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Past Issues

August 2005

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The full circle has turned for Matrix Vehicle Tracking with the company having swept off the drawing board its attempts to converge a fleet management system and a vehicle tracking and recovery system into one. Patrick O'Leary speaks to Stefan Joss, MD of Matrix, to get the background as to why the company has returned to its core competency.

When you have 100 000 vehicles on your books and millions of Rands invested in the infrastructure required to conduct a professional vehicle tracking and recovery service, why go into anything else?

For Matrix Vehicle Tracking, the above question is certainly pertinent but is one born out of hindsight. As we all know, however, hindsight is a great teacher but always comes into the classroom after the event. So let's go back therefore to before hindsight was born in Matrix - to the mid 1990s when truck hijacking had become the scourge of the industry. It was then that I came across a guy who had started a company called Matrix Vehicle Tracking. His name was Stefan Joss, a pioneer who had seen the application of technology as providing the partial answer to the escalating theft and hijack problems. The other part of the answer lay in effective policing but that, of course, was asking too much.

Joss was, in a way, a visionary for let us not forget that cell phones were still fairly new and things like GSM and the Global Positioning System (GPS) - the technologies he was looking to for solutions - were way beyond the grasp and understanding of mere mortals like truck journalists. But it was all this that Joss was embracing to apply in a system that would enable him to track and recover a vehicle if stolen or hijacked. 

With dedicated focus, it didn't take him and his team long to develop a system that could not only be utilised to recover a stolen vehicle but also provide peace of mind to the trucker and motorist that someone was looking after them and their assets.

Adding further value
Once that was up and running with systems fitted to a host of trucks, Joss then started looking at ways of adding further value. Perhaps the motivation to go this way was spurred by a school of thought which said at that time: "What happens when hijacking and theft is beaten? What do we do with our systems then? We won't need them anymore."

I'm not saying this was the sole motivation but I do know that it played a role in the development of fleet management systems for, as a committee member of the SA Transport Security Association at the time, I was party to many conversations where such concerns were expressed.

It was thus that Joss embarked on some pretty expensive research and development work to find a way of incorporating fleet management capabilities with track and recovery capabilities - all in one box. It's a long story but we're going to cut it short and get to the crux. Let Joss speak:

"For years we were faced with the on-going quest for convergence of the two systems into one device. We spent a lot of money, time and effort on putting an integrated solution together but we always came up with the same result, namely, that by doing so, the primary task of either one or both of the elements would be watered down. You ended up with a fleet management system with reduced resource capabilities or vica versa.

"We came to the conclusion that to do either one properly and maximise capabilities, you'd have to focus on one or the other. We therefore took the decision to concentrate on what we do best and better than anyone else, namely, personal safety and in the event of a theft or hijack, the recovery of the vehicle. That's it. That's where we are today and that's where we're going to stay," says Joss. 

Two separate disciplines
Enlarging on the rationale that went into the decision, Joss says that when you're dealing with the two systems, you're dealing with two separate disciplines. "For tracking and recovery, for example, the needs of the clients do not differ from company to company or individual to individual. It's a shrink-wrapped solution.

"Offering a fleet management system, however, opens up the route of having to customise your offerings to meet the different needs of each client. This requires a different type of organisation to provide that customisation and if you are not careful, you end up with a lack of focus which invariably ends up impacting negatively on service levels."

He points out that the technology too is different. "Take the box as an example. Large strides in technology have been taken in the development of recovery products with the boxes of today being small, compact and extremely powerful. They are water proof and vibration resistant but the beauty is that they require a simple installation which basically involves two wires.

"The box of a fleet management system, on the other hand, is much bigger making concealment more difficult and installation more complex - what with sensors required to measure inputs like oil pressures, engine revs, speed and such. Here you are dealing with an 18-wire installation as opposed to a two wire one," he says.

He also points out that the service requirements of these larger boxes are also different as they are less reliable than the smaller boxes. "I'm not saying they are unreliable. What I am saying is that because of their complexity, they will be less reliable. It's a simple premise: A space shuttle is not as reliable as a bicycle."

Cost also comes into the picture and on this front, things are very different to the 'old days'. "For a large fleet, installation is free and you then pay R150 per month. Fleet management is a different ball game with installation costs running into thousands with communication costs also being much higher," says Joss.

In outlining all this, he stresses that he is not denigrating fleet management systems. "Far from it. It's just that they are two separate disciplines and require different types of organisations. Also, not all clients require both systems in one box," he says. 

While all this may sound like Matrix has taken the simple and easy route, not so. To offer a service such as the company does requires a huge investment in infrastructure - starting with the reaction control centre.

"We have what is arguably the most sophisticated reaction center in South Africa - if not even broader. It incorporates top-end computer and telecommunications systems with all the necessary fail-safes put into place. Also in place are sophisticated back-ups to all the computer and telecoms systems. We have multiple telecoms lines, back-up generators and lots more."

Outlining the need for all of this, Joss explains that in the fleet management arena, the liaison is more often than not between a company's control room and its drivers. "In our case, we can't rely on communicating with the driver for, in the event of a hijack, he or she has been incapacitated or is simply not around in the event of a theft. We have to protect that vehicle 24/7 without any help or input from the driver. It's all about utilising technology and you have to ensure the technology does not fail."

But it's not only about equipment. Equally important is having the right people in place. "On any day shift, we have 60 or so people occupying seats looking after our clients' vehicles. In a quiet time, that reduces to 30 people with each one being a special kind of person who has been fully trained and is focused on the task at hand," says Joss.

National recovery infrastructure
Over and above all this, Matrix has in place a national recovery infrastructure consisting of ground and air recovery teams. Included here are two company-owned helicopters with full flight crews for both. "The helicopter is essential to our work and especially with the traffic congestion currently being experienced in and around the big cities. Traffic snarl-ups can hinder ground recovery crews from getting to where they are urgently needed and it is because of this that the helicopter has come into its own," says Joss.

"And it's no use having only one chopper. You have to have two machines so as to ensure you can react to a second call-out if the first chopper is busy on a recovery. Our stated aim is to have a chopper in the air within four minutes of receiving a report of a vehicle theft - and we send the chopper out every time. There is never a debate on how much it will cost. The chopper flies and that's it." Now that's a focused approach.

With all this in place, plus more, Joss reckons that Matrix's recovery costs are heading toward the R20-million per annum mark. So who said the company was taking the easy way out by shelving fleet management offerings?

Matrix's experience should act as a lesson for all those companies who think that the either the fleet management or vehicle tracking and recovery arenas are easy ones in which to operate. There are still newcomers who feel that putting a dot on a screen is the beginning and end of it all.

As Joss has outlined, neither arena is for the faint-hearted with both requiring massive amounts of money, time and infrastructure to do their respective jobs properly. What he is also saying is that from his experience, each requires a dedicated focus to ensure professional service and offerings. 

That old 'granny' saying is apt: "Stick to your knitting and you will succeed." That's exactly what Matrix Vehicle Tracking is doing - and it is succeeding big time.