Heavy construction machinery and equipment may not seem the most obvious choice for a thief. There is no quick get-away with items which are so heavy and large but when one piece of equipment can cost thousands of dollars to buy, it can be sold for almost as much on the black market.
Construction asset theft is a considerable problem in the EU with over a billion euros of machinery stolen every year and over £100 million in plant theft in the UK alone. When you consider that the industry average for heavy machinery recovery is less than 5 percent, you begin to appreciate the ample size of the problem.
Despite government initiatives and concerted police activity to try and combat heavy machinery theft, large pieces of construction equipment can still be relatively easy pickings for organised criminal gangs. They’re often left unattended or lightly secured in remote locations, single keys can often start multiple machinery and older machines can be difficult to identify and return to their owners if they’re ever found.
So what can owners of heavy equipment do to protect their valuable machinery better?
We asked the plant and machinery tracking service, CanTrack for their advice on safeguarding such expensive assets.
Protect and Invest
Their advice was simple; invest in a proper asset tracker. They feel it’s the only way you can really combat the tools and techniques of determined and professional criminals. Keeping construction plant and equipment behind heavily secured gates or monitoring with security companies isn’t always practical or economically possible. Even when it is possible, stealing heavy machinery like a digger is normally done to order. A buyer will have already been identified so thieves come equipped with the tools needed to get in and take the vehicle quickly.
So the best and perhaps the only effective way to keep an eye on expensive heavy equipment is to go with an asset tracker. But how do you identify which asset tracker is the best solution for your business?
What to look for
Some people may feel that for new heavy equipment it is unnecessary to take any additional security precautions as many new pieces of construction kit have in-built GPS trackers. Manufacturers even advertise GPS as being an effective security aid but unfortunately it’s not. GPS fits the bill for fleet managers who want to track the performance of their drivers and their vehicles but is completely ineffective as a security device. Criminals can jam the GPS signal easily or use detectors to find the tracking unit and destroy it. And the major flaw of such an asset tracker is that it can be ‘blinded’ by cutting its connection to the sky. It needs a clear line of sight to a satellite to work effectively so surrounding it by metal in say a curtain-sided truck will block its signal.
You need different tracking qualities to hold onto your heavy equipment. What you need is a tracking device that combines powerful ground based radio homing beacons with mobile technology to ensure that the location signal of your construction asset is always found. You also need a tracker that has preferably a long-lasting rechargeable battery and can operate equally well for both engine-powered and non-powered equipment. As heavy equipment is put to work in the testing environment of a construction site then your tracking unit also needs to be extremely sturdy so check any certifications an asset tracking service provides for its asset tracker. Finally it would pay you to investigate whether the vehicle tracking system you’re looking at is computer-only or has a human component to it. Having on the ground investigators as part of your asset tracking package will add hugely to the chances of your heavy equipment being recovered quickly.
Try CanTrack for all your Asset Tracking Questions
If you need any information on construction asset trackers go to cantrack.com for everything you could need on how an asset tracking device can work for you. CanTrack is a UK provider of asset tracking units and GPS fleet telematics solutions with over a decade of experience and innovation.
