Some time has passed since Netstar, the specialist vehicle tracking and recovery company, was featured in Hi-Tech Security Systems. In that period the company, a wholly owned subsidiary of JSE-listed Altech, has continued to grow and has developed a number of new products and services.
Netstar was established in 1995 and serviced its then small customer base in Gauteng with the locally developed Early Warning System, indubitably the most sophisticated tracking/recovery system available in the country even today. This system, which is still recommended for vehicles with a value in excess of R150 000, automatically alerts the Netstar Control Centre network if the vehicle is disturbed by opening doors, boot or bonnet, and is renowned for the fact that vehicles have been recovered even before the owner was aware they were stolen. A major advantage of this device is that it allows the Netstar Tracking and Recovery Team to immobilise the vehicle at an appropriate time when the armed personnel are in a position to apprehend the thieves. (Netstar operate in close cooperation with the police force but are prepared to act independently where required to do so). In those early days insurance companies were not totally convinced of the benefits of the Netstar system (today it is endorsed by all South African insurance underwriters and motor manufacturers) and the market was restricted to the more expensive car models which were popular with car thieves and were high insurance risks.
Over time the insurance industry has recognised the real benefits of all anti-theft devices and particularly tracking and recovery systems, and competitors entered the market with lower priced but less sophisticated systems. Netstar has continued through ongoing local development to address this competitive threat, and has introduced two more cost-effective products. The first of these, called the Advanced Phone-In System is effectively equivalent to the Early Warning System except that it does not have the early warning feature. The vehicle owner now must advise Netstar of the theft by calling in, not a great inconvenience in these days where almost every driver has a cell phone. This Netstar product costs the motorist about 33% less in installation and monthly airtime.
More recently an entry-level product called Sleuth has been introduced which has been designed and priced for vehicles costing less than R100 000. Sleuth is also a phone-in system but the other features not available are network-level street level positioning and remote immobilisation. The vehicle can be tracked and recovered in the usual way and recovery of the stolen vehicle is free. The user of Sleuth also misses out on other customer-friendly services such as the free vehicle location and free missing vehicle service. These services are free to users of the higher-level products and can be used for example by customers to locate the position of a vehicle fitted with Netstar that has not arrived on time at a destination. It is also amazing how many drivers actually lose their vehicles when parking in a strange city!
With the success of their vehicle tracking system Netstar identified that a need also existed to be able to track assets in transit which were not connected to a single vehicle (for example they could be in a container or a trailer). This has resulted in the development of a miniaturised mobile tracking device called the 'Boomerang'. This can be included with a load of valuable assets in transit and has proved very successful with pharmaceutical, electronic goods and liquor shippers. Once again the load can be tracked down and recovered by Netstar.
The miniaturisation of the technology has allowed Netstar to enter a new area of the market, namely motorcycles. Unfortunately, those Harley Davidsons and BMWs are now becoming equally attractive for thieves, as they are much easier to break down into parts and ship out of the country.
As of July this year the first Netstar fitment centre dedicated to motorcycles has been operating in Pretoria. The value of this discretely hidden motorcycle system has already been proven, with the recovery of a stolen Yamaha bike by Netstar from a warehouse in Edenvale where it had already been dismantled and packed into suitcases ready for shipment that day.
A further development from Netstar, a company that sees no limitation to its own innovation, is a passive fleet management system called RouteTracer which was launched in October. A simple and cheap product (less than one third of the price of its competition), the RouteTracer has a significant advantage in that it is totally invisible to the driver (hence no tampering). When the vehicle returns to the depot an automatic RF link is used to download the historical route data straight to the fleet manager's PC. Here the actual trip details can be compared with the planned route for the day and appropriate action can be taken where necessary.
Note that all Netstar systems, from the entry level to premium product, take advantage of the full 24 hour service offered by the Control Centre network. This has expanded to the point where it is really country-wide, which by Netstar definition means that you must be able to reach the location of the theft within a maximum of sixty minutes. To achieve this outstanding coverage the company has eight, twenty-four-hour control centres located throughout the country in all major cities and important towns. Their control recovery aircraft (fixed wing and helicopters) operate from no less than twelve airfields throughout the country, including the original Gauteng response point of Grand Central in Midrand.
With its unique blend of best-of-breed product technology and full in-house recovery service Netstar has started expanding beyond the borders of South Africa with franchise networks having been established in Mozambique and Zambia, and another to follow shortly. According to the August 2000 issue of the Netstar newsletter The Networker the entry of Netstar into both Botswana and Namibia is imminent, and by year end Netstar could be tracking down on vehicle theft in much of the SADC region. The extended service offers additional advantages for the South African motorist with the Mozambique recovery team having already recovered a Toyota Dyna that had been hijacked in this country. Like many Netstar recovery operations this one netted a small fleet of other stolen vehicles which are now in the hands of the local police in that country.
With a current subscriber base of 85 000 vehicles (a total value of almost R10bn), Netstar has an unequalled recovery rate of up to 9 out of 10. Since the inception of the company almost 8000 vehicles with a value close to R1bn have been recovered for the owners with an average recovery time of 40 minutes. Besides the value of the service to its own subscribers Netstar provides a much wider benefit to the motoring public at large, in that some 1000 arrests have resulted from their 'hot-pursuit' recoveries. Many of these criminals are now behind bars and their illegal operations have been shot down, saving many more thousands of motorists from the frustration and cost of vehicle hijacking and theft.
Netstar, with a current staff of some 200 people, is particularly proud of the fact that all their systems have been developed and are manufactured locally. This in-house capability has allowed the company to react quickly to the new needs of the South African market, which unfortunately tends to be the trendsetter for vehicle theft worldwide. Netstar has also developed its own IT and database system, and this is unique in that no matter where a vehicle is stolen within a network it will automatically be registered at all control centres countrywide.
Netstar's objective is to continue to ensure that their customers have the peace of mind of knowing that they will get their own back, rapidly and efficiently.
For details contact Netstar, (011) 652 5814.
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