This year’s annual Fleet Technology conference to discuss fleet management progress using technology is scheduled for Johannesburg, South Africa in November.
The second of its kind, the conference hopes to bring in various players from the sector to discuss factors including vehicle tracking, biometrics technology, fleet management technology, fuel saving technology and wireless and mobile fleet management technology.
“The conference aims to discuss topics that affect the fleet industry every day such as technology changes, driver and fleet management, going green, advancement in fleet technology, fleet management safety and legislative requirements,” said Michandre Malan, the event’s project manager.
This year’s conference will have 18 top class speakers from tech companies such as Akhatech, Digicell, Woolworths, Masterdrive, Digicore, Eqstra Flexi Logistics, AARTO Fleet Solutions, Road Traffic Infringement Agency, Ctrack and ST.
With Africa’s infrastructure expanding rapidly, particularly in the case of its road network, management of fleet components including passenger management has become increasingly complicated.
Google earlier this year unveiled a near field communication (NFC) payment card to help in collecting bus fares from commuter buses.
Adapting the concept to smaller transport units like mini buses in Nairobi would prove to be a challenge due to lack of streamline guidelines that exist on the major buses.
There are other companies that offer online booking for long distance transport. Such implementation of technology in transport fields is aimed to reduce fraud, with direct cash payment open for abuse.
In Botswana, there are plans to make public transport cashless. Olekard, a company specialising in NFC enabled cards, hoped to introduce such a system by July, but the system is not yet in place.
Many companies across Africa offer vehicle tracking for personal and corporate cars and lorries. The GPS tracking solution has become quite common in Africa nowadays.
The conference will be held in Indaba Hotel, Fourways in Johannesburg on November 7 and 8. Each participant will be charged R7524 (approx US$890), as entry fee.
