A TERRIFYING vehicle hijack was ended thanks to the use of vehicle tracking technology.

A passenger in a vehicle owned by civil engineering contractor Barhale was taken hostage by a thief who jumped into the driver's seat and sped off.

But the vehicle, hijacked in North London, was fitted with the Orchid fleet management system which tracked the stolen Mercedes Sprinter Van and its frightened passenger.

After a few minutes the hijacker pulled over and demanded that the Barhale worker got out of the vehicle.

He refused but following threatening behaviour from the attacker, the driver jumped out and the hijacker drove away.

The driver contacted Barhale headquarters and the stolen vehicle was tracked online using orchidtrak.com, the company's online solution.

The stolen vehicle was located and recovered by Barhale employees later that morning. The incident was later reported to the police.

Barhale fitted Thales Telematics' Orchid fleet management system on to 210 of its commercial vehicles in January 2002 to increase the company's competitive edge and overall efficiency of operations.