As GPS technology continued to advance, PassTime began looking toward another major evolution: taking GPS tracking beyond devices that had to be wired directly into a vehicle.
Battery-powered GPS technology presented an opportunity to simplify installation, expand where GPS devices could be used, and ultimately redefine what kinds of assets could be tracked.
For PassTime CEO and Founder, Jake Frank, the opportunity became clear after learning about another company’s early attempts to develop a battery-powered product.
[This other company we learned about] was trying to experiment, trying to develop a battery-powered product. I think they really spent millions of dollars of R&D for this and just were never able to pull it off. They actually sort of got it to work, but not at the price point where they needed it to be.
After hearing about the project over dinner, Frank immediately recognized its potential.
They were telling us about that, and I’m like, well, we’ve talked about that before, but at that time, nobody was able to do it. I knew that [if it could be pulled off] it will revolutionize the market. So right away, I had the feeling like, wow, this is a great idea. If you guys are already a step ahead of this, I’ll invest money. I’ll invest in R&D to pick it up where you left off and see if we can apply it to our market.
After moving forward with development and of its own battery-powered tracking device, PassTime launched its first version of Encore in 2019. For PassTime President and COO, Chris Macheca, one of the biggest impacts of battery-powered wireless technology has been its ease of use.
I think the biggest impact that wireless technology, battery technology, has had on our customers and on our installers is just that ease of use. When we first started out, installations would take 30- 40 minutes, even an hour to complete. Now, you can install a GPS device in less than two minutes. So that battery technology, that evolution of the networks, this wireless aspect where we can get almost the exact same features and functions out of a device that doesn’t require a 30 or 40 minute, or even hour installation is just incredible and really has expanded the scope and the adoption of this technology for lenders and dealers nationwide.
Jake Frank also pointed to the way wireless technology helped PassTime move into entirely new markets.
What Encore did was open up all new markets. As I said, that’s the product that allowed us to get back into the franchise [dealership] industry with InTouch. Having a wireless device is much better for that market. It’s allowed us to get into all kinds of fields. We call it Asset Tracking. Before, we could only track an asset if it had its own power that we could wire into. Now we can track anything. If it’s a standalone, if it’s a trailer, if it’s a piece of construction equipment or medical equipment, you name it. It doesn’t need to be powered. With our product, we can still track that asset.”
These advancements changed both how GPS technology could be installed and where it could be used. Wireless, battery-powered devices reduced the time and complexity of installation while also opening the door to tracking assets that previously may not have had an available power source. For PassTime, that meant expanding beyond traditional vehicle applications and into a much broader range of industries and use cases.
Chris Machea, the PassTime President and COO, talked about how he sees customer expectations change as technology evolves as a whole.
I think customer expectations continue to evolve because they see things on their phones. They see different technologies. So, we’re having to keep up with that expectation. They want that device to be online all the time, and they want it to be immediately responsive. It’s that instant gratification. So, I think the customer expectation is that this device is going to work 100% of the time. And that’s something we work really hard to deliver on. We have a failure rate of less than one-third of 1% on our devices. It’s really, really important to us and to our customers. That’s why they choose us. It’s because they know the device is going to be reliable and it’s going to work when they need it to work.
As GPS technology became faster and more accessible, customers began expecting the same level of responsiveness and reliability they experienced with other connected technology. Meeting those expectations meant not only continuing to improve how devices performed but making sure they could be depended on when customers needed them most.
The move to battery-powered wireless GPS technology marked another major step in the evolution of PassTime’s products and the broader asset tracking industry. By simplifying installation and removing the need for a dedicated power source, wireless technology helped expand GPS tracking into new markets and new types of assets.
At the same time, those advancements raised expectations for how quickly and reliably GPS technology should perform. For PassTime, continuing to meet those expectations has meant building on the same focus on innovation that has shaped the company for more than 30 years.
