The invention relates to a detection system (84) and to a method for detecting vehicles (72) equipped with a position determination system (74), as they use certain routes (10). According to the invention, a vehicle transmits its received coordinate signal (78) to the detection system (84). Selected routes (10) of a digital route map (86) are divided into appropriate sectors (26, 28, 30, 32, 34). Each sector (26, 28, 30, 32, 34) is in turn divided into digital rectangular sectors (36, 38, 40, 42, 44) in such a way that the rectangular sectors (36, 38, 40, 42, 44) can be allocated to the coordinates of the respective vehicle (72) that has been detected.