Grant Fraser, Group Managing Director at Netstar.

Netstar, an Altron subsidiary, has established a Global Fleet Bureau in South Africa, which the company says is Africa's largest and "most technologically" advanced vehicle telematics hub.

The firm revealed the facility today, claiming that it will provide the services and standards that fleet managers increasingly expect from "world-class" car telematics companies.

According to Netstar, the Global Fleet Bureau will provide services to the company's increasing commercial fleet customer base, as well as an emergency contact centre and vehicle recovery operation.

In addition, the business says the Global Fleet Bureau would facilitate and manage live monitoring via known and geofenced hotspots, real-time fleet management notifications, and live video monitoring via its AI on-board cameras.

According to Netstar, the Global Fleet Bureau integrates telematics with recently acquired artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to ensure a proactive approach to defending the safety of commercial fleet drivers and vehicles.

Netstar says it monitors over 2 million connected devices, analyse over 181 billion data points, and download over 170,000 hours of video every month. It says presently tracks over 100 million kilometres per day, which is expected to rise dramatically with the Global Fleet Bureau's scale and capabilities.

Netstar’s Group managing director Grant Fraser says the Global Fleet Bureau now allows the company to deliver higher levels of functionality and service levels to customers.

He explains: “It will enhance driver and vehicle safety through, for example, a detailed event occurrence book to fleet managers facilitating preventative and immediate remedial action, including live video monitoring of incidents from dispatch to door.

“The 52-seater centre, constructed in late 2023 is expected to improve Netstar’s industry vehicle recovery rate, improve responsiveness by 90%, reduce false positive alerts by 50%, and enable quicker dispatch responses.”

Frazer adds: “Our facilities will continue to evolve with our data, AI, and machine learning technologies.”

Furthermore, the company says the Global Fleet Bureau is equipped to support global fleets and already offers monitoring and optimal routing services to customers in Sydney.

Netstar says that by leveraging its technology and hardware-agnostic IoT platform, the company is able to provide world-class managed services to fleet managers worldwide.