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East Africa launches electronic system to track cargo and drivers

2020-08-132025-12-16By Correspondent
East Africa launches electronic system to track cargo and drivers

JOHANNESBURG – Regional intergovernmental organisation the East African Community (EAC) announced it would launch a regional electronic cargo and driver-tracking system (RECDTS) yesterday at the Rusumo border post between Rwanda and Tanzania.

Addressing a weekly online EAC ad hoc regional co-ordination committee (EARCC) meeting on Covid-19 last Friday, the deputy secretary-general in charge of productive and social sector, Christophe Bazivamo, said everything was in place for the launch of the RECDTS in collaboration with the EAC states and TradeMark East Africa (TMEA). Bazivamo said the RECDTS will also be launched at the Mutukula (Uganda/Tanzania) border post on Friday and the Malaba border post (Kenya/Uganda) on August 21.

The RECDTS will also be launched in Namanga on the Tanzania/Kenya border on August 28, as well as the Kabanga/Kobero border post between Tanzania and Burundi on August 31.

Bazivamo said that in preparation for the launch of the application, the EAC secretariat had distributed terminals (tablets) procured with the support of TMEA to support the system. All selected border posts will be equipped with the terminals to allow for easy movement of the truck drivers.

According to the EAC, the tracking system is expected to be the key to the region’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. After installation, users will share their Covid-19 test results on the platform for easy information exchange along the central and northern corridors.

The system will pass on the results to existing systems used by the national revenue and health authorities in the region. Bazivamo assured stakeholders that they will get optimal use out of the tracking system. “It is one thing to have the system, but it is another to make good use of it. And, on behalf of the EAC secretariat, I want to commit to ensure that we get optimal use of the system.”
“The RECDTS is directly linked to the national laboratory repository for all Covid-19 results for each partner state. Only the negative results are automatically linked to the application, and information is shared across all transport corridors through a secure mechanism,” said Bazivamo. 

– Nampa/ANA