Trakm8 Group executive chairman John Watkins said of the news: “We are delighted to have further strengthened our partnership with Kubota. The brand is world renowned, having developed a first class reputation for providing the best machinery solutions in the markets it operates in and we are pleased to be supplying quality Trakm8 products to match their high quality plant machinery.”
He went on to point out that Trakm8 was continually updating its hardware and software packages, in order to stay ahead of the curve and offer the best tracking products available today: “Trakm8 invest significantly in developing products and solutions that are at the cutting edge of technology, and the return in investment is apparent when we secure partnerships with customers like Kubota.”
This announcement caused Trackm8’s shares to go through a minor upswing, rising 3.6 per cent after the news broke, hitting 78.75 pence on Wednesday morning. At the time of writing, it’s settled at 77.00 pence.
About Trackm8
Trackm8 is an international provider of market leading fleet management software and hardware, allowing companies to keep track of their vehicles in a number of ways, be it for improving efficiency, security or driver safety. Trackm8’s platform offers bespoke systems that allows managers and individuals to look up information on their vehicle(s) online on a variety of devices, with simple stat based systems, or more in-depth big-data analytics platforms.
Founded in 2002, Trakm8 lays claim to the development of the world’s first GPRS based tracking system, known as the T2002. It twinned this system with its own PC based software platform, known as Explorer 2.0 and expanded from there. Explorer evolved right along with the company, going through many iterations until we have its modern day packages, which are a revolution compared to Trakm8’s earliest days.
Over the past year, Trackm8 acquired Box telematics, expanding its available products and customer base and signed a lucrative deal with insurance firm Direct Line, guaranteeing strong business for the coming years.
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