Increase in vehicle activity as SA enters lockdown extension

Following our report of the initial 75% reduction in vehicle activity for the first three days of lockdown, Tracker’s anonymised vehicle tracking data aggregated from the company’s installed vehicle base and analytics from Lightstone indicates a significant uptick in vehicle movement at the end of last week.

According to the data provided, nationally, all types of vehicles saw substantially more trips towards the end of last week. However, passenger vehicle activity has the most notable change: from 15 to 17 April people did 40% of the trips they did before lockdown, a significant increase from only 22% of pre-lockdown trips done at the same time the previous week.

Stops at shopping centres and service stations also showed this uptick trend, almost doubling on Thursday last week from the prior week.

More citizens might be on the road as an ease in regulations allows for additional essential and urgent services during the extended lockdown period. However, such a significant increase in vehicle movement over the past few days more likely indicates a negative shift in compliance to lockdown rules, particularly as the increase in movement started ahead of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s regulations amendments announcement.

It’s feasible that people had bought enough to get them through the initial 21-day lockdown,” says Linda Reid, Head of Data for Lightstone. “However, with that period coming to an end, it’s possible that their supplies were running out, resulting in higher volumes of people needing to shop at the end of last week.”

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Papi Mabele

Papi Mabele has a marketing background, he is a digital marketing expert with extensive experience in launching and building global brands in the emerging markets. Papi is also an avid tech writer, enthusiast and all round tech junkie. As a freelance writer and analyst he has been numerously published in Popular Mechanics (SA), GQ South Africa, Premier Magazine, Driven Magazine, Bloem News, Courant, The Weekly, Enthooze Magazine and PiE magazine amongst others.