Avoid unnecessary spending with Ctrack’s bespoke solutions

Safe driving and cost savings are always a good idea. Ctrack can help customers to achieve both.

South Africans are staring down the barrel of another fuel price hike, with the cost of diesel and illuminating paraffin increasing to levels never seen before.

While there is nothing that drivers and fleet operators can do about the actual fuel price, the way vehicles are used can significantly impact a business. Drivers who breach road regulations risk their own safety and the safety of others but are also the cause of additional costs for the business. Fuel, maintenance, insurance, and even traffic fines can add significant time and costs to any business and can easily be monitored through Ctrack’s suite of fleet solutions and subsequent driver training.

Ctrack’s driver management tools provide multiple solutions to ensure that vehicles run effectively, efficiently, and safely. These tools also allow for the management of operators, access, and behaviour across multiple vehicles and assets.

“Ctrack already has a number of tools in place to save businesses costs on fuel and maintenance by monitoring factors such as driver behaviour. In addition, these tools are just as efficient in ensuring safe driving and minimising traffic offences,” says Hein Jordt, CEO of Ctrack SA.

The most significant contributor to excessive fuel use is unnecessary speed. Ctrack can monitor speed in various ways, including map speed, a pre-determined speed limit on a telemetry device, or a physical speed limiter on the vehicle. If needed, Ctrack SMILE script technology can also adjust a vehicle’s top speed capabilities based on pre-determined Geo Zones.

The data gathered can also be used to upskill operators and educate them on becoming better, more efficient, and safer drivers in the future. Direct feedback can be made available to drivers using indicators through Ctrack smartphone applications, vehicle in-cab peripherals, or electronic data sets.

The Ctrack Driver Centric Mobi application logs driver scores, using them to improve the drivers’ performance. The application also features a fully-fledged vehicle pre-inspection form that is completed and managed digitally through the Ctrack Driver Mobi web app. Reporting is simple and allows fleet managers to quickly identify vehicles that have completed trips without performing checklists, or vehicles that started trips despite failing critical checks that make a vehicle unroadworthy.

The wearing of seatbelts can be enforced so that it is not possible to start a vehicle until the seatbelt is fastened. Should the seatbelt be removed during a trip, the vehicle can be immobilised as soon as it comes to a stop or the speed drops below 5 km/h.

Ctrack’s driver management application can assist with other administrative tasks by notifying fleet managers when the renewals of operator, vehicle, or special permits are due.

The AARTO Amendment Act, which has been in the pipeline for many years now, was recently declared unconstitutional and invalid by the North Gauteng High Court. The dispute brought to the court did not concern the legislation, as such; the Acts were declared unconstitutional essentially because they would displace the executive-legislative authority of the provincial legislatures by creating a single, national system to regulate road traffic.

While AARTO seems to be off the table for now, the door is not permanently closed for a similar system, which will need to be implemented at various government levels and is still very likely to happen.

The tools that Ctrack has in place to save your business money and ensure that it runs safely can easily be utilised to manage the administration around future traffic legislation.

“Road traffic accident statistics reveal that 90% of accidents are preceded by a road traffic offence,” Jordt points out. “While such a system might now be delayed by a few years, employers’ compliance measures in anticipation of such a system remain worthwhile investments.”