Dangote Transport Deploys Real-Time Driver Monitoring to Boost Road Safety.

Dangote Transport is stepping up its use of technology to manage road safety, with the company unveiling a Driver Monitoring Control Room designed to track the behaviour of truck drivers in real time while they are on the road.

The facility, located at the company's transport base in Ibese, Ogun State, was recently shown to journalists during a tour of its transport operations centre. Company officials said the system is intended to give transport managers immediate visibility into driver conduct and allow them to intervene when potentially dangerous behaviour is detected.

At the heart of the system are onboard cameras installed across thousands of Dangote trucks. According to Ifeanyi Ezeala, the company's Head of Transport Control at Ibese, the technology, deployed with technology partner Nova Tracks, provides live feeds and alerts that can flag behaviour requiring attention while a journey is still underway.

Dangote says the objective is preventive rather than punitive. The company argues that seeing what is happening inside and around its vehicles in real time gives its transport teams an opportunity to contact drivers, provide guidance and address risks before they develop into crashes.

The monitoring system is part of a broader safety framework rather than a standalone technology project. Dangote Transport says its measures include speed limiters, vehicle immobilisers, speed-control systems, facial recognition, journey management procedures, mandatory drug and alcohol testing, compulsory rest periods, driver recertification and regular training and retraining.

The move follows a wider expansion of technology-led safety measures across Dangote Cement's transport operations. In June, the company said it had introduced artificial intelligence, automated inspection technologies and enhanced GPS and telematics systems to strengthen driver monitoring, fleet management and compliance.

There are already signs that the company is measuring safety beyond simply putting new equipment into its trucks. Dangote Cement reported that, between the first quarters of 2025 and 2026, drug and alcohol testing increased by 245.2 per cent, pre-trip vehicle inspections rose by 489.1 per cent and driver training programmes expanded by 128.4 per cent.

The Federal Road Safety Corps has also publicly backed the company's approach. FRSC Corps Marshal Shehu Mohammed said road crashes involving Dangote Cement trucks fell by 56 per cent between 2025 and 2026, while fatalities declined by 36 per cent and injuries by 52 per cent. Those figures are the regulator's assessment of the company's reported safety performance, rather than an independently audited industry-wide study.

For Dangote, the stakes are considerable. Its transport operations involve large numbers of heavy trucks moving goods and raw materials across Nigerian roads, putting driver behaviour, vehicle condition and journey management at the centre of both operational efficiency and public safety.

The significance of the new control room therefore goes beyond having another dashboard in a transport office. If real-time monitoring is combined with properly trained drivers, enforceable rest and speed policies, reliable vehicles and rapid intervention, technology can turn fleet safety from a largely reactive exercise into a more preventive one. For Nigeria's haulage industry, where heavy commercial vehicles share increasingly busy roads with other road users, that shift could prove more important than the technology itself.