West Midlands farmer Bill Rushton is best known for supplying polycarbonate panels for protecting tractor windows and bonnets when cutting hedges, but he now offers GPS trackers, too.

Many tracking devices, he points out, involve an initial cost for the unit itself, plus a monthly charge of anything between £5 and £15 for data charges. His unit, which is primarily designed for ATVs, costs £299, but involves only the negligible call costs of the SIM card in the tracker communicating direct with the user’s mobile phone.

The tracker unit itself measures about 3in x 2in and comes with a small aerial. Both are easily secreted within the bodywork of the average ATV, says Mr Rushton, and you can fit it all yourself.

If the ATV is moved, it will automatically send you a text with its latitude and longitude, which you would either need to look up on an OS map or (much more usefully) key it into Google maps on your computer. Best of all, if you have a web-enabled smartphone, it will show the ATV’s location on a Google map there and then.

If you’re not sure where the ATV is, you just text POS and it will send you its position. You can also stop the ATV’s engine remotely by texting STOP and there’s even a tilt alarm that automatically texts you if the ATV tips over.

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