The number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in South Africa reached an estimated 2,3-million in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10,3%, this number is expected to reach 3,8-million by 2028, according to new research by Berg Insight.
South Africa is a relatively mature telematics market and the penetration rate is comparably high from an international perspective.
However, far from all deployments are full-scale advanced fleet management solutions: a notable share of the installed fleet telematics systems market is represented by comparably low-end tracking systems like light FM solutions, including SVR systems extended with basic FM features.
“The South African fleet management market is clearly dominated by five domestic players with broad telematics portfolios that together represent 70% of the total number of fleet management systems in use in the country,” says Rickard Andersson, principal analyst at Berg Insight.
He adds that Berg Insight ranks Cartrack, Tracker and MiX by Powerfleet (formerly known as MiX Telematics prior to the business combination with Powerfleet) as the largest providers of fleet management solutions in South Africa.
“Cartrack alone has well over half-a-million active fleet management units in the country,” Andersson says.
The remaining top five players are Ctrack and Netstar.
Other top-10 players on the South African fleet management market include local providers such as Bidtrack (Bidvest Group), Digicell and GPS Tracking Solutions (Eqstra Fleet Management), as well as international players including Lytx and Webfleet (Bridgestone).
Gurtam, Autotrak, Digital Matter, Scania and Powerfleet (excluding MiX by Powerfleet) are additional top15 providers.
Players just outside of the top list with at least an estimated 10 000 units include Key Telematics (Radius), FleetCam, iCAM Video Telematics, Geotab, Mtrack (Electronic Tracking Systems) and Globaltrack.
“In addition to Scania, comparably large installed bases of OEM fleet telematics systems in South Africa have also been achieved by manufacturers such as Volvo Trucks, Daimler Truck and UD Trucks,” Andersson adds.
The new study also includes an outlook on the overall African market.
Africa is clearly a highly diverse geographic region from a fleet management perspective. The continent can in general be divided into three subregions – South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) and Northern Africa.
The South African fleet telematics market is far ahead of the rest of the continent in terms of adoption, whereas sub-Saharan Africa is the least developed region if excluding South Africa.
Northern Africa is comparably advanced and well ahead of sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to fleet telematics penetration, though still quite a bit behind South Africa.
The African fleet management market beyond South Africa is by many industry representatives described as challenging. The weak economic conditions and foreign exchange rate fluctuations in combination with the unstable political climate make the Rest of Africa market a challenging business environment overall.
There are, however, promising prospects for players adapting to the local market dynamics as the Rest of Africa market has considerably more untapped opportunity than what South Africa can offer at this stage.