System and method using wireless latching relay for vehicle fleet management inventory

A method for preventing theft of at least one vehicle (10) among a fleet of vehicles and controlling power supplied to electronic components (12) powered by a battery (11) of the at least one vehicle (10), the method comprising:

• sending control commands from a cloud-based manager system including a user interface to disable the battery (11) of the at least one vehicle (10) of the fleet of vehicles;
• providing a vehicle control unit (14) including a controller (16) for receiving the control commands from the cloud-based manager system and a transmitter (18) for transmitting wirelessly vehicle control signals (20) to disable the battery of the at least one vehicle (10);
• installing a wireless latching relay (22) including a receiver (24) configured for receiving the vehicle control signals (20) from the transmitter (18), and a latching relay (26);
• connecting the relay (26) in series with either the negative terminal (25) or positive terminal (29) of the battery (11);
• and
• transmitting the vehicle control signals (20) from the transmitter (18) to the receiver (24) so that the wireless latching relay (22) opens the latching relay (26) and disconnects the battery (11) from the negative terminal (25) or positive terminal (29), whereby the electronic components (12) of the at least one vehicle (10) receive no power from the battery (11).