{"id":632415,"date":"2022-10-07T11:59:21","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T09:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=632415"},"modified":"2022-10-07T11:59:21","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T09:59:21","slug":"this-south-african-city-is-using-a-new-system-to-fight-rising-cases-of-fuel-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/632415\/this-south-african-city-is-using-a-new-system-to-fight-rising-cases-of-fuel-theft\/","title":{"rendered":"This South African city is using a new system to fight rising cases of fuel theft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan municipality has contracted a new digital surveillance system to combat increased cases of fuel theft and wastage.<\/p>\n

The city contracted digital solutions provider Macrocomm to roll out a smart fuel management system, which delivers real-time, evidence-based fuel transaction validation and reporting to fleet managers and administrators.<\/p>\n

The system allows drivers to request a fuel top-up on demand, and authorised administrators can approve the request from almost anywhere.<\/p>\n

Despite a drop in petrol prices this week, fuel costs remain high – and significantly higher than at the start of the year. Diesel prices, meanwhile, saw a small bump in price in October, with alarm bells ringing<\/a> for increases in the coming months.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, security group Fidelity flagged a significant rise in fuel theft<\/a> happening in the country, where criminals attempt to steal fuel by drilling into a petrol tank or siphoning it out of the tank.<\/p>\n

However, it is not only criminals stealing fuel from tanks that are an issue, with the city flagging “misuse” by trucks and other drivers employed by the municipality, implying corrupt activities are also taking place related to fuel theft.<\/p>\n

MEC for roads and transport in the metro, Mokgethi Mogatosi, said that a growing number of cases of fuel theft was negatively affecting the metro and that the system was a much-needed intervention that would improve fleet efficiency and enhance the reputation of the institution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe identified weaknesses in our existing system and looked at how we could use innovation to ensure accountability and reduce costs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Drivers are directed to participating service stations and depots, where their vehicle presence, transaction and purchases are verified before payment is authorised through a secure one-time-pin (OTP).<\/p>\n

Deputy director for fleet management services Zukile Magongo said the system had already been installed in a number of its municipal vehicles. He said the key aim of using this technology was to eliminate misuse and combat alleged corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike the fuel card-based system, this platform provides us with live data on transactions for real-time reporting and analysis. It also makes it possible for us to know the exact geographical location of our fleet and who is driving the vehicle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when both consumers and businesses are burdened with rising costs, we need to change our ways of doing things. Technologies like these present enormous benefits not only from an economic perspective, but also from an environmental, social and governance standpoint,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: How much you will save on a tank of petrol in South Africa this month<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The city contracted digital solutions provider Macrocomm to roll out a smart fuel management system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":562052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-632415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":632417,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632415\/revisions\/632417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}