Tracker's record growth is putting pressure on criminals
- company believes it can help affect a turnaround in vehicle crime

February, 2008

Tracker is today (February 11, 2008) celebrating a landmark milestone by becoming South Africa's first vehicle tracking company to reach 500 000 vehicle installations.

Launched in 1996, Tracker, together with the formal support of the South African Police Service (SAPS), has managed to recover some 37 000 stolen and hijacked vehicles, arresting more than 6800 criminals and shutting down over 300 chop shops and crime syndicates in the process.

This success has translated into reduced costs for insurers which, in turn, has led to insurance savings for motorists and, most notably, a significant slow down in vehicle crime.

A truckload of criminals arrested every week in South Africa

There is no question that the vehicle tracking industry is having a major impact on vehicle crime in South Africa.

If you consider that Tracker and the SAPS arrest, on average, one criminal for every five vehicles recovered and that Tracker currently recovers around 20 vehicles a day, this means that Tracker's technology alone is responsible for approximately 30 arrests every seven days in South Africa. Or, put another way, a truckload of criminals every week.

This weekend alone, Tracker crews were involved in a shoot out with hijackers in Roodepoort where one suspect was arrested and another shot and killed. In another incident in KwaZulu Natal, Tracker crews recovered a stolen kombi in Umlazi where they discovered a chop shop containing at least 10 vehicles. All their identification marks had been filed away.

An exponential effect

"It's quite simple really, the more subscribers with tracking units, the greater the effect we can have on crime in South Africa. At the moment, we estimate that there are approximately 1.4 million vehicles fitted with tracking devices in a total South African car park of approximately 8.5 million vehicles. Now, if you consider that our technology has resulted in enough arrests to fill a large South African prison and this is based on our units being fitted to less than 10 percent of the vehicle population (far less, if you break down the current customer base over the company's 11 year history), it's clear that any substantial growth in our vehicle base will have a dramatic effect on our future ability to combat vehicle crime," says Tracker's Chief Executive Officer, Alan Hutcheson.

A million vehicles by 2010

Tracker has set itself an ambitious goal of having a million vehicles fitted with Trackers by the end of 2010.

And while there are obviously business imperatives behind this push for growth, Tracker believes that it now has both the size and the means to meaningfully reduce crime levels and that, ultimately, South Africa's ability to significantly reduce crime will hinge on the nation's aptitude for establishing meaningful partnerships to combat it.

Collaboration the key to unlocking South Africa's crime problem

"The Tracker-SAPS partnership, for example, is arguably the most potent private-public sector collaboration in the country. Similarly, our relationships with vehicle manufacturers, fitment centres, dealerships, corporates and the insurance industry as well as bodies such as Business Against Crime (BAC) and Interpol are helping to make us a highly formidable force in the fight against crime," says Hutcheson.

"If we as the private sector are able to work together, for the betterment of all South Africans, I see no reason why we cannot double the effect we are currently having on vehicle crime. With the added support of our powerful shareholders The First Rand Group, Venfin and the Mineworkers Investment Company, we have the backing to ensure that we have the best technology, largest network and broadest infrastructure to recover stolen and hijacked vehicles and arrest criminals. By linking arms with our various intermediaries and other partners there is no question that we can be more effective in what we do."

Real life examples

"Take the insurance industry, for example. Our operations personnel work very closely with insurance investigators to uncover fraud and investigate criminal activities. By sharing expertise and certain intelligence, both industries are able to work more effectively to curtail crime and expose fraud. Another obvious example is the relationship we share with vehicle manufacturers where we work together with their top management to identify the best locations to hide our Trackers so that our recovery rate can be higher. The list goes on and on," explains Hutcheson.

"If we are to truly come to grips with crime, it's going to require determined partnerships between the private and public sector, business to business and the general public standing together. Crime, is everyone's problem."

Taking Back Tomorrow

Tracker has now unveiled a new strategy: "Taking Back Tomorrow" which is largely a bold declaration that, by partnering with key organisations and the general South African public, it believes it can help affect a turnaround in vehicle crime in South Africa.

"If you consider the success we are having in the fight against crime on a base of less than 10 percent of the total vehicle population, it's obvious that if we can double our base to a million vehicles by 2010 we may well be able to decisively reverse the trend of vehicle crime in South Africa," comments Hutcheson.

And it's worth noting that many of the criminals that are arrested as a result of Tracker's technology are often career criminals or are guilty of other violent crimes such as armed robbery, rape and murder.

And it's more than just crime

The promise of "Taking Back Tomorrow" goes beyond fighting crime, however, and extends to other areas of Tracker's business, namely vehicle monitoring and telematics.

"Following Tracker's merger with MobileData late last year, the company acquired some of the most exciting vehicle monitoring and telematics capabilities available anywhere in the world in the form of the SkyTrax range of products (which, among other things, is the technology powering Hollard's breakthrough 'Pay as you Drive' insurance offering). As part of the transaction, Tracker also acquired the capability to develop vehicle monitoring and telematics solutions that can help 'Take Back Tomorrow' in a number of other meaningful ways. As an example, we're able to offer customers more effective ways of traveling and negotiating traffic routes thus not only reducing carbon emissions, but creating more free time for drivers and added efficiencies for businesses. Also, we now offer trauma counseling for clients, panic buttons on certain products and are developing a product that will potentially help with the management of traffic flow on our highly congested roads," says Hutcheson. "Through collaborative insurance offerings, we can also drive down costs for the motorist."

"Moving forward, we believe partnerships and collaboration are the key to unlocking South Africa's potential," concludes Hutcheson.

Some quick-fire facts about Tracker:

• Tracker has recovered more than 37 000 vehicles which has brought about the arrest of some 6800 vehicle criminals and the shutting down of over 300 chop shops and syndicates - the most, on either score, of any vehicle tracking company on the continent.
  
• Tracker has the most comprehensive infrastructure in the industry with nationwide activation, tracking and recovery capabilities (including border posts). The company's network is one of the largest of its kind in the world and enables the company to recover vehicles from neighbouring territories such as Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique. For several years, Tracker had a 100% recovery record in Lesotho alone.
• Tracker utilises more than 1100 recovery vehicles and 42 aircraft to perform its recoveries. Again, the most on the continent.
• Is the only Stolen Vehicle Recovery system working with the official back-up of the South African Police Service thus operating with the "power of arrest".
• Tracker is part of a global tracking family, sharing expertise with 30 countries around the world including the USA, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Mexico. As a key member of the LoJack family (which invented vehicle tracking in 1986 and is the global market leader), Tracker was recently declared the 'Best LoJack Licensee in the World'.
• Tracker has earned the respect of major insurance companies, most of whom offer discounted premiums to customers whose vehicles are protected by Tracker.
• Tracker today has some of the world's most sophisticated fleet monitoring/telematics technology following its acquisition of MobileData.
• Tracker's recoveries have saved the South African economy between R3.5 and R4-billion in the replacement costs of stolen and hijacked vehicles alone.

For more information, please contact Gareth Crocker, Communications Manager for Tracker on gcrocker@tracker.co.za, (011) 380 0300 or 082 78 78 757.