THE PHOENIX THE PHOEN
EDITOR’ S NOTE
Digital platforms versus the diesel crisis
Digital fleets will survive and thrive
Fleet managers who have the best telematics integration and oversight are going to make much better decisions and uncover potential savings. Take the issue of diesel siphoning. A huge spike in diesel prices creates fuelling risks for fleet managers, but telematics can address them.
The more expensive diesel becomes, the greater the risk of paraffin-blended diesel illegally circulating through the fuel supply chain. This is disastrous for injectors and engine health. But it’ s preventable with advanced telematics. When at-risk suppliers and refuelling points are geo-fenced in a telematics system, fleet managers receive alerts the moment one of their trucks enters a high-risk refuelling zone.
The best telematics system integrates active mapping, alerts, and guidance for those tricky last-mile delivery or collection zone approaches, where things often go wrong with entrance and exit changes. Real-time alerts help drivers avoid getting lost and needlessly lapping a port, mine, construction site, or depot.
Fleets can’ t make diesel cheaper. But they can use it smarter.
With South Africa’ s chaotic traffic, high accident rates, animals crossing the road, and hijackings, deeply integrated telematics help fleet managers and drivers have better total route risk oversight. Preventing trucks from wasting diesel on trafficclogged areas, or accidentally entering high-risk areas due to unforeseen route deviations.
The surge in oil and diesel prices has put enormous cashflow pressure on road freight operators. With South African rail having underperformed for more than a decade, the country’ s private road freight fleets are invaluable to keep the economy moving.
Diesel heavy-duty trucks are what move the goods, materials, and retail cargo, including perishable cold-chainlinked foods, across South Africa. With operational margins so narrow in the highly developed and competitive South African road transport market, there’ s little margin for input or operational cost absorption.
It ' s especially smaller operators and fleets that are most vulnerable to cash flow issues from the dramatic increase in diesel costs. But what can fleet operators and the logistics industry do when they encounter a diesel price crisis not of their own making? Data is the best hedge against the diesel fuel price crisis.
Lance
APRIL 2026 1 WORDS IN ACTION