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Thieves are
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Deon Bayly |
Having a tracking device fitted to a truck invariably requires it to be hooked up to the vehicle's battery via a wire harness. Thieves seek out these wires the minute they enter the cab in order to sever communications with the response centre. While such devices have curbed the rate of truck theft and hijacking in South Africa, criminals are now targeting high-value truck cargo to make their living. To protect valuable loads from being stolen, transporters are looking to a unique tracking device that can be hidden in the load and covertly lead recovery teams to the cargo it is protecting.
After a spate of hijackings, Brandhouse, one of South Africa's leading manufacturers and distributors of liquor installed 120 Mtrack units into their vehicles and containers.
"Mtrack is the only self contained, self powered, transferable device that enables tracking and recovery of stolen assets," says Deon Bayly, managing director of Electronic Tracking Services (ETS). "Being wireless, the units are easily transferred from load to load and apart from recovering approximately R4 million worth of liquor over the past year, we have saved Brandhouse the further expense of having to pay for call out and installation fees every time they wanted to relocate one of their units."
Peter Fouche, regional distribution manager (inland) at Brandhouse says, "Mtrack has made a big difference in our organisation. Before we contracted ETS, we were using a costly and sometimes unsuccessful alternative of securing our alcohol. We identified a trend when it comes to the hijacking of our vehicles. The thieves would either follow our trailer with one of their own, hijack the driver, unhooked the trailer and take it and the goods with them; or hijack the vehicle and leave a portion of the stock on the side of the road next to the vehicle where they would wait to see whether the tracking company would arrive to claim the horse."
Bayly adds that, "prior to Mtrack, there were no tracking systems that could be concealed within a load and work above and below the ground. Another advantage is that unlike other tracking devices (as is the case with GPS systems), Mtrack does not need external power or an external antenna or to be mounted where it can see passing satellites."
Over the peak periods, says Fouche, Brandhouse rents an additional 100 units from ETS. "Since we've been using Mtrack, we've had a recovery rate of between 50 - 100% of our alcohol. The only reason why stock is still being lost is because goods are stolen directly from the trailers, and this isn't performed by the people that have hijacked the vehicle," he concludes.
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