GPS Tracking Included: Radios That Show You Where Your Team Is

Every Peak PTT radio doubles as a GPS tracker. Each unit reports its location every 60 seconds, and you can watch your whole team move across a live map from any browser. There's no add-on to buy, no separate tracking subscription, and nothing to install — GPS tracking is included in the same $24.95/month unlimited plan that powers your push-to-talk service.

If you've been pricing out two-way radios and a separate fleet-tracking system, this page will probably simplify your math. Below is exactly what the GPS side of Peak PTT does, how teams use it day to day, and honest answers to the questions we hear most.

What GPS Tracking Looks Like on a Peak PTT System

Peak PTT radios are push-to-talk over cellular (PoC) devices that run on the AT&T LTE network. Because every radio already has a cellular data connection, adding location reporting costs nothing extra — the radio simply sends its GPS position along with everything else it does.

Out of the box, your account includes:

  • 60-second live location updates. Every radio on your account reports where it is once per minute, by default, for as long as it's powered on.
  • A live map of your entire team. Log in to the Peak PTT GPS tracking portal from any web browser and see every radio's current position at a glance — one screen, whole fleet.
  • Geofencing with alerts. Draw a zone around a jobsite, yard, campus, or service area and get a text or email alert when a radio enters or leaves it.
  • Route history and playback. Pull up where any radio traveled and when, with location history retained for 90 days.
  • SOS with location. Every radio has an emergency button. When a worker presses it, the alert goes out with their GPS position attached, so help goes to the right place — not to a guess.

All of this rides on the same plan as your talk service: $24.95 per month per radio, unlimited nationwide push-to-talk, GPS tracking included. No contracts, and every order is backed by a 45-day money-back guarantee and a lifetime hardware warranty for as long as you stay subscribed.

The Dispatch Console: A Command Center for Your Fleet

For teams with a dedicated dispatcher or office manager, the optional PC dispatch console ($12 per seat per month) puts talk and tracking on one screen. Your dispatcher can:

  • See every radio on a live map while talking to any of them
  • Call an individual worker, a group, or the whole fleet without switching tools
  • Answer the "who's closest?" question in seconds by looking at the map, then keying straight to that person
  • Keep an eye on geofence activity and SOS alerts as they happen

This is the difference between dispatching from memory ("I think Mike was heading toward the north side...") and dispatching from facts. When a customer calls with an urgent job, the console shows you exactly which crew member can get there fastest.

Geofencing: Know When Crews Arrive and Leave

Geofences are virtual boundaries you draw on the map — around a jobsite, a customer's property, a school campus, a supply yard, anywhere. When a radio crosses the line in either direction, the system can send a text or email alert automatically.

Teams use geofencing to:

  • Confirm arrivals without radio traffic. The alert tells you the crew reached the site; nobody has to check in.
  • Timestamp on-site hours. Entry and exit events give you an objective record of how long a crew was at each location.
  • Protect equipment and vehicles. A radio leaving the yard outside working hours triggers an alert you'll actually see.
  • Keep routes honest. If a vehicle strays far outside its assigned area, you'll know while it's happening, not at the end of the week.

Route History: Proof of Service, On Demand

Every radio's movement is stored for 90 days, and you can replay any day's route from the tracking portal. For service businesses, this quietly becomes one of the most valuable features on the account:

  • Customer disputes. "Your crew never showed up" is settled in thirty seconds with a timestamped route showing the truck on-site from 9:14 to 11:47.
  • Billing backup. Time-and-materials invoices are easier to defend when the location record matches the hours billed.
  • Route review. Looking at last week's actual routes — not the planned ones — shows you where drive time is leaking out of the schedule.
  • Incident reconstruction. If something happened on Tuesday, you can see exactly where every radio was on Tuesday.

Lone-Worker Safety: SOS That Says Where

An emergency button is only useful if help knows where to go. On Peak PTT radios, pressing the SOS button sends an alert that includes the worker's live GPS position, so a dispatcher or supervisor sees both that something is wrong and where it's wrong.

For employees who work alone — a tow operator on a night call, a security guard walking a perimeter, a technician in a remote pump station — that combination matters. Select rugged models also support man-down alerting, which can trigger an alert automatically if the radio detects a fall or an extended period without movement. If lone-worker safety is a primary requirement for your team, tell us that when you order and we'll steer you to the right model.

Who Uses This Day to Day

The pattern is the same across industries: anywhere a team is spread out and moving, the map earns its keep.

  • Field service companies dispatch the nearest technician instead of the next one on the list, and shave miles off every day.
  • Construction contractors track crews and equipment across multiple sites from one screen, and use geofences to log site arrivals.
  • Trucking, towing, and delivery fleets give customers real answers ("he's eight minutes out") instead of estimates.
  • Landscaping and snow-removal crews use route playback as proof of service when a property manager questions a visit.
  • Security teams verify patrol routes actually got walked, and back their guards with SOS-plus-location.
  • School districts and municipalities keep eyes on buses, maintenance vehicles, and public-works crews without buying a second system.

See our industries page for a deeper look at how push-to-talk fits your line of work.

The Math: Radios + GPS Trackers vs. Radios That Are GPS Trackers

Here's the cost angle that surprises most buyers. The conventional setup for a mobile team is two separate systems:

  1. Two-way radios (hardware plus airtime or repeater costs) for communication
  2. A separate GPS fleet-tracking service (hardware per vehicle plus a monthly fee per unit) for location

That's two vendors, two logins, two monthly bills — and the tracker is bolted to the vehicle, not the person, so the moment your worker steps away from the truck, your visibility ends.

With Peak PTT, one device and one plan cover both jobs:

  • Hardware: radios run $129–$389 one time, depending on the model. No separate tracker hardware to buy or install.
  • Service: $24.95/month per radio covers unlimited nationwide push-to-talk and 60-second GPS tracking. There is no additional GPS subscription — not a discounted one, not a bundled one; it simply doesn't exist as a line item.
  • Coverage follows the person, not the vehicle. The radio is in your worker's hand, so the map shows where your people are — on foot at the jobsite, inside the customer's building, walking the yard.

If you're currently paying for a standalone fleet-tracking subscription alongside your radio costs, compare that combined bill to the Peak PTT pricing matrix. For most teams, consolidating onto one device is the cheaper path — and it's one less system to manage.

The Hardware Behind It

Peak PTT radios are purpose-built PoC devices, not phone apps. Every model connects over the AT&T LTE network for nationwide coverage (check the coverage map for your area), and all voice traffic is end-to-end encrypted. Durability runs up to IP67 on rugged models — sealed against dust and capable of surviving temporary submersion — with lighter-duty models available for indoor and vehicle use.

A good starting point for most teams is the Peak PTT-284G at $129: a 4000 mAh battery good for a full shift and beyond, AT&T network certified, with full access to the GPS tracking portal, geofencing alerts, and 90-day route history. Browse all radios to compare models from $129 to $389.

Every purchase carries the same guarantees: no contracts, a 45-day money-back guarantee, and a lifetime hardware warranty while you're subscribed. If the system doesn't work for your team, send it back.

A Straight Word About Employee Privacy

GPS tracking works best when your team knows about it and understands why it's there — and in some states, telling them isn't just good practice, it's the law. A few honest guidelines from watching hundreds of teams roll this out:

  • Be upfront. Put location tracking in your written policy, explain what's tracked (the radio, during work hours) and why (dispatching, safety, proof of service). Teams that communicate this well get buy-in fast — especially once workers realize the SOS button means the company always knows where to send help.
  • Track the work, not the person. The radio reports its location while it's on. When the shift ends and the radio goes in the charger, so does the tracking. That's a clean line, and it's worth keeping clean.
  • Frame it accurately. In practice, the features that get used daily are dispatching and proof of service — not surveillance. The location record protects workers as often as it checks on them: it's the evidence that the crew was on-site when a customer claims otherwise.
  • Know your state's rules. Employee-monitoring and consent laws vary by state. This page isn't legal advice — check your state's requirements or ask your attorney before rollout.

GPS Tracking FAQ

How accurate is the GPS tracking?

The radios use standard satellite GPS, the same positioning technology used by dedicated fleet trackers and smartphones. Under open sky, that's accurate enough to tell you which jobsite a radio is on, which street a vehicle is driving down, and whether a crew is inside or outside a geofence. Accuracy degrades in the same places all GPS does — deep indoors, underground, and in dense high-rise canyons.

Does GPS tracking drain the battery?

The location reporting is designed into the radio's normal duty cycle, and battery specs already account for it. The PTT-284G, for example, runs a 4000 mAh battery rated for up to 38 hours of standby and 8–12 hours of active use with tracking on — a full shift with room to spare. Charge the radio overnight like you would anyway, and you'll never think about it.

What happens indoors, where GPS signals are weak?

When a radio can't get a clean satellite fix — deep inside a warehouse or a concrete building — it can fall back on assisted positioning, including nearby Wi-Fi networks, to report an approximate location. You'll still see which building the radio is in; you shouldn't expect room-level precision indoors from any GPS device, ours included.

How long is location history kept?

Route history is retained for 90 days in the tracking portal. You can replay any radio's movements from any day in that window — useful for billing disputes, proof-of-service questions, and incident review. If you need a record kept longer, export what you need before it ages out.

Do I need a separate GPS subscription or extra hardware?

No — and this is the whole point. GPS tracking, the live map portal, geofencing, and route history are all included in the standard $24.95/month unlimited plan. There is no tracker to install, no second bill, and no per-vehicle add-on. If a radio is on your account, it's on your map.

Go Deeper

We've written more about putting radio-based GPS tracking to work in the field:

See Where Your Team Is by Next Week

Radios ship ready to talk and ready to track — power them on, hand them out, and log in to the map. No installation, no IT project, no contracts, and 45 days to change your mind.

Shop push-to-talk radios with GPS tracking included — or review the full pricing matrix first. Questions about which model fits your team? Call us at 855-600-6161 and we'll talk it through.