E-tolls help to track hijacked truck

As unpopular as they are, e-tolls appear to be playing a constructive role in the tracking and recovery of hijacked vehicles. According to Kitty Hewitt of Botswana Consolidators, she was alerted to the hijacking of one of her trucks at 19h50 on Monday evening in Krugersdorp when the Netstar cable was cut. The vehicle was en route to Botswana with a load of copper cable. She was however able to track its movement through the toll gates – which indicated that it was still carrying its load until it reached the Oxpecker toll. It was found early on Thursday morning near the off-ramp by John Pearson & Associates (JPA), international insurance loss adjusters, together with Peritus Commercial and Forensic Specialists, which operate through a network of informers in the truck hijacking space. Half of its load of cables had been stolen but the truck was otherwise intact – apart from the dashboard which had been ripped out to destroy the Netstar device. According to Hewitt, the e-tag was functioning until the hijackers chose to dispose of it – after which the truck was tracked via its number plate. The driver, who was found near Swartruggens, told Hewitt that the hijackers had been travelling in a police vehicle and were wearing police uniforms. He was badly beaten and was undergoing tests and scans before returning home to Botswana JPA/Peritus deal with all aspects of investigation, including hijackings, and thanks to its network of informers in South Africa and neighbouring countries, over the past four to five years have achieved significant success in recovering trucks, according to MD John Pearson. “On that particular day we received information from our informers that a truck and two trailers had been parked at a particular location loaded with copper cable and their contacts had indicated that it had been hijacked and was simply waiting to be moved to another location. The implication was that the truck would be taken out of South Africa. Part of the load had already been disposed of.” The company sent one of its directors to meet the informer and the vehicle was put under surveillance in the hope that the suspects would return. “We took the details of the truck and the labels on the copper cable and then contacted the owners – a service for which we charge a recovery fee.” According to Pearson, it’s a key area of focus for the company. “A few years ago, we recovered approximately R48 million worth of trucks that were leaving South Africa with loads. “We have a network, and if we’re notified within a period of three hours from the time of the incident, our recovery rate has been 70% because the travelling time for a truck to reach any border post requires at least five hours.” And while in the past the trucks have been the main prize to take across the border, the load is now an equal target, he said. The company’s network extends to all toll roads, it is in contact with police cluster units and has contacts on all major routes leading out of South Africa which ensures quick feedback and translates into quick recovery, he added.