Robyn Grimsley
Kyle Dutton, project manager for SAMAR.
Robyn Grimsley
SAMAR will be going live this year as a register for all moveable assets that cannot legally be registered on eNatis. scale, although SAMAR has also approached other OEMs, including South African Hyundai distributor HPE Africa, in the hopes of getting as many on board as possible. Dutton explains that Babcock makes full use of SAMAR, with every single asset that they bring into South Africa— including all Volvo equipment— is registered on the system.“ The reason Babcock has come on board so early is because they receive financing from the Bank of Sweden [ where Volvo is based ], who made it clear that the financing is subject to their making use of a registry of some sort,” he says.
The register includes make, model, colour, the vehicle’ s registration number( unique number from manufacturer / importer), a unique SAMAR ID( tied to the SAMAR label), the title holder and owner. It is highly customisable in terms of the information that can be included, and they are adding categories as they are requested, so any additional security features, such as GPS tracking, can be indicated on there as well. The status of the asset was also recently introduced—‘ stolen’,‘ wrecked’ or‘ reintroduced’— after the banks had recovered a stolen asset that they wanted to reintroduce.
The details of the title holder and owner are not shared with anyone except for the title holder and owner. So, for example, banks can only see the details of their own customers, not those of the other banks’ customers. The only other people who can see it are those working on the SAMAR helpdesk.“ While we would like to give every person their own access to SAMAR, that won’ t happen for a variety of reasons, and so the helpdesk is there to facilitate the registration and change of ownership processes,” says Dutton.
Going live
Once the system goes live this year, the banks will be able to stipulate that financing for an asset above a certain threshold will be dependent on that asset being registered with SAMAR. While this process is relatively straightforward for new machines or those receiving financing from one of the banks, it becomes more complex when it comes to older machinery that is already part of a fleet.
SAMAR plans to partner with microdotting companies, which already have field agents going out to mines or construction sites to microdot the vehicles, to apply the SAMAR label at the same time.“ We have developed an app – currently only available for Android although we are working on developing one for iOS – that allows the agent to scan or take photos of the label when they apply it, and then take photos of the vehicle to capture all relevant data, such as size and colour. Often, even the manufacturers won’ t have all the photographs they should, so we’ ve made sure that the app has that capability and we’ re training the field agents to take all the necessary photographs to provide the information we need,” says Dutton.
“ We can then update the details to reflect who owns the vehicle and who holds the title. So, with a big mining company, for example, with a fleet of 100 vehicles, 50 financed and 50 owned outright, all 100 vehicles would be loaded on SAMAR with the mining company as the owner, and then title holder details updated to reflect the banks’ interest in the 50 financed vehicles,” Dutton explains.
While the SAMAR label is designed to be difficult to remove, it is possible for it to be accidentally removed, through the sandblasting that some mines use to clean their vehicles, for example. While a new number and label can be issued, owners must be aware of the process. The register will also capture details such as label destruction to ensure that fake numbers do not become a problem in future.
“ The unique SAMAR ID number is tied to the label, and the unique microdotting number would be tied to it as well. So if the sticker is removed, or sandblasted off, we can provide a new sticker with a new unique number and link it to the previous one, but we’ ll never re-issue an existing number,” says Dutton.
Once the testing phase of the project is complete and the banks have signed it off, the system will take a while to implement fully. In addition to the challenges posed by existing unregistered fleets, the lack of knowledge regarding eNatis legislation and the registration of non-roadworthy vehicles, the next big hurdle will be getting all the MIBs on board.
“ We have gone the extra mile to make this as seamless as possible by not including a fee for introducing the asset to the system. A small fee of R80 will only be payable when an asset is first titled or when a transfer of ownership takes place,” says Dutton.
In the long term
SAMAR aims to provide a complete history of an asset’ s lifecycle. If the asset gets stolen, it can be marked as such on the register. If the asset is later recovered, then it can be reintroduced to the register and marked as‘ recovered and reintroduced’. While the initial focus is on the highvalue, high-risk yellow metal equipment, the eventual goal is for people to be able to register all moveable assets. SAMAR is working with the banks to determine where they are experiencing the biggest losses to prioritise asset categories.
According to Dutton, the UK uses something similar to the SAMAR label for construction equipment.“ The triangular
14 _ QUARRY SA | MAY 2017