According to Knowler, if you drive one of these high-risk vehicles, insurers may now require that you fit not one but two tracking devices of a specific technical standard to your car. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd if you don’t comply for whatever reasons, if you haven’t seen the email or whatever, they will just unilaterally cut your theft and hijacking cover from your cover,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She stressed the importance of awareness around this issue. \u201cI feel quite strongly about this, and that’s why I want to get the word out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Santam first noted this requirement in its Insurance Barometer report<\/a><\/strong> for the 2022\/23 financial year, following record hijackings and vehicle theft claims in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Santam\u2019s report noted that the experience was so poor that several corrective actions were needed to minimise exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These included doubling up on vehicle trackers, discussing tech-linked weaknesses with vehicle manufacturers, and promoting Faraday pouches to prevent the cloning of keyless access signals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowler cited an example of a 2023 letter sent by the insurer to clients, requiring certain vehicle owners, particularly those based in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, to install two tracking devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She added that the requirements included that one must be an early warning tracker and a recovery system. The list included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It must be noted that the list could have since been amended, and that other insurers may have their own list, meaning this list could be incomplete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To underscore the real-world impact, Knowler shared the story of a school principal who bought a Toyota Fortuner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The car, insured for the past five years, was stolen from a primary school in Rand Park about six weeks ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The tracking device had been removed and left on the school grounds, but crucially, there was only one device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHer claim was rejected because she had no cover for theft or hijacking for about two years previously, since March 2023, because she had not had a second tracking device fitted to that Fortuner,\u201d said Knowler. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe’d been going around for two years, knowing she had one tracker and presuming that was fine.\u201d That, said Knowler, is \u201cthe big issue here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The principal said she wasn\u2019t aware of the second tracking device requirement. \u201cI’ve been operating based on the initial insurance policy we agreed upon,\u201d she told Knowler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, after investigating the matter, the principal discovered that the insurer had emailed her to inform her of the policy changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The insurer sent her, presumably other affected policyholders, this email in November 2022, followed by a reminder 12 weeks later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These messages outlined the need to install a second tracking device or risk having theft and hijacking coverage removed from March 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The key takeaway is that if you own a high-risk vehicle, don\u2019t assume you’re still fully covered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Check your insurance policy and ensure you meet all current requirements, especially regarding tracking devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The latest statistics from the South African Police Service (SAPS) show that hijackings are still at alarming levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The data shows that 4,807 hijackings were reported over the third quarter of 2024 (October to December), representing just over 53 incidents daily in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" South Africans with cars often targeted by hijackers should verify their insurance coverage for theft and hijacking, ensuring all requirements are met.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":822826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[17142,853],"class_list":["post-822785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-capetalk","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822785","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=822785"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":822828,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822785\/revisions\/822828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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<\/li>\n\n\n\nMake sure you\u2019re covered<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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