Last week, TelOne launched their vehicle tracking service Teltrack and following the launch event Dandemutande reps reached out to us and informed us that they had a similar product on the market.
In fact, Dandemutande’s Fleet Management System (FMS) has been on the market since last year and they are currently offering the service to 4 corporate clients. From a feature-point perspective, FMS is mostly similar to TelTrack
- Vehicle tracking history;
- Geofencing;
- SOS Alerts;
- Fuel management system;
- Driver behaviour tracking
There are a few tangible differences between the two. Dandemutande allows users of their service to ID drivers instantly. Dandemutande says, “alerts can let you know when unidentified or unqualified drivers are moving your vehicles for extra peace of mind.” This wasn’t included among the features TelOne highlighted.
Dandemutande also offers customised alerts which allows an unlimited number of recipients to get email/SMSs alerts.
Teltrack has a mobile application whilst Dandemutande’s FMS is web-based.
Teltrack also offers what they call vehicle life cycle management which alerts users whenever the vehicles are due for service. Whilst Dandemutande’s documentation didn’t highlight this feature their representatives said it is part of the package.
The biggest difference between the two at the moment though is the clientele. TelOne seems intent on selling their service primarily to the government – a pretty interesting decision. It makes sense when you consider the relationship between TelOne and the government but then again it doesn’t make sense. The government already owes TelOne truckloads of money -close to $100 million (last July)- so it’s not clear if those debts have been paid off or TelOne finally knows how to make them pay. Anyway that’s an aside…
Dandemutande on the other hand is more focused on the private sector. That isn’t to say if a government department approached them they wouldn’t accept. The representatives I spoke to did mention they are primarily focusing on Corporates and SMEs.
It’s pretty interesting that these two established telecoms giants are taking a shot at figuring out the telematics industry. Years ago Econet tried their hand at a tracking service (Connected Car). Whilst it got traction early on it seems the project has all been abandoned. Hopefully both TelOne and Dandemutande offer better and longer lasting services.
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