If you see a chef eating the food he is about to serve you, then you know it will be good ‘˜inyama’. The same applies to products. If a company uses its own products to achieve what it professes those products will do for its customers, then you can trust it.
For many years, Ctrack, the wholly-owned subsidiary of JSE listed Digicore Holdings Limited, has punted one of the benefits of its vehicle tracking and fleet management product as being an improvement in driver behaviour with resultant cost benefits to the transport operator.
It was thus natural that when the Ctrack Driver’s License Programme was introduced internally in the company earlier this year as a cost and safety initiative, Ctrack technology was chosen to drive and monitor the programme.
“With our own fleet, it was only apt that we should lead by example using our own product,’ says Nick Vlok, CEO of Digicore Holdings.
Everyone driving a company vehicle was automatically included and the goal was to create awareness around driving habits and to give feedback to drivers in order to promote better driving styles to reduce wear and tear on vehicles as well as promote safer driving.
Key variables – which include harsh Acceleration, harsh Braking, harsh Cornering and over-Speeding (known as the ABC’S) – were measured and reported on using the Ctrack systems installed in the fleet. The programme has now been running for four months with around 250 drivers participating and according to Vlok, the results have been outstanding.
The level of attention put on driving behaviour and the efforts put in yielded the following results:
- The number of accidents fell by 71%.
- With less accidents, the company’s insurance broker will not be applying an increase on the fleet insurance which has translated into a saving of R100 000.
- With less over-speeding and harsh acceleration, the running cost of the fleet has decreased by more than 10 cents per kilometre translating into a saving of up to R250 000 per month.
- With less harsh cornering and harsh braking, the saving on brake pads and tyres has resulted in a reduction in maintenance cost of more than R40 000 per month.
When a company walks its talk, it’s always good and if Ctrack can achieve such savings on its car fleet, imagine the savings that can be achieved on a truck fleet using this technology. The results speak for themselves.
Ctrack takes to the field
Staying with Ctrack, when hard working truckers pack their cooler boxes with ‘˜Klippies and Coke’ to go enjoy a day watching cricket, they’ll be seeing some new branding around SuperSport Park in Pretoria. This follows the announcement of Ctrack’s partnership as an associate sponsor for the Titans Cricket Team.
“This is our first major sponsorship in sport and it is great to be supporting one of the most successful cricket franchises in South Africa. We believe this presents a solid opportunity for Ctrack to grow our consumer face,’ says Nick Vlok.
Ctrack saw the need to invest in its operating community as the Titans are based in Pretoria, home to Ctrack, and they saw the opportunity to support the local team. The sponsorship offers team association, stadium branding at SuperSport Park and hospitality opportunities for customers and partners.
In addition to the associate sponsorship, Ctrack has brought additional value to the Titans by providing vehicle tracking and stolen vehicle support to their vehicles. Fleet management solutions will assist in managing the logistics around the team’s movements.
The Titans cricket team is the premier domestic team in South Africa and their home venues are at SuperSport Park (Head Office) and Sahara Park Willowmoore in Benoni.
