Tips to protect your business

Construction site theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the UK. Here are 6 easy tips to protecting your business.

Have a welder inscribe your company name into the buckets, boom and frame of your equipment. This alone acts as a good deterrent to thieves as they instantly baulk from the idea of selling on equipment with anything as so blatant as the owners own name inscribed on the machinery. Paint acts as the same deterrent, but can easily be chemically removed. UV markers however are a sneaky way of marking your property. However, as they are invisible to the naked eye, they lose the deterrent factor and other people that come into contact with the stolen goods won’t realise their true origin. On the flip side, they are useful for properly identifying the true owners once the stolen equipment has been recovered.

The equipments manufacturer will also have an accurate record of all stolen equipment, and so if it is ever brought in for repair, it should also be easily identified. So if your equipment is ever stolen, you should ring the manufacturer straight away. Companies such as John Deer, Case and Caterpillar, all have comprehensive lists of reported stolen equipment.

Caterpillar has especially great customer service and has recently announced that they are installing a new key ignition system similar to the GM type of key that has a chip built into it. The chip works via magnets and “reads” the key as it is installed. This effectively means that you can also program each of your pieces of equipment to respond to certain keys, giving you the owner greater control over who operates your machinery. As the process is computerized, there is an added bonus that the equipment can not be hotwired.

Lighting platforms and generators are also frequently becoming the target for thieves. Here at Permanex Security, we suggest welding a large piece of rectangular steel plate the same dimensions as a tire onto a wheel rim. When you place your equipment at the desired site, remove on wheel and rim and install the rectangular square onto the wheel time housing. Then use a set of locking wheel lug nuts to bolt it on. No one can then gook on and drive away with your equipment.

The easiest way to prevent theft is just to hire a specialist construction site security systems firm. They can easily install and operate site CCTV, scaffolding alarm and employ site security. At a time when thefts are on the rise across the UK due to the recession, making sure you don’t become a victim and lose revenue yourself is of paramount importance.