Challenges and opportunities in Boda Boda tracking in Kenya
Motor-cycle, a two wheeled machine, has become commonplace in Africa, it is the most widely used transporter in Kenya, this is driven by the need for cheaper means of transport and the need to move between places in the shortest time possible, it is not by chance that motorbike has taken this high place in the transport sector in Kenya, the inadequate infrastructure to exploit other means of transport has become the proverbial silver lining in which the boda boda as it is popularly called in East Africa has thrived.
Today, there are millions of boda bodas in Kenya and to serve different purposes; some are for passengers transport at a fee while others are for the deliveries of goods, especially in the new digital economy and e-commerce.
In an economy, any sector that has potential for astronomical growth, attracts capital from financiers seeking to reap handsome returns, boda boda sector in Kenya is not an exception, a lot has happened in the financing landscape, many institutions have come up with varying financing models for the sector in a bid to provide the much needed capital while at the same time making a profit, the most common model comes in the form of loans for the purchase of a motorbike for a rider and it is repayable in daily installments.
This financing structure comes with risks to the financiers, the boda boda rider may not honor the payments as agreed with the financial institution or may decide to sell the motor-bike to people not party to the loan contract and pocket the money, cases of motor cycle theft have also been reported with financial consequences to the financial institutions.
This in essence places a huge responsibility on the financial institution to ensure that the contract is honored- simply put capital is a not at risk.
Mechanisms of minimizing credit risks in Kenya exist, however the boda boda sector presents unprecedented risk management challenges arising from a number of factors, first is the lack of enforcement of policies and laws that are supposed to guide the sector, three surrounding issues i.e. registration , ownership and riders licensing always come to haunt the financial institutions – It becomes challenging to recover money back as the motorbikes change hands without regard to legal change of ownership, knocking down of full motor bikes and sale as parts , swapping and removal of number plates among the riders themselves becomes an impediment to traceability.
The inadequacy of existing mechanisms can be augmented with technology to drastically reduce credit risk, the most notable way is the one pioneered by Smart Embedded Systems, a leading IoT player and a provider of fleet management systems in Kenya, in practice it is the ability to track and trace the motor bike through fleet monitoring software and embedded IoT capable boda boda tracker.
The solution works by providing real-time tracking of the boda boda and capturing all events around the usage of the motor cycle, for example any time the engine is switched on or off real time notifications are sent to the owner, similarly this happens for other events like when the motorbike is parked, someone tampers with the boda boda tracker, the bike is moved to unusual locations etc.
The events are reported via the boda boda tracking system mobile app and web application for action to be taken or merely for information and record purposes. The system provides deep analytical information on bikes movement enabling the financial institution to mine insights like home location of boda boda rider and place of operation- normally known as “stage” by most people in Kenya.
There is nothing as good to a financial institution as knowing where the asset is or where the owner lives or visits on a regular basis, in the event that loan default happens, it would be possible to recover the motorbike to either instill sense on the rider to pay the arrears or to resell the same to recover the capital. Thus today, fitting boda boda tracker in Kenya has become the single most important step towards recovery of the loans advanced to the motor-bike riders. Smart Embedded Systems learnt this secret early enough to became the pioneers of professional GPS tracking systems for the motor-cycle sector.
As many players enter the financing of motor bikes landscape, the business of dealing with boda boda tracker in Kenya and other accessories has therefore become one of the most lucrative for enterprises within the GPS tracking technology industry. Smart Embedded Systems prides itself as having mature and tested technology that most customers have relied on in Kenya and Africa in general.
However, this was not achieved without challenges, first and foremost Smart embedded systems had to identify, train and equip hundreds of technicians across all major towns in Kenya to provide efficient boda boda tracker installation and maintenance services to enable us meet the strict service level requirements of most fleet management system customers.
The first was the issue of boda boda tracker price in Kenya, for many years GPS providers focused solely on motor vehicle tracking systems, when one compares a motor vehicle owner and a motorbike owner it is not hard to see that majority of the later are at the bottom of the income pyramid, this meant that for the business case to be solid the boda boda tracker price in Kenya had to be reasonable so as to appeal to the majority of the potential clients. Furthermore, a motor-cycle is a tenth of the average price of the most commonly used automobiles in Kenya. Therefore, any proposal to install at the same price as that of motor vehicle tracking system was definitely not going to be adopted in large-scale. It was therefore incumbent upon Smart Embedded Systems to provide innovative pricing plans to make boda boda tracker price in Kenya attractive to the customers with high volumes so as to benefit from the economies of scale.
On the other hand, price was not the only imperative to put into consideration, other factors also had to be considered, to begin with, the physical size of the device is significant, motor bike chassis is small in size, a device with large form factor therefore may not be easy to hide in such a small frame as that of a motor bike, it would be pointless to put a device that can be traced and removed with ease. Therefore, a boda boda tracker that is small enough to be hidden and comes with acceptable signal reception ability was paramount.
Smart Embedded Systems founders’ rich experience in telecommunications came in handy to help in determination of the right hardware solution that provided the right balance between functionality and size. It is worth noting that some providers of boda boda trackers in Kenya have out of ignorance, been using motor vehicle trackers without considering the specification with regard to power ratings, thus making it difficult to start the engine when battery power drain occurs.
The need for the right specification with regard to environmental exposure was also key, water and dust proof devices were the best fit for motor bike in our understanding, since the level of exposure to external environment is usually higher than in motor vehicles. Worth noting is that any in-use repair comes with considerable reputational damage, a cost Smart Embedded Systems was determined to avoid.
Finally, every great technology solution must be backed-up with professional engineering and support services, It was therefore important that monitoring of all boda boda trackers be carried out at all times to ensure that the devices are in constant communication with the fleet management system, is was only this way that any issue of tampering or device failure could be isolated with ease and the financial institution notified to take action so as to avert loss of capital.