What Is Anti-Hijacking Training, And Do Your Staff Need It?

South Africa sees roughly 50 vehicles hijacked every single day. That’s not a statistic to skim past.

That’s a daily reality for anyone running a fleet, managing drivers, or sending people out on the road as part of their job.

And if you think your company vehicles aren’t high on the target list, think again.

According to SAPS annual crime statistics, nearly 1,976 trucks were hijacked in 2023/24 alone, a 54.5% increase over the past decade.

Carjackings overall have risen 78% over the same period, with 22,735 recorded in that financial year.

Criminal groups track fleet movements. They know your driver’s routes, their times, and their habits.

If your people drive for work, this is your problem.

So what is anti-hijacking training?

Most people think anti-hijacking training prepares drivers for the moment a gun is in their face.

That’s the last resort.

Good training is designed to prevent that moment from happening at all.

This is a risk reduction system.

The primary goal is avoidance, giving drivers the awareness and tools to recognise a potential hijacking early enough to exit the situation before it becomes one.

That starts with pre-attack indicators because hijackings are rarely random.

Criminals do reconnaissance. They follow vehicles, watch patterns, and identify the moment a driver is most vulnerable.

A trained driver knows what that surveillance looks like, the car that’s been behind them for three turns, the person loitering near the gate, the interaction at a petrol station that doesn’t feel right.

They read the environment rather than moving through it on autopilot.

Good anti-hijacking training covers:

Pre-attack recognition.

What criminals look for, how they operate, and the specific behaviours and situations that signal a vehicle or driver has been targeted. This is the layer that prevents most incidents from escalating.

High-risk locations and times.

Driveways, loading bays, petrol stations, intersections, school zones. Fridays. Early mornings. The moments when drivers are distracted or stationary. Knowing when and where risk spikes changes how drivers move through their day.

Avoidance behaviours.

Route variation, vehicle positioning, buffer space at intersections, how to respond when something feels wrong. Small habits that close the window criminals need.

If avoidance fails, how to respond.

What to do and what not to do if a hijacking does happen. How the body responds under extreme threat, and why untrained reactions often make a dangerous situation worse.

Post-incident protocol.

Reporting, support, and what the company needs to do next.

The costs you’re not calculating

Most businesses track the obvious losses after a hijacking: the vehicle, the cargo, the insurance excess. But that’s only the beginning.

Here’s what typically doesn’t make it onto the spreadsheet:

Operational downtime.

A hijacked vehicle doesn’t come back to work the next day. Between the incident, the police report, the insurance process, and sourcing a replacement, you could be looking at days or weeks of disrupted operations.

Trauma and absenteeism.

A driver who’s been hijacked at gunpoint is not okay the next morning. Many don’t come back at all, or they return and they’re not functioning at the same level. The psychological cost lands on your HR team, your productivity numbers, and your remaining drivers who now feel less safe doing their jobs.

Fear spreading through the team.

One hijacking changes how every other driver on your fleet operates. Fear spreads, vigilance drops, avoidance behaviours kick in; drivers start refusing certain routes, certain time slots, certain areas.

That affects your operational capacity.

Staff turnover and recruitment costs.

Drivers who don’t feel safe leave. Replacing them, recruiting, vetting, onboarding, training, costs far more than a prevention program ever would.

Duty of care exposure.

If your people are operating in high-risk environments and you haven’t taken reasonable steps to prepare them, you are exposed. Legally and reputationally.

The vehicle is insured. The rest of this isn’t.

Who actually needs this training?

If any of the following apply to your business, the answer is yes:

• You run a delivery, logistics, or transport fleet
• Your staff drive company vehicles as part of their role
• Your drivers operate in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, or the Western Cape — the three highest-risk provinces
• Your vehicles follow predictable routes and schedules
• Your employees drive alone, carry cash, or transport high-value cargo

Fleet managers, operations leads, and HR teams in logistics, healthcare, mining, retail, and emergency services should be treating this as standard driver onboarding, not an optional add-on.

What FLAG Academy’s training covers

Our anti-hijacking program is built around one principle: most hijackings are avoidable.

We teach drivers to recognise and act on pre-attack indicators before a situation locks them in.

Sessions cover criminal methodology, pre-attack surveillance patterns, high-risk environments, avoidance tactics, and what to do when avoidance isn’t possible.

We also address the physiological reality of being under threat, because knowing what your body will do under extreme stress, and having a trained response ready, is what separates a bad outcome from a worse one.

Training is available for corporate teams and fleet staff, delivered in-person across South Africa.

Explore FLAG Academy’s corporate safety training — get your team prepared →

In your corner
Ann

 

FLAG Academy delivers practical safety training for workplaces, fleets, and communities across South Africa. Our programmes cover anti-hijacking, self-defence, GBV prevention, psychological safety, and personal safety.