Government To Start Installing Trackers On Its Vehicles From Next Week

From July, the Central Mechanical and Equipment Department (CMED) will start installing trackers on all government vehicles. The measure is meant to monitor driver behaviour along with abuse of state vehicles.

According to Davison Mhaka, the CEO of CMED, the system will be able to keep government vehicles off the roads during the weekends (and times there are not supposed to be there) and a host of other things:

To ease the management of this fleet, CMED has harnessed the power of technology by placing all pool vehicles under a vehicle tracking system that enables the organisation to monitor and control each vehicle.
By so doing, CMED will be in a position to enforce directives from Government, for example, to ensure that such vehicles are left parked at offices after work.

This is possible because the tracking system has a switch on/off facility which CMED remotely uses to enforce Government directive. The tender for the tracking system was floated in March 2019 and was awarded to a local company at the end of May. Installation of the system will start in July 2019.

… Over and above that, the tracking system also offers the following benefits; it safeguards Government assets as driver behaviour is monitored in terms of speed, braking habits and fuel consumption and stolen vehicles are recoverable through the system’s remote control switch on/off facility.

Davison Mhaka

These measures are all part of the government’s “cost-containment measures” and if implemented effectively will no-doubt reduce Government expenditure as costs covering maintenance and fuel would be reduced if the vehicles are only being used for government and not personal purposes.