Still innovative, even after 35 years

Ctrack is one of South Africa’s leading fleet management and asset monitoring solutions providers. Despite recently celebrating its 35th birthday, the company continues to seek out cutting-edge solutions to provide information and insight on a wide variety of moveable and non-powered assets, while providing real-time monitoring.

“Ctrack is a South African company with solutions for South Africans, developed locally through continuous research and development,” says Hein Jordt, chief executive officer at Ctrack. “Ctrack’s product development has had to cater for unique business difficulties brought about by the harsh business environment especially during the Covid years, whilst improving efficiencies for owners who need to ensure positive cashflows in a highly competitive environment.”

When developing and refining its operation, Ctrack always considers the five keys of fleet management around which all solutions are developed. “Risk, cost control, fleet utilisation, operations control, and asset control remain at the core of all the solutions that we offer,” Jordt explains.

“Our reliable fleet-specific in-cab solutions, which operate with Ctrack’s On-The-Road (OTR) application, are now also available for mobile Android devices, eliminating the need for a second piece of hardware inside vehicles,” he continues. “A basic Android 6 device with 2GB RAM, an internal GPS, and Bluetooth will suffice. The OTR solution combines navigation and fleet experience into a platform that integrates with Ctrack’s software platforms for easy data extraction.”

Jordt highlights drivers as a key part of a successful and efficient fleet operation. Ctrack’s OTR solutions allow drivers to complete their daily tasks as required: “Features include driver behaviour monitoring, navigation, driver status, messaging, task management, voice calls, and behaviour history. This new development saves operators money whilst empowering their drivers with a powerful tool in hand.”

Another innovative solution from Ctrack is its SMILE software. “With SMILE, operators can create unique efficiency and risk outputs that create endless opportunities to measure and solve an operator’s critical key performance indicators. High-risk environments such as cash-in-transit or valuable goods deliveries provide a good example: SMILE integrates risk-reducing technology such as gunfire detection or foam encapsulation technology with the ability to match various planned delivery addresses. This ensures complete control of high-risk packages and opens up unique monitoring and reporting options in the online software platform,” Jordt explains. “Software users can immediately activate risk mitigation actions, reduce risk, and improve customer service levels.”

He adds that using the same system within agricultural sectors like the milk industry allows fleet managers to set up geo zones with pre-defined speed limits on certain routes. “Speed can be controlled on gravel roads by activating a speed limiter. These simple yet effective actions reduce wear and tear on the vehicle and warranty claims, and consequently the time a vehicle spends in workshops.”

Ctrack’s SMILE software can also help to battle driver fatigue. “By creating a SMILE script to monitor driving hours, the Ctrack device can be configured to audibly alert the driver when driving time or distance limits are reached. If the driver chooses to ignore warnings, the Ctrack technology, through the SMILE script, can put the vehicle into limp mode (reduced speed and engine power) to ensure that the driver takes the required break,” notes Jordt.

The company’s live productivity dashboard, which forms part of its online software suite, also adds to the innovation, providing a 24-hour timeline of vehicle or asset movement. “This allows for quick and easy fleet dissemination and management. Users can view the movement and stationary times, as well as driving times, in a single graphical view. Stopping locations and operating times allow fleet managers to quickly identify unauthorised vehicle use,” says Jordt.

“Ctrack’s fleet monitoring service is a complete outsourcing option of fleet control room activities and a perfect solution for managing larger fleets,” he continues. “Alongside analytics of data, highly proficient hindsight, insight, and foresight – as well as concise reporting – allow operators to streamline their fleet and spend more time managing their business.”