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Summer 2021 37 “Rather than the number of thefts decreasing since lockdown has eased, we are hearing that this continues to be a growing problem and the industry is struggling to protect itself from criminal activity. ‘RECOVERY UNLIKELY’ “Plant machinery is hugely expensive, easy to sell for pro t and, historically, has been di cult to track and recover. Thefts within the sector are seen as a relatively low risk gamble due to the pitifully small percentage of equipment that is ever recovered. “The police do a brilliant job in trying to retrieve stolen vehicles and having the correct identifying marks, installing CCTV and tight security are all good measures to reduce loss of equipment, but adding a tracker means there is an immediate response activation – and with advancing technology this is fast becoming the most e ective way to combat burglaries of this type. “Trackers with in-built immobilisation heightens security further than any other safekeeping measure. It enables the customer to immobilise their machinery remotely from their tracking app at any time. They then override it through the same process when they need to use it again. Many customers implement this when they are leaving plant/machinery on-site or in storage unattended. If anyone moves equipment illegally (by lifting onto a atbed or towing away with the ignition o ) site owners receive an instant noti cation or automated phone call to alert them. “Thankfully today’s technology means that we can win the war on organised crime gangs targeting the industry, but more still needs to be done to make sure that businesses are not leaving themselves vulnerable to theft. “Overall, it’s estimated that the UK construction industry loses more than £800 million per year due to machinery theft, taking into account all associated costs. These include the cost of plant replacement, hire of replacement equipment, loss of business and increased insurance premiums. “While theft has a detrimental e ect on all size of business, given the knock on – it’s smaller to medium sized enterprises that face the biggest risk, often leaving them struggling to survive.” One construction and groundworks company spokesman based in the South East of England,explained the impact of machinery theft on his business: “We didn’t anticipate how the pandemic would make our plant machinery so vulnerable. On the day that we downed tools and shut our site during the second lockdown, we had a digger stolen. In fact, CCTV later showed that the thieves had entered our site within ve minutes of us locking up and leaving- they were clearly waiting in anticipation of us vacating. As this kit did not have trackers installed, we had absolutely no way of recovering them. He said trackers had been installed in the company’s eet of vans for more than ve years and used for monitoring from a logistics standpoint during the working day. “What has proven to be invaluable is the additional security they bring – as we were recently able to recover two stolen vans instantly, using the live tracking information,” he said. He said thieves are making a beeline for diggers and plant machinery in general. InApril 2020,The CEA (Construction Equipment Association),owner of the CESAR scheme,reported an estimated 50% increase in construction site theft as opportunist thieves took advantage of the sudden closure and scaling back of constructions sites leaving them vulnerable to theft. <<

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