A day in the life of a vehicle tracker technician

It’s early Saturday morning. His house mates are sleeping in, having had a ‘jol’ the night before. He didn’t join them, knowing he has a busy day ahead, and that it’s important to be attentive while on the job. He wouldn’t want to compromise the safety of his customers.

The first job for the day is the new installation of tracking units for a fleet of vehicles at business premises. It’s a complex job, so when he arrives he’s not surprised to see that he is not the only technician on site. He’s worked with many of the guys before as they’re all assigned within this area and it’s surrounds. But they make up only a handful of the technicians located across the country.

This particular assignment had to be completed on a weekend. It’s the only quiet time for the business, a delivery service. It took weeks to organise the installation because the vehicles are always out on the road. As it is there are some out now, but they can’t postpone the installation again, so they get started on the ones that are there.

The installation runs into the afternoon, later than expected as they had to wait for the other vehicles to return, and he is behind schedule. He calls head office to advise the scheduler to contact his next customer and let them know about the delay.

Luckily the customer is happy to reschedule for a little later. A couple of months ago, when he was delayed by half an hour, that customer caused a huge fuss and threatened not to pay. But after quickly and efficiently sorting out the repair, the customer was pleased.

With a short 15-minute trip he arrives at the next site. He is required to inspect the tracking unit already installed, as the customer has bought a second-hand car. It’s one of the more complex units and it requires contact with the testing team back at head office to make sure everything is in working order.

This too has delayed him, and so his scheduler has had to assign another technician to his next assignment. But he is soon on his way to what would have been the fourth task of the day, a new unit to be installed as requested by the insurance organisation. Things run smoothly from there.

Later that day he hears the story of a little girl who was rescued shortly after her mom’s car was hijacked. Her mom wasn’t able to get her out of the car before the hijackers drove away. Authorities were able to locate the position of the car quickly, thanks to the tracking device. He had installed that tracking device, just a few weeks ago. This is the proof of why he does what he does. Never underestimate the power of looking after something, he thinks. He is grateful to be working for one of the best car tracking companies in South Africa.