DigiCore, the company behind the C-Track vehicle and personal tracking solutions, is a partner to Arrive Alive and a passionate supporter of South African cycling. Werner Swart, ICE product manager at C-track South Africa, offers cyclists some advice about staying safe on South Africa’s mean streets and mountain trails.

South Africa is a breathtakingly beautiful place with some spectacular mountain bike trails and excellent street routes for cyclists to enjoy in nearly any part of the country. But there are many dangers lurking for cyclists who don’t educate themselves about basic safety rules and protocols. If you follow the following tips, you can safely enjoy the excellent riding that our country offers.

Plan and know your route before you get on your bike.
Try to plan ahead so that you know where you’re going before you leave. Do your best to avoid roads and areas that are known to be dangerous, either because they are high accident or high crime spots. If you’re a mountain biker, head for one of the country’s many secure mountain biking trails rather than they trying to find your own way through the hills and koppies. Cycling clubs and experienced cyclists can be invaluable sources of route advice.

Dress for safety and visibility
Wear reflective and fluorescent clothing to ensure that other vehicles can easily you see, wear a good helmet that fits you properly and cover your eyes with sunglasses or other protective eyewear to shield them against dirt, winds and insects.

Cycle in groups
Sadly, hijackings and robberies of cyclists on urban roads and mountain trails are on the rise. Travel with at least five or more other cyclists to reduce your risk of falling prey to armed criminals.

Be prepared with the right equipment
Ensure your bike is in good repair before you hit the road – check gears, tires, brakes and so on before you saddle up.

It’s a good idea to take a puncture repair kit with you so that you won’t need to push your bike 30 kilometres if you ride over a nail on a remote rural road. And take a cheap, fully-charged cellphone and some emergency cash along with you as well.

A personal tracking device such as C- track ICE (In Case of Emergency) can also enhance your safety. A cellphone and personal tracking device all-in-one, this light and compact device allows you to call C-track operator, who will in turn send the relevant emergency services to your exact location when there’s an emergency.

Avoid night rides
It’s usually a good idea to avoid cycling at night because the dangers you face from both criminals and careless motorists multiply as soon as the sun sets. Be aware that the light at sunrise or sunset might blind drivers so that they don’t see you on the side of the road – be especially careful at these times of the day.

Be alert to road conditions
Keep your eyes peeled at all times, whether you’re cycling on the streets or mountain biking. On the roads, look out for drivers who seem to be behaving recklessly, potholes, speedbumps, and debris, since any of these can cause you a nasty accident.

Let someone know where you are going
If you’re planning a long ride, especially by yourself or in a small group, tell someone where you are going, which route you will be taking and when you expect to be back. This will ensure that someone will come looking for you if you’ve had a nasty fall in a donga or a collision with a car while you’re out on your bike.

Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed vehicle tracking group, DigiCore Holdings, has opened a regional company in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia namely C-track Asia Sdn. Bhd. to spearhead the growth of its business across Asia. This is recognition of the increasing contribution that the continent is making to the group’s revenues as well as of the massive potential growth of Asia’s vehicle tracking market into the future.

DigiCore is already active in eight key countries in Asia through distribution partners and hopes to at least add another three to six countries to this list each year until it covers the entire continent. DigiCore is currently active in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore and Vietnam. It plans to move into India, Brunei, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Sri Lanka during 2011. In addition, C-track Asia is also exploring opportunities in remaining countries under its portfolio namely Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, China, Georgia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, South Korea, Syria, Taiwan, Uzbekistan and Yemen

The company’s vision is to eventually offer customers in the region the ability to track and monitor their vehicles across borders in southern Asia using its C-track vehicle tracking system. Says Omar Hatmi, managing director for C-track Asia Sdn. Bhd. member of DigiCore International Holdings BV: “The region sells over one million new vehicles – many of them commercial vehicles – the continent is an exciting growth opportunity for DigiCore.  By establishing a direct sales and support office in the region to work with our key partners, we will be in an excellent position to accelerate our growth in Asia over the next three years.”

Hatmi previously was the Chief Operating Officer of TPL Trakker Ltd., DigiCore’s joint venture partner in Pakistan and saw the business grow to over 100,000 installed units during his 8 years’ tenure. The excitement and opportunity due to the economic development and foreign direct investment in many countries across Asia is flourishing, which is spurring the growth of the transport sector in the region. This, in turn, is growing the potential customer base for vehicle tracking solutions across the continent. C-track makes significant contribution to the bottom line and he feels this is the time that professional fleet operators should become aware of C-track and the benefits it brings to their business, proven globally on year on year basis.

The C-track GPS/GPRS fleet management systems feature sophisticated backend software that can help route planning to minimise overall distance travelled by multiple vehicles. This is critical to fleet customers in a continent where distances are immense. The strength of C-track MaXx & Online softwares allows quick entry into markets which traditionally took over 6 months before sales could commence. With the modular approach C-track sales commence within 2 months allowing partners to grow their business quickly and efficiently. Also the new products becoming available during 2011 will allow smaller fleet customers to join the fold and benefit from the technology as well.  C-track Asia offers Stolen Vehicle Recovery (SVR), Fleet Management (FMS), Insurance & Leasing sector (ILS) and Personal Tracking through the distribution channel.

Thanks to ever-increasing GPRS network coverage, the C-track is more attractive than ever to Asian customers. The return on investment on C-track solutions can be measured monthly in reduced fuel and maintenance costs, lower accident rates and lower insurance premiums. DigiCore generates about 50% of its revenues from exports across Europe, the UK, the Americas and Middle East, Africa and Asia.

A vehicle tracking solution that also offers task management integrated with on-board GPS navigation could help government departments, agencies and utilities to save costs and vastly improve the efficiency of their mobile workforces.  That’s the word from Hein Jordt, managing director at DigiCore Fleet Management, a specialist in vehicle tracking and fleet management solutions. He says that government organisations could maximise the efficiency of their vehicles and human resources if they could simply allocate tasks to them based on their geographic location at a given moment.

Solutions that combine tracking, task management and navigation technologies allow them to achieve exactly that. With the vehicle tracking functionality, they can see exactly where all of their vehicles and mobile employees are at any time. When a new job needs to be done, they can dispatch the task to the vehicle or driver that is closest the scene and that has the equipment or skills needed to the job, says Jordt.

If the tracking system is integrated with on-board navigation, the driver will be directed to the destination by the GPS system, avoiding time wasted looking up directions or getting lost en route. Jordt says that an enterprise-class tracking system supports task management for a mobile workforce by allowing managers to track vehicle location down to the street level.

They can also monitor and verify driver’s arrival and departure times once a task has been assigned. Routing monitoring functionality allows them to anticipate delays on the route and the estimated time of arrival. Jordt says that this technology has many applications within the public sector. Emergency services such as ambulances, the police and fire services are trying to serve their communities with a limited amount of personnel and vehicles at their disposal. With a mobile solution that offers integrated tracking and task management, they can dispatch the vehicle nearest to the scene to attend to an emergency. This could even save lives in some cases by getting the closest ambulance to an accident or a policeman to a crime scene a few precious minutes quicker.

Government departments and utilities that maintain large fleets of vehicles to maintain infrastructure could also benefit from adopting this technology, says Jordt. Municipalities and utilities could get the closest technician on site as soon as there’s a power failure or a burst water pipe, for example. Says Jordt: “This technology can help public sector organisations to vastly improve their response times, in turn giving service delivery a massive boost. In addition, it can help them to save huge amounts of money by using their resources more effectively and efficiently.”

Instead of vehicles needing to come to a home base in between tasks, they can move on to the next job assigned by the task management system. They can get more done while traveling fewer kilometers. The savings on fuel consumption and vehicle maintenance can be significant, says Jordt. Tracking systems offer a host of other benefits to public sector organisations in the management of their fleets and human resources, notes Jordt. They can track vehicles to ensure that they do not stray from their assigned areas or routes and that drivers do not use their cars to run personal errands.

They can also monitor drivers to ensure that they do not abuse their vehicles by, for example, over-revving their engines, braking harshly, speeding or idling and freewheeling excessively. This can also help to reduce fuel and repair costs, says Jordt. A good solution will also offer the option of two-voice voice and text communication, enhancing real-time communication between the head-office or control centre and the people working in the field.

Concludes Jordt: “Saving money while enhancing service delivery is the priority for public sector agencies in South Africa. The right mobile solution can enable them to achieve these goals by giving them more control over and visibility into the movements of their vehicle fleets and mobile workers.”