2 Million vehicles fitted with DataDot
19 March 2014
DataDot Technology
DataDot Technology will reach a milestone of ‘2 Million vehicles protected’ in South Africa during March. The road to this achievement started in 2001; when DataDot started its operation at their headquarters in George, Western Cape. It was slow and steady from this point and the first real indication that DataDot would be a technology that would be used successfully in South Africa came during 2003; when Avis took up the product for their fleet of vehicles realising a drop in theft and increase in recovery of over 50% in both cases.
It was 2 years later that the South African Taxi industry adopted DataDot to curb the problems with taxi theft in 2005; while Nissan and BMW shortly followed in 2006 and 2007 respectively, by fitting their entire compliment of vehicles.
This was to prove the testing grounds for DataDot and with over 16 000 SAPS members trained in the identification of this technology, it became a real tool for police to use in the fight against vehicle crime.
Regulation 56 was published in September 2012 making it compulsory for all new vehicles and all vehicles requiring a Request for Police Clearance to have microdots fitted.
DataDot is a proud supplier to over 80% of the new vehicle market in South Africa supplying the likes of Toyota, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Land Rover to name just a few, with over 17% of vehicles currently on South African roads being fitted with DataDot.
How are these vehicles protected? Ten thousand tiny DataDot’s are fitted to the vehicles giving them their own DNA and making the vehicle commercially useless to criminals – bottom line – Criminals stay away from vehicles with DataDot as it increases the risk of them being caught and prosecuted 10 000 fold and the cost of dealing in stolen vehicles becomes far too great.
So what does this mean for the South African consumer?
Firstly; a vehicle fitted with DataDot has more than a 55% reduction in the chances of being hijacked or stolen, which is a real benefit as the avoidance of this sort of event is important to any South African.
If a vehicle is stolen, DataDot further increase the chances of the vehicle being recovered by over 50% with 14 000+ vehicles having had DataDot fitted already being recovered accounting for over 2 Billion Rand. Taking into account that vehicles which cannot be identified (the majority of vehicles stolen in South Africa have their identities changed) are crushed when recovered; this is a substantial saving to the South African economy.
DataDot is also being used in cases of Hit & Run where a vehicle has fled the scene of the crime and all that is left is vehicle parts. In the past there would be no way to identify the parts and what vehicle it belongs to but now Police have forensic evidence attached to these parts in the form of DataDot.
The most notable case has been where a runner was hit and killed while a small piece of the bumper was left at the scene.
The accident was reported 100km’s from the scene as a collision with a post. The family was brought some closure with the perpetrator being brought to book while the insurer was saved a claim of over R200 000 for damages to a luxury SUV.
DataDot are also involved in other projects when it comes to protecting consumers valuables like The ‘Dot what u Got’ Project where over 5 000 homes in Tembalethu, George have had their valuables Dotted to deter theft and to enable the SAPS to identify the owners of stolen items. Similar projects in Durban and Cape Town will be rolled out soon.
DataDot is now a recognised, implemented and widely used product to protect individuals and business valuables from theft and with over 50 000 vehicles per month being fitted with the technology the protection of South African vehicles looks secure.
For more info visit DataDot at www.datadot.co.za or follow them on Twitter (@DataDot) and Facebook (DataDotSA).
Get the latest issue of FAnews