Four months ago, Dawit Hagos, who runs his family's business, MICAS Construction Materials, decided to install Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite tracking on his company's 10 trucks.

Born and raised in Addis Abeba, Dawit Hagos studied management at Meqelle University and opened the business, which rents vehicles, four years ago.

After his decision to install the device, Dawit inked a deal with a local company for the installation of the tracking system for 200,000 Br.

Dawit's company operates five heavy trucks, which currently work on the Ethio-Djibouti road project, and five more Sino trucks that operate in the capital.

Dawit expects the GPS trackers to be installed on the vehicles, which transport metal, cement and other goods from Djibouti, within two weeks.

“We decided to install the trackers to control our property and to prevent theft,” Dawit said.

Though Dawit has started the process of installing the tracking system through his own initiative, the Ethiopian Customs Commission has drafted a law that mandates the insulation of GPS systems on all cargo trucks.

Legislated by the parliament last June, the proclamation mandates the installation of the tracking system on the carriage of goods to control and track the movement of cargo to customs destinations and crossings.

The strict law states that the transporters that fail to install the system may not engage in the transportation of import or export goods.

Commercial, government and all private vehicles have to install the devices, while the directive exempts ambulances, security service cars and military vehicles.

Vehicles that carry containers and petroleum products are also compelled to install the GPS system, according to the new law.

Along with the tracking system, the Federal Transport Authority has also set a new requirement that limits the speed of trucks. It set 80Km an hour and 100Km an hour as limits on heavy trucks and commercial vehicles, respectively.

Previously, the country had a law prescribing GPS tracking to be installed on cargo trucks that transport import-export items. However, it was not mandatory like the new proclamation.

Using the devices, customers can easily access the location of trucks that carry their products online and spot if the vehicles took different routes than the intended ones.

The new law aims at facilitating the customs procedures through technological devices, according to Ashenafi Girma, inspection technology device support team leader at the Commission, which was formed in 2018 after it split from what was then called the Ethiopian Revenues & Customs Authority.

The Commission is in charge of customs and duty matters and directly reports to the Ministry of Revenues.

So far, the Commission has not begun enforcing the installation of the devices and is currently working on awareness creation. The enforcement has not begun, since the proclamation was not published in Negarit Gazette.

Operators have welcomed this new requirement in the industry with mixed feelings. It adds an additional expense to the truck owners while at the same time opening a new business opportunity for the business community.

Yared Bezuwerq, who established Pepo Speed Limit Company in September 2019, is one of them. Pepo operates with 14 employees and imports the systems from China and India.

Before venturing into the business, Yared inked an agreement with the Federal Transport Authority four months ago to engage with the import and distribution of the product.

So far, the Authority has allowed four companies, including Yared, to import the devices. Anahama Trading Plc, ABH Service Plc and Kassa Software Tracking are the remaining three companies.

After passing through a month and a half long process, Yared's company has received the first consignment that carried the system. The device he imports integrates both speed limit and GPS tracking.