International Truck and Engine Corp. now offers factory- installed electronic theft-deterrent and tracking systems for medium and heavy trucks.

Debuting at the Homeland Security Summit in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, May 24, the International Aware Vehicle Intelligence system will track trucks anywhere in the country. When combined with a factory-installed theft-deterrent, the system becomes a two-stage crime prevention system that can be managed from a personal computer.

“The ability to prevent truck theft or to track its location is extremely important,” said Rob Swim, vehicle center marketing strategy director for International. “We’ve developed a system that helps prevent truck thefts or can track a truck’s location at all times.”

With the theft-deterrent system, a truck can be started, but an access code must be entered within seven seconds or the engine will shut down. The seven-second delay is a safety feature for drivers who may have to move a truck a short distance in an emergency situation. If the code is entered incorrectly too many times, it can be programmed to send an alert to a cell phone.

The system tracks the truck’s exact location, direction of travel and how fast it is going. Other features include the ability to set up a ‘geofence’ – a virtual electronic boundary on a map where trucks should not cross. For example, if a geofence was established around the nation’s Capitol and a truck crossed that imaginary line, an alert instantly would relay to designated officials to inform them that a truck is out of its normal boundary and nearing the building.

It also works for highway tractors that veer off course on an Interstate highway. If a truck appears to be taking a different or a suspicious route, the geofence can alert a fleet manager who can investigate further to see if it is a troublesome situation or a matter of a detour due to road construction.