Further consolidation in the tracking industry finds TotalTrax Inc, of New Castle, acquiring a ShockWatch Inc equipment monitoring product line from MRI Inc. Terms were not disclosed.

The integration follows the July merger of Rush Tracking Systems LLC, of Lenexa, Kansas, and Sky-Trax Inc, of New Castle, and their corporate rebirth in October under the TotalTrax identity.

Private equity firm Pharos Capital Group LLC controlled Rush and supported the merger and the ShockWatch deal with additional investment. Pharos has offices in Dallas, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee.

Adding the ShockWatch line boosts TotalTrax's role as a major provider of real-time vehicle, driver and inventory tracking technologies for manufacturing and warehouse operations. ShockWatch production occurs in Graham, Texas.

One Rush's historic strengths was radio-frequency-identification (RFID) forklift packages for deployment in varied situations.

The acquisition from MRI of Media Recovery Inc includes products such as ShockWatch Equip Manager, FleetControl Manager and Impact Manager.

Almost 100,000 units have been installed on forklifts through direct and original-equipment-manufacturing dealer channels in North America and distributors in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Asia, Central America and South America.

"This acquisition represents the next phase of our growth strategy," says Mike Kinnard, TotalTrax chief executive officer. "ShockWatch products and employees have tremendous reputations in the market place, and we plan to strengthen both with additional investment. We are confident the current ShockWatch customer base will be interested in the additional tracking, reporting and business intelligence tools we now offer, making this transaction a win for all our customers, partners and dealer networks."

Toby Rush, TotalTrax president and Rush Tracking's longtime leader, says: "The addition of the ShockWatch equipment monitoring division will position us to be the leading supplier of fork truck centric solutions. We now have a complete technology platform that will allow us to turn traditional materials handling vehicles into smart trucks that automate data collection and reporting."

TotalTrax will offer individual products and fully integrated solutions that include safety compliance, fleet management, asset tracking and reporting tools.

TotalTrax says automating real-time tracking and management of vehicles and drivers enables customers to reduce or eliminate inaccuracies normally associated with operator input.

ShockWatch began in 1976 using the principle of surface tension to detect possible damage to computer media. ShockWatch products now include heat sensors, tilt indicators and devices capable of recording impact information, such as velocity, time, and direction. Several electronic ShockWatch devices can control equipment access and monitor equipment usage.

Three engineers from EI du Pont de Nemours and Company, of Wilmington, Delaware, established Sky-Trax in 2004 using their experience in managing large materials handling, automation, and data collection programs.