American Trucking Company has recently been experiencing an increase in stolen loads—a loaded tractor/trailer is stolen and the load sold. The merchandise is often worth thousands of dollars, sometimes exceeding the value of the tractor/trailer. American Trucking, while wishing to recover both the load and equipment, seeks a way to locate the tractor/trailer at all times so they can dispatch their security team to retrieve the load before it is sold on the black market (as well as to retrieve the truck/trailer before it is vandalized). They have engaged the services of Truck Locators, a provider of locating services to the trucking industry.
Truck Locator’s Truck Finder services is a one-way messaging service that routes messages from the truck on the road to the trucking companies offices. The trucking company is provided with detailed information: GPS location of both the tractor and the trailer, speed of the truck/trailer, whether the trailer doors are open, how much weight the trailer is carrying, etc. Truck Locators must install a dedicated hardware unit on the truck and the trailer before the Truck Finder service can be used. Customers generally sign their contract on the date of the sale for both the hardware (devices) and for the truck monitoring services.
Service contracts generally have a duration of 12 months and are billed monthly. Service and devices are sold at standard rates, but discounts are offered depending on the number of units purchased and placed in service. The discounts do not appear to be unreasonable.
Standard pricing for the services and devices is as follows:
Product or Service Price
Truck Finder Device $15,000 per unit, MSRP
Truck Finder Services $500 per month, per unit (tractor is billed separately from trailer)
The Truck Locator devices are made to be used exclusively with the Lighthouse services. No competitor makes