{"id":816074,"date":"2025-03-15T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=816074"},"modified":"2025-03-14T18:04:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T16:04:02","slug":"hijackers-target-a-new-group-of-vehicles-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/816074\/hijackers-target-a-new-group-of-vehicles-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Hijackers target a new group of vehicles in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recent data shows that hijackers have shifted their focus from everyday cars to fleet or business vehicles as their primary targets in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Trackers’ latest Vehicle Crime Index for the fourth quarter of 2024, business vehicles are increasingly targeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracker’s Vehicle Crime Index aggregates information from the company\u2019s more than 1.1 million subscriptions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The security firm’s vehicle crime statistics for July to December 2024 highlighted that hijackings comprise 56% of all vehicle crime incidents in South Africa, while theft accounts for 44%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracker noted that hijacking becomes more pronounced when evaluating business-owned vehicles and specific provinces in South Africa, particularly in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The data indicates that across the country, business-owned vehicles are twice as likely to be hijacked than stolen, with just over half of these vehicles hijacked in Gauteng,” it said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the Western Cape, business-owned vehicles are four times more likely to be hijacked than stolen, rising to eight times in the Eastern Cape. Business-owned vehicle crime is skewed toward hijacking.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report highlighted that the national split between hijacking and theft is relatively equal for personal vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the two regions that account for most of the total vehicle crime, more personal vehicles are stolen than hijacked, at 52% and 61%, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, a personal vehicle is twice as likely to be hijacked than stolen in the Western Cape and four times more likely in the Eastern Cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Tracker said that countrywide, the likelihood of vehicle crime being a hijacking rather than a theft is 33% higher for business-owned vehicles than personal vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Business-owned vehicles are also 56% more likely to experience vehicle crime compared to personal vehicles,” it added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason for the shift in hijacking targets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Looking at why criminals have shifted their focus to business vehicles, the tracking firm pointed to their cargo and the vehicle itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because business-owned vehicles range from cargo trucks with trailers to courier vehicles delivering items ordered online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Crime targeting these vehicles proves highly lucrative, with criminals acquiring the vehicle, the goods being transported and the driver\u2019s personal belongings, like mobile phone,” said Tracker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“These crimes often happen opportunistically when the vehicle is stopped along its route, for example, at a truck stop or in a driveway during a delivery.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracker noted that more vehicles are reported hijacked on Fridays and between 16h00 and 21h00. Theft is mainly reported on Saturdays, also between 16h00 and 21h00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracker also highlighted that during the last half of 2024, the company recovered 3,479 vehicles, assisted in 127 arrests, and recovered eight firearms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHijacking, while terrifying to the victim, can be a highly efficient crime for perpetrators, which has led to its rising occurrence,” said Duma Ngcobo, Chief Operating Officer at Tracker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As vehicle owners become more aware of early warning tools and free tracking apps, it is becoming increasingly difficult for criminals to steal a vehicle without detection.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A hijacking, however, allows criminals immediate access to the vehicle and its contents without overriding tracking technology.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He advises businesses to increase their focus on risk management and consider all the available tools that make it harder for criminals to find easy targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Businesses, in particular, can implement technologies to help mitigate this crime and increase safety,” Ngcobo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It includes AI-powered fleet dashcams with facial recognition, 360-degree cameras, safe zone management, and cargo door sensors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another valuable technology is a driver assist button for emergencies that can alert fleet managers to take immediate action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Businesses can also subscribe their drivers to rapid emergency armed response services for quick action,\u201d said Ngcobo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent data shows that hijackers in South Africa are now focusing on a new target.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":816318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[855,10150,853,7535],"class_list":["post-816074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-business","tag-hijacking","tag-south-africa","tag-tracker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816074","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816074"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":816327,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816074\/revisions\/816327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}