The short answer
For electricians, plumbers and other trades, the most useful GPS tracking is simple: a live map of your vans or engineers, route history to settle job times, and arrival alerts for key sites. Small trade firms rarely need full vehicle telematics; a phone app on each engineer’s phone covers the day-to-day for far less.
What trade businesses actually use tracking for
- Emergency call-outs — send whoever is nearest.
- Customer ETAs — tell customers when the engineer will arrive.
- Job timing — how long each job really took, for quoting and invoicing.
- Lone working — know where your people are if something goes wrong.
Industry-specific fleet management needs
- Mixed vehicles. Engineers often switch between vans or use their own. Tracking the person rather than the vehicle avoids re-fitting trackers.
- Tools and materials. Tools stored in vans are a theft target; for kit you need separate asset trackers — see tracking company assets.
- Small teams. A two- to ten-person firm needs something that works in minutes without an installer.
Keeping it fair for your engineers
Tradespeople often have strong views on being tracked. Being clear that tracking is for dispatch and customer updates, and that it stops at the end of the day, goes a long way. See managing employee concerns.
TrackLink for trade firms
TrackLink starts at £16 a month for one office user and three engineers, runs on Android phones, updates every 30 seconds, 60 seconds or 5 minutes, with 5-second and 1-second modes as explicit opt-ins, and includes route history, groups (for example “Electrical” and “Plumbing”) and zone arrival alerts.
Common questions
Do electricians need vehicle trackers or a phone app?
For dispatch, ETAs and job times, a phone app is usually enough. Fitted trackers make sense for pool vans or if you want engine data.
Can I track tools and equipment too?
Not with a phone app — use small dedicated asset trackers for valuable tools and kit.