Cheap app to report stolen cars

WITH car hijackings and robberies on the rise, and most motorists unable to afford car insurance, technology boffins are developing mobile applications that can make the experience more bearable.

Crime statistics released by the SAPS last year indicated that hijackings had increased by 14% in the 2016/17 financial year.

In that period, 16 717 vehicles were allegedly stolen.

Over the past five years, a mobile application has been making the traumatic experience less of an ordeal for many motorists.

Enter Pro-Active Africa.

The app is a mobilefriendly website that distributes pre-loaded vehicle information nationally within seven seconds to 156 security service providers and the police in the event that a vehicle has been stolen or hijacked.

The company says there is a need to remember your vehicle information under duress or stress, and to know South who to contact in the event of a vehicle being stolen.

“Vehicles are usually stolen or hijacked in order to commit other property crimes which are estimated to cost nearly R30 billion a year,” company director Ryno Schutte said.

A similar mobile crime combating app, Namola, was launched last year.

“The project (Pro-Active) started in 2012.

“We did a year and a half of programming and we launched in 2013.

“So we’ve been in operation for five years,” Schutte said.

He said his company embarked on the project when it became clear that less fortunate motorists were not catered for by traditional car insurers, nor could they afford vehicle-tracking devices.

“Our project is community-based even though there is a cost implication to it, because we still need to cover operational costs for the vehicles, database, etc.

“What we did is that we wrote an application that distributes your pre-loaded vehicle information that gets distributed to 156 security companies nationally, as well as to law enforcement agencies.

“The client pre-loads all the information into our website – it can be accessed either through laptops, tablets or a mobile device,” Schutte said.

The app was to assist created lowerincome households as 70% (8 million) of vehicles on the road have no insurance or tracking systems installed, due to affordability.

Subscribers pay an annual R99 (or R8.25 a month).

“You can pay a car guard for that. You can’t even buy a cooldrink for that nowadays.

“For us it’s about the impact to stop crime being committed,” Schutte said.

As soon as an incident occurs, the information is distributed.

Schutte said although the platform had a non-disclosure agreement with the country’s law enforcement agencies, he could reveal that the information got distributed to banks throughout Africa.

“The reason we did that is that as soon as the car is reported as hijacked, the snowball effect is that you not only get your vehicle information out, but it stops any other forms of crime, such as armed robberies,” he said.

“We have had a 100% success rate to date,” Schutte noted.

Pro-Active distributes preloaded vehicle details to 156 security providers within seven seconds