2014 marks Cartrack South Africa’s 10th anniversary, representing 10 years of tracking innovation and customer focus, with over 14,000 vehicles returned to their rightful owners. Relying on significant investment in technology and in-house recycling and support departments, Cartrack has maintained one of the highest independently audited recycling rates in the highly competitive vehicle tracking and recycling industry, currently for 94%.

The brainchild of businessman Zak Calisto, Cartrack began its journey in 2004 with 30 vehicles on the system. Focused on providing a leading technology platform and talented people to support customer service, Cartrack has rapidly expanded its business, both geographically and in terms of new customers. Today, Cartrack serves more than 350,000 vehicles across its fleet management, stolen vehicle recovery and insurance telematics services, with full operations in 16 other countries around the world.

Jerry Pierce, operations manager at Cartrack Pty Ltd, said: “We have more staff, more customers and better technology across the 16 countries in which we operate than we did 10 years ago. While the world may have changed, Cartrack’s The core remains the same, and that is our commitment to providing quality service to our customers.”

While having great technology is critical to delivering a superior market product, this must be backed by differentiation that really matters. “We’re proud of our recovery speeds, which is a result of our recovery teams being in-house rather than outsourced. Vehicle crime is an emotional issue and people want to be confident they have the best possible protection when needed. Technology, Service , response times and recovery rates are all tied to the trust our customers have in us,” Jerry added.

investment recovery

Cartrack continues its pursuit of excellence in a highly competitive market and launched its own in-house recycling team in 2010. Jerry explains: “We made the decision in 2008 and spent the next two years recruiting the best people, training them and investing in the necessary equipment. As a growing business, It was a big financial investment for us, but it has proven to be the right decision and is certainly one of the reasons we are able to provide excellent service to our customers and maintain high recovery rates.”

Ten years of technological innovation

The growth of the South African telecommunications industry over the past decade has been impressive. We are seeing cellular (GSM) technology rapidly growing and becoming more affordable. This has in turn fueled the growth of the tracking industry in South Africa.

From a fleet management perspective, the rapid development and convergence of telecommunications services has enabled Cartrack to expand its scope of operations since 2006 to include comprehensive telematics services. The powerful web-based system provides fleet managers with a wide range of features and benefits to optimize fleet and driver productivity and monitor driver behavior and route deviations. But the real growth in telematics is in the insurance industry. Insurance telematics allows insurance companies to better manage driver behavior, thereby significantly reducing accident-related loss rates among their customer base.

Jerry said: “Cartrack has a clear advantage in insurance telematics because it can provide real-time feedback to customers and insurers, rather than delayed weekly or monthly reports, so fleet owners and insurers can actually have real-time Impacting driver behavior. Given South Africa’s worrying road fatality statistics, we expect significant developments in the field of telematics in managing driver behaviour, risk and liability.”

Cartrack's dedicated research and development (R&D) team has pioneered many technological advancements within the industry. This is one of the reasons why it maintains one of the highest recycling rates in the industry. The miniaturization of the technology and superior installation methods also mean Cartrack devices are harder for criminals to find and remove.

Jerry said: “Coupled with our response times, this makes it very difficult for criminals to steal a Cartrack-protected vehicle. It’s also why we were able to launch the industry’s first ‘Recovery Warranty’ last year, which covers the vehicle if we are unable to recover it. , we will pay compensation of up to R150,000 to our clients to appreciate the fact that we hold ourselves accountable to them."

Cartrack utilizes bespoke technology developed in-house to run its platform, including stolen vehicle recovery, fleet management and telematics. During recovery operations, this technology allows for three-way communication between the control room, ground recovery teams and flight attendants. In addition, it provides real-time detailed information on the pursued vehicle and the recovery team's progress. "This greatly increases the speed, precision and accuracy of ground vehicles reaching stolen vehicles," Jerry explained.

Prepare for growth

The company is preparing for further global expansion and although the South African tracking market is fundamentally different from overseas markets, the technology and functionality are essentially the same.

Jerry explains: “Vehicle theft is not a significant issue in Europe. Our Cartrack branches in Singapore, Spain, Portugal and Poland are primarily focused on vehicles.