Tell us about LoJack and the products are offered.

LoJack Corporation is the undisputed leader in Stolen Vehicle Recovery. The company invented the market more than 25 years ago and today continues to offer a recovery system with more than 90 percent success rate for stolen cars, trucks and SUVs. Since its inception, LoJack has helped law enforcement recover more than 300,000 LoJack-equipped vehicles. The company’s success can be attributed to three key differentiators: its proven processes of placing recovery directly in the hands of law enforcement (where it belongs); its use of Radio Frequency technology (which is optimized for recovery because unlike GPS it continues to be effective even if the vehicle is hidden in a concrete garage, a steel container or in dense foliage); and the fact that the system is highly covert so thieves cannot easily find and disengage it.

The company offers the following products for vehicles:

The flagship LoJack Stolen Vehicle Recovery System – is the nation’s first and only stolen vehicle tracking and recovery system used by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies throughout the country. It is based on time-tested and proven Radio Frequency technology and is highly covert.

  • LoJack Early Warning - includes the flagship stolen vehicle recovery system and provides an added layer of protection by contacting users by phone, e-mail or text if the vehicle is moved without permission. This empowers consumers to contact authorities once the vehicle is moved without permission, so police can locate and recover the stolen vehicle even more quickly.
  • LoJack for Classics – is a version of the flagship system specially designed to meet the unique requirements of classic and specialty cars. The system leverages LoJack’s new self-powered stolen vehicle recovery technology, which does not draw energy from the vehicle's battery and does not need to be connected to its electrical system, providing more covert installation options for these one-of-a-kind vehicles.
  • LoJack for Classics with Early Warning – adds the highly effective Early Warning notification feature to the LoJack for Classics Stolen Vehicle Recovery System, providing even more protection for these unique vehicles.
How does LoJack's product work and how does it differ from other theft recovery products?

The LoJack Stolen Vehicle Recovery System offers the right combination of processes and technologies that make it ideally suited to recovering stolen vehicles. The System is directly integrated with law enforcement – police have LoJack Police Tracking Computers installed in their vehicles and aircraft and use them to find and recover vehicles equipped with LoJack.

LoJack installers covertly hide a small wireless Radio Frequency transceiver in the vehicle. When a car or light truck is reported stolen to the police, the vehicle’s identification number is matched to the LoJack System’s registration number by state law enforcement computers. The match automatically activates the LoJack System, which triggers the transceiver in the vehicle to emit a silent, continuous signal.

Law enforcement vehicles and aircraft equipped with Police Tracking Computers follow these signals, which can lead to the precise location of the stolen vehicle, even in areas such as garages or shipping containers.

No other system on the market has this type of integration with law enforcement.

Who are your target markets and the message you want to express to them?

Our target market is anyone who wants to keep his or her vehicle safe from theft (owners of cars, trucks, SUVs, classic cars, motorcycles, commercial vehicles, etc.) as well as our dealer partners.

The messages we want to express to vehicle owners is that LoJack offers the best stolen vehicle recovery system available, delivering a more than 90 percent success rate in recovering stolen cars, trucks and SUVs with more than 300,000 recoveries worldwide worth nearly $4 billion.The company has so much confidence in its systems and processes that it will offer the consumer their money back if their vehicle is not recovered in 24 hours or less. With the national recovery rate at a 25-year low (56 percent), vehicle owners need to be vigilant about protecting their vehicles from today’s professional thieves.

For our dealer partners, we are focused on providing a compelling value proposition and products and services that provide positive CSI and additional profit opportunities.

What channels do you use to sell your products?

LoJack products are sold at automotive dealerships throughout the country. The easiest way to locate a LoJack dealer is to visit http://www.lojack.com/pages/dealer-results.aspx. Products are also available online at https://store.lojack.com/.

Looking back over the past five years, how has the theft recovery industry changed and how do you see it changing in the future?

Vehicle theft has changed dramatically over the 25 years LoJack has been in business, evolving from a simple crime perpetrated by amateurs to a more complex form of theft often done by sophisticated international theft rings. Many changes have taken place just within the past five years, as technology has become a prominent feature in today’s vehicles.

The advent of the “smart” or transponder key in the 1990s had the biggest impact on changing auto theft, virtually eliminating joy riders from this type of theft, as the key made new cars harder to steal, requiring thieves to come up with new theft strategies.

As vehicle theft became big business, organized theft rings proliferated. These rings often operate chop shops —where criminals strip a car for its parts and can sell them for 3 to 4 times the vehicle’s value. Today, these crime rings are often global in scale, with many in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe.

LoJack is closely following some emerging forms of theft. According to a recent study by the University of California, San Diego and the University of Washington, computer hackers with a minimal amount of expertise could potentially gain remote access to a vehicle through its Telematics services, seize control of key functions, and remotely unlock a car’s doors, start the vehicle, arrive on scene and drive off with it.

Another alarming trend that LoJack is watching involves a thief stealing a car and hitting the “Home” button that the owner programmed into the vehicle’s GPS system. The thief can then immediately find the owner’s home, enter it using the garage door opener and burglarize the home.

These newer forms of theft prove that convenience-based technology afforded to today’s vehicle owners now also hold the potential to make it “convenient” for thieves.

Although vehicle theft has evolved over the years and many newer entrants have entered the market, LoJack remains the best system for recovering stolen vehicles. Its proven Radio Frequency technology, covert nature and direct integration with law enforcement make LoJack well positioned to thwart vehicle theft – better than any other solution – now and well into the future. The company continually evolves its technology – such as with its self-powered unit and Early Warning products -- to ensure it will continue to offer the best solution available to its dealers and consumers.

What technology or services do you believe will drive your future success?

LoJack continues to be the brand leader in tracking and recovery systems and has withstood the test of time as the best technology for tracking and recovering mobile assets with unprecedented precision. Our mission is to deliver the best recovery and tracking systems to our consumers and to do so in a way that provides a compelling value proposition to both our dealers and consumers. We are developing and testing adjacent products this year under the LoJack brand, which will extend our recovery system to other areas of importance to consumers such as laptop and identity theft recovery. The new products and services will provide additional profit opportunities for our dealer partners and greater protection for consumers.

Our sustained technological leadership has proven us adaptable to changes in the marketplace over the past 25 years and we will continue to be actively involved emerging technologies such as Telematics and the connected car, providing complementary products and services that deliver a compelling value proposition for the dealer and consumer alike.

About the author
Cindy Sly

Cindy Sly

Contributor

Cindy is Managing Editor for Agent Entrepreneur eMagazine and P&A eMagazine. She brings over 10 years of automotive publishing, marketing, and trade show experience.

View Bio
0 Comments