Bridgestone’s fleet management solution, Webfleet, is launching in Botswana, its third African presence.

The tire and rubber products company is partnering with Kgare Digital to enter the Botswana market, expanding its presence on the continent.

Webfleet is currently being used in Namibia and South Africa. It was launched in South Africa 10 years ago, when Bridgestone started its journey to use cloud and data-driven technology in fleet management.

“With three markets now offering dedicated resources to transport and logistics customers in those markets, we feel it’s the right time to expand earnestly in the Southern African Development Community region,” says Webfleet South Africa sales director, Justin Manson.

“Being part of Bridgestone, we recognised the opportunity to leverage the company’s large African presence to expand the telematics and connected vehicle solutions we provide as well.”

In Botswana, the company will provide a similar service to that being offered in Namibia. As the company says, ‘from basic vehicle tracking to comprehensive fleet management, including live diagnostic data collection and real-time route optimisation’.

Additional advanced solutions, such as onboard cameras and other hardware, will be brought in on an as-needed basis, or from customer requests, says a Bridgestone statement.

Kgare Digital general manager, Malebogo Busang, says the investment by Webfleet will not only provide quality jobs in the sector, but see the beginning of a new sector.

Busang comments: “Tracking services are still very new to the market, so this team will be part of the vital journey to build advanced capabilities in telematics and the logistics sector.

“As a landlocked country, Botswana imports almost everything we consume, mainly using road transport through the two ports of entry, Namibia, and South Africa.

“This presents the perfect opportunity to implement the necessary digitisation of vehicles, to run more intelligently and efficiently.”