Vehicle-tracking devices are becoming increasingly vital in South Africa, which had 13 793 vehicles hijacked and 88 144 reported stolen in 2004/05.
The country’s three biggest vehicle-tracking companies, Matrix, Tracker and Netstar, have recovered more than 60 973 vehicles to date.
Edwina van der Burg, a journalist in Johannesburg, has had her red 1994 Golf stolen three times in the past six years. The car was recovered all three times by Netstar.
She feels all South Africans should have their vehicles fitted with a tracking device.
”As an average person who’s had her car stolen three times,” says Van der Burg, ”it’s useful for people to have a tracker.”
With the use of global positioning system (GPS), general packet radio service (GPRS) and global system mobile (GSM) communications technology, the big three tracking companies’ clients can now also track their vehicle from their home or office, via the internet.
Matrix
Matrix Vehicle Tracking, which was formed in 1996 and has a subscriber base of more than 120 000, has launched a new product offering motorists the assurance of medical recovery should an accident occur.
Brent Grüng, communications officer at Matrix, said: ”Should you have an accident, an alert is sent to the Matrix vehicle-tracking control room with your GPS coordinates, which in turn is sent to ISOS [International SOS].”
An impact sensor installed in the vehicle of a client signed up to the Crash Alert service alerts Matrix that an accident has occurred.
”An alarm will be generated and sent to the Matrix control room. It will automatically be forwarded to the ISOS control room, and will appear on their emergency response system,” said Grüng.
ISOS then sends a response vehicle to assess the situation and determine whether emergency roadside assistance is necessary.
Crash Alert is part of a Matrix tracking package that also offers various vehicle-locating options, ignition reporting (used for driver management), tamper warnings and free vehicle recovery.
”Many clients opt for a panic button to be fitted in the luggage compartment. There have been occasions when drivers have been abducted and locked in the luggage compartment,” said Grüng.
He claims Matrix was the first vehicle-tracking company in South Africa to offer a web-based tracking service to its clients.
Tracker
Tracker was formed in 1996 and has more than 330 000 clients in South Africa. It works in conjunction with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and offers online vehicle tracking through a product called Tracker Locate, which enables clients to monitor their vehicle (or fleet of vehicles) from their PC on a detailed road map — or simply by sending an SMS.
”This is a particularly effective tool for small businesses who cannot afford sophisticated and expensive fleet-management systems. Tracker Locate allows the authorised user to see the position of his or her vehicle on a detailed road map pinpointed to within a few metres, the status of the vehicle [driving or ignition off], the distance and highest speed the vehicle has travelled between two time intervals, as well as the travel history of the vehicle,” said Gareth Crocker, Tracker spokesperson.
”Apart from its business application, Tracker Locate is also a wonderful safety tool for parents or families who are concerned about their loved ones’ whereabouts, particularly late at night.”
Tracker Locate uses a combination of GPS and GSM technology, while Tracker’s vehicle-recovery products function via a radio satellite network that enables it to recover a stolen car anywhere in South Africa or in neighbouring countries such as Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique.
As car thieves don’t know whether a vehicle is fitted with Tracker, many drive it to a secluded area and watch from a distance to see if Tracker comes to recover the vehicle, said Crocker.
”We know how these guys operate and, depending on the circumstances, we will often stake out the area where the stolen car has been left. At this point we’re waiting for the perpetrators to make the first move. As soon as they come and try fetching the car, we pounce on them.
”This is a distinct advantage we have against our competitors. As a result of our formal partnership with the SAPS, we are able to operate with the power of arrest and are as interested in apprehending vehicle criminals as we are in recovering the stolen car.
”It is because of this approach that we’ve been able to arrest almost 5 800 vehicle thieves in nine years — the equivalent of a large South African prison,” said Crocker.
Secret unit
Tracker fits a small tracking unit inside a client’s vehicle. Clients do not know where the unit is located, which ensures their safety because hijackers are aware that drivers don’t know where the tracking unit is.
”The unit is very reliable and very small. It has its own back-up power supply in the event of the vehicle’s main battery being disconnected,” said Crocker.
The tracking unit remains passive until it is activated by Tracker’s national control centre.
When a client confirms that his or her vehicle has been stolen, Tracker’s control centre activates the hidden tracking unit in the car. The unit’s signal is then picked up by the SAPS, Tracker’s private recovery teams, aircraft and border posts that are fitted with sophisticated police tracking computers.
The key to recovery, said Crocker, is early activation, as criminals often have a vehicle stripped and the tracking unit found and destroyed in a matter of hours.
In August last year, Tracker recovered a Cape Town businessman’s 1995 Toyota Hi-Lux bakkie — dubbed the world’s most stolen vehicle — for the 12th time in five years. The ill-fated bakkie also set a Tracker record, said Crocker.
The businessman, who cannot be named for security reasons, has had his fleet of five cars stolen 22 times in the past five years, and nine suspects were arrested during the tracking and recovery of these vehicles alone.
Manoj Jawaharlal, a Pretoria businessman, told the Mail & Guardian Online that Tracker has called him about four times. On one occasion he left his keys in his car’s ignition at a petrol station. He didn’t get far before he received a call from Tracker, positioning his car to the exact street location, he says.
”The technology is quite advanced. Even if there’s a door that’s not closed in your vehicle for a while, they [Tracker] will call you. I definitely find it impressive.”
SAPS spokesperson Chris Wilken said: ”There are quite a lot of [SAPS] vehicles fitted with Tracker [equipment], like our flying-squad and highway-patrol cars.”
He said the police vehicles can locate stolen vehicles fitted with Tracker and proceed to recover them. ”We cooperate on a daily basis with Netstar and Tracker.”
Netstar
Netstar, the first-ever vehicle-recovery and -tracking company in South Africa, has been operating since 1994 and has a client base of more than 350 000. It offers two self-tracking products. Both operate on a GSM platform, but offer different service levels.
Harry Louw, Netstar’s sales and marketing director, said the company’s device that enables private clients to track their own vehicles over the internet has been on the market for the past year or so.
”Traditionally, products of this nature were developed for companies with large fleets of vehicles, and offered a variety of fleet-management services provided through desktop software rather than through an internet site. There is, however, a need among individuals to track their own vehicles and they are now able to do so,” he said.
Cyber-Sleuth is a passive tracking system, which provides basic information on where a vehicle is, and where it has been. The information is provided by a combination of GSM positioning and Netstar beacons. GSM positioning uses signal strengths to calculate the approximate position of the vehicle, said Louw.
”The information is transmitted on demand via SMS to a server, which plots the position a shaded area on a detailed street-level map. GSM positioning is not that accurate, and the Netstar beacons are thus used to improve the information. There are around 7 000 Netstar beacons throughout the country, and these are clearly marked with a time and date stamp on the street-level map.
”Subscribers simply log into the dedicated website and process their position and trip-report requests,” he said.
Active tracking
The second system — Netstar Vigil — is an active tracking system that uses GPS to provide positioning information, which is obtained by the unit in the vehicle every second. Vigil provides a variety of vehicle-management information, such as detailed trip reports and vehicle speed violations.
”Systems of this nature used to send the information to the host server via SMS messages, but the newly available GPRS service has enabled users to obtain more information at a lower cost,” said Louw. Such information is available to the user over the internet.
”The strong appeal of Vigil is to corporate customers, who need a lot of information about their vehicles, such as setting specific routes, entering no-go zones, harsh braking, external inputs such as refrigeration temperatures, excessive idling and many other such examples,” said Louw.
”For example, a fleet manager may require his vehicles to remain within a speed of 100kph. He will then set this as a parameter, and the moment a vehicle exceeds this limit, it will transmit an alarm and record the time and speed. Alternatively, he may require his vehicles to remain on a fixed route, and he can set this parameter on his software. Should the vehicle leave the route, the Vigil system will trigger an alarm,” he said.
One of Vigil’s features is a panic button that enables the driver to call for assistance whenever in danger.
The Netstar tracking systems are small — the size of a few packets of cigarettes, said Louw, and well hidden within the vehicle. Each system comes standard with a Netstar vehicle-tracking beacon, which enhances the success of recovering the vehicle in the event of it being stolen or hijacked.
”This is particularly important, for GPS systems can be easily tampered with, and once this happens the vehicle cannot be tracked. However, the back-up Netstar transmitter obviates this problem,” he said.
The Netstar services are available throughout Southern Africa where GSM networks and roaming agreements are in place.
All this high-tech security and peace of mind doesn’t come cheap, though. Monthly subscriptions for tracking devices from these big three suppliers cost from R110 to R490, with one-off fitment and installation fees ranging between R750 and R5 000, including various software packages, if required.
So, for now, motorists who cannot afford to have their car tracked and recovered still need to remember to active their gear locks, alarms and other security contraptions.