According to a new research report from a leading IoT analyst firm, the number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in South Africa reached an estimated 2.1 million in Q4-2022. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.2%, this number is expected to reach 3.8 million by 2027.
South Africa is a relatively mature telematics market, and the penetration rate is comparably high from an international perspective. However, far from all deployments are considered full-scale, advanced fleet management solutions. A notable share of the installed fleet telematics systems on the South African market is represented by comparably low-end tracking systems, e.g., light FM solutions, including SVR systems extended with basic FM features.
The study also includes an outlook on the overall African market. Africa is clearly a highly diverse geographic region from a fleet management perspective. The continent can in general be divided into three subregions: South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) and Northern Africa. The South African fleet telematics market is far ahead of the rest of the continent in terms of adoption, whereas Sub-Saharan Africa is the least developed region if excluding South Africa. Northern Africa is comparably advanced and well ahead of Sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to fleet telematics penetration, though still quite a bit behind South Africa. The African fleet management market beyond South Africa is described by many industry representatives as challenging. The weak economic conditions and foreign exchange rate fluctuations, in combination with the unstable political climate, make the Rest of Africa market a challenging business environment overall.
There are, however, promising prospects for players adapting to the local market dynamics, as the Rest of Africa market has considerably more untapped opportunity than what South Africa can offer at this stage.