Vehicle tracking has come a long way from its origins as a stolen vehicle recovery tool. Today, the data generated by connected fleets – covering driver behaviour, fuel consumption, route efficiency and real-time events – has elevated telematics from an operational afterthought to a boardroom conversation.

In this episode of TCS+, host Nkosinathi Ndlovu sits down with Silvia Schollenberger, chief commercial officer at Tracker, to unpack what that evolution means for South African businesses.

Schollenberger explains how the questions fleet managers and C-suite decision-makers are bringing to Tracker have changed significantly over the past three to five years.

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Where procurement conversations once centred on cost-per-unit tracked, customers now want to understand how fleet intelligence can reduce total operating costs, improve driver safety and unlock strategic advantage.

Schollenberger walks through the typical technology journey a business takes – from basic asset protection to a fully integrated fleet intelligence stack – and identifies the triggers that tend to accelerate that shift.

The conversation gets into the practical realities of fragmentation: what businesses actually lose, commercially and operationally, when they run disconnected point solutions that don’t talk to each other. Schollenberger also shares an anonymised case study illustrating how fleet intelligence drove outcomes that went well beyond efficiency metrics, influencing strategic decision-making at the highest level.

On the vendor selection side, she flags the most common mistakes fleet managers make when evaluating telematics solutions and outlines what “end to end” genuinely looks like for a Tracker customer through solutions offered in partnership with Geotab International. Safety, she emphasises, remains foundational – and she highlights some of the newest features available to help protect both drivers and assets in the field.

The episode closes with a look at how Tracker and the broader South African telematics industry stack up against global peers – a useful benchmark for any business trying to gauge where local capability sits relative to international best practice.

Whether you manage a handful of vehicles or a large national fleet, this episode offers a clear-eyed view of where fleet technology is heading and how to make it work for your business. TechCentral