FLEET MANAGEMENT

The idea of 'total visibility of assets' has been bandied about by most Fleet Management system vendors in recent years. A couple of months ago, FleetWatch ran a story on an in-cab camera and digital video recording device that could, on playback, prove why an accident occurred and exactly who was responsible for it. The idea of streaming live video from the cab is also not new and the technology is out there to do it. The question is, how long will South Africa have to wait before real broadband communications backbones from Telkom, Vodacom, Cell C et al are a reality? Paul Collings speaks to the local distributor of TeleEye, a video streaming and recording device poised to enter the SA trucking world.

"We currently have a double cab operating on the OR Tambo International Airport apron fitted with our unit and have another which will probably be fitted to one of Imperial Logistics vehicles next week for evaluation," says Philip Smerkovitz, managing director of Visual Verification Technologies, official SA distributors of TeleEye. 
 

Phillip Smerkovitz looks forward to elevating 3G streaming video from static warehouse environments to mobile truck transport applications.

"The units allow live video streaming on alarm event from the vehicles or any time the control room wishes to view the vehicle. Alarm sensor inputs can be wired to any telemetry and sensor devices and the control room can then view deliveries each time the load bay is opened, remotely immobilise the vehicles when the driver or vehicle is under duress and also release deterrents in the load bay such as pepper gas and smoke-cloak," says Smerkovitz.

Real-time DVD -quality monitoring of mobile assets can be a reallity.

"The product promises to be very exciting in the transport industry and some of SA's leading security companies have already adopted our technology for their static sites and remote guarding requirements. They will now start to roll out the mobile guarding services. Security control rooms can also supply live guarding services for vehicles transporting valuable loads," Smerkovitz adds.

With hijacking, theft and general stock shrinkage an everyday occurrence in South Africa, it is quite plausible that high value loads will be monitored by live video streaming, which according to Smerkovitz is a more cost effective way of guarding assets than employing teams of mobile security personnel.

TeleEye will be distributed and supported by an extensive network of established security technology vendors while monitoring services will be outsourced to the likes of Bosasa, Stallion Security, Imperisecure and other leading security companies. 

Now, about that broadband...