Truck hijackings and cargo theft continue to corrode the undercarriage of South Africa’s road freight sector, pushing up insurance premiums, downtime costs and overall fleet operating expenses. Tracker’s Vehicle Crime Index (VCI) aptly illustrates that as criminal syndicates grow more sophisticated, fleet operators need smarter risk mitigation strategies, stronger driver vigilance and real-time vehicle crime intelligence.
Tracker’s latest statistics for January to June 2025 show that business-owned vehicles are 48% more likely to be targeted than personally owned vehicles.
Business-owned vehicles, according to Tracker, “range from cargo trucks with trailers to courier vehicles delivering items ordered online. Crime targeting these vehicles proves highly lucrative, with criminals acquiring the vehicle, the goods being transported and the driver’s personal belongings, e.g. mobile phone.”
Duma Ngcobo, Chief Operating Officer at Tracker states: “Crime trends change over time, and the shifting pattern of hijackings shows that they can happen anytime, anywhere, making it essential to remain alert to your surroundings.”
The latest Tracker VCI data reveals new patterns in both timing and location, with Mpumalanga emerging as a hotspot and weekday hijackings overtaking weekend incidents, he says.
Shifting hotspots and changing tactics
The Tracker Vehicle Crime Index, based on over 1.1 million subscriptions, shows business-owned vehicles experience 32% more crime than their share of the Tracker base, with 57% of cases occurring in Gauteng.
Hijackings outnumber thefts almost two to one, and in regions like the Western Cape and Eastern Cape, hijackings are five and four times more likely respectively. Mpumalanga now joins these provinces as a hijacking hotspot.
Where weekends once saw most activity, hijackings now spike on Thursdays between 4pm and 9pm, while theft remains most common on Saturdays. Regional variations are marked – Gauteng sees most hijackings on Tuesdays between 11am and 4pm; KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesdays between 4pm and 9pm; and the Western Cape on Wednesday mornings.
During the first half of 2025, Tracker recovered 3 671 vehicles, assisted in 146 arrests and helped recover 10 firearms.
“Businesses, in particular, can take proactive steps to mitigate risk by implementing technologies such as AI-powered fleet dashcams with facial recognition, 360-degree cameras, safe zone management, cargo door sensors and emergency driver assist buttons,” Ngcobo concludes, adding that these tools enable fleet managers to respond swiftly to incidents. “Additionally,” he says, “subscribing drivers to rapid emergency armed response services can further enhance safety.”
Editor’s comment: Fleet operators must now treat crime intelligence as a core component of operational strategy, not just security. Tracker’s data reinforces that hijacking is no longer confined to high-risk routes or late-night deliveries – it’s a weeklong, broad daylight threat across multiple provinces. Thus, the need for proactive monitoring, driver training and layered technology protection has never been greater. The cost of prevention may be significant, but the cost of complacency is far higher.
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