Interesting story on equipment theft

[CEwriter]

Here's something form the Light & Medium Truck Report on preventing equipment theft. Not sure why it's in L&MT, but it's interesting (I got one brewin' myself for later in the year).

http://www.ttnews.com/lmt/UFMOct06/preventing.asp

What do you guys do to thwart thieves?

L

[Dozerboy]

No one would steal our old POS. The first company I worked for had an employee stealing from them. Most crews had a few company pickups and at least one 10 wheeler and trailer. He would go to a job say the equipment wasn't there load it up and take it to his house. Then take it out of state and sell it they hired a PI to catch him. They also had someone drive one of our loader with forks through a shop door and then used the forks to load up 4 of the mechanics tool cabinets. I left shortly after that, but I think they got a surveillance system after that and some type of Lowjack setup for there iron.

[CEwriter]

LoJack's commercial division claims it was responsible for more than $15 million worth of construction equipment recovered in 2005. Have some interesting recovery stories. Check em out at http://www.lojack.com/products-services/fleet-vehicle-tracking/index.cfm

L

[Steve Frazier]

I'm interested in getting something like LoJack for my machine, without it I'd be out of business. Unfortunately, it's still a little rural here and LoJack doesn't show coverage in my area.

[CEwriter]

Might want to check out one of the telematic, or GPS-based, systems. There are some that focus on theft prevention, and many that offer all the vehicle-tracking bells and whistles.

A few of the theft-prevention-oriented ones that I know about
DPL America’s Titan - www.dplamerica.com
Ayantra’s MAT 302ER – www.ayantra.com
Longview’s vShepard – www.longviewadvantage.com

Insurance-policy holders who buy from one of the agents with The Leavitt Group (www.leavitt.comthat) qualify for premium reductions of 20 to 50 percent if they use DPL America’s Titan system.

Telematics suppliers
Qualcomm (www.qualcomm.com) will pay the fee to register its GlobalTRACS customers’ equipment with the National Equipment Registry (NER -- at www.nerusa.com)

Airsis Express – www.airsis.com
FleetBoss Global Positioning Solutions -- www.fleetboss.com
Global Tracking Corp. GTC-100E – www.satellitetrack.com
John Deere's JDTRACS - www.deere.com (supplied by Qualcomm)
Komatsu’s Komtrax – www.komatsuamerica.com
Micrologic’s iSite – www.micrologic.com
Teletrac’s FleetDirector - www.teletrac.net
Trimble’s TeleNavTrack - www.trimble.com

And you can find contact information for more telematics vendors at http://guide.constructionequipment.com/companylist.aspx?pid=1562&ctype=m

If you happen to be in an area with LoJack coverage (available in 26 states now) and you're interested, there are a number of deals going on with insurance companies. For example, The Hanover is cutting $100 off its insurance premium costs for each of a policy holder’s first 15 vehicles fitted with a LoJack stolen vehicle recovery system, and offering discounted rates for protected machines. The insurer will waive up to $25,000 in deductibles for LoJack-equipped machines that are stolen but not recovered.

St. Paul Travelers will also waive $10,000 to $25,000 in deductibles for any LoJack-equipped machine that is stolen and not recovered.

Progressive is offering discounting premiums for policy holders using LoJack, and waiving deductibles if protected machines are stolen and not recovered. Not sure of the dollar figures.

Good luck,

L

[CEwriter]

Here's my story on equipment theft. The big news, from my perspective at least, was how many insurance companies are now cutting policy and deductible discounts to contractors who use things like LoJack, or even register their machines with NER to improve its chances of recovery if it is stolen.

Let me know what you think.

http://www.constructionequipment.com/article/CA6386932.html?nid=2443&rid=1366620129"

Thanks,

L

[Dusty]

i read a story in a mag about a guy that had lojack in his loader and it was jacked and when they found it they also found a whole bunch of others

[Countryboy]

Good story CE. Very informative as usual.

[CEwriter]

i read a story in a mag about a guy that had lojack in his loader and it was jacked and when they found it they also found a whole bunch of others

Judging from the recovery stories by LoJack, NER, DPL America, Qualcomm, and others, that's a fairly common experience. It supports the idea that if everybody starts taking aggressive action to prevent theft/improve recovery, the incidence of theft will drop for all.

L

[Dozerboy]

Don't know if it would do much good out here only 15 miles to Mexico. A friend got her truck stolen after 30 mins. LoJack couldn't find it.

[CEwriter]

That must be really frustrating. I guess the upside is that if the machine is insured with one of these providers that's linked up with NER or one of the vehicle-tracking companies, you'll save $10,000 or more in deductible costs if it's not recovered.

L