CSE: Crime Scene Equipment : Online Exclusive
Ladies and Gentlemen, the stories you are about to read are true.
Only the names have been omitted to protect the innocent.
A shriek in the night.
The flash of red and blue.
The equipment that was sitting on the jobsite at the end of the day is gone, and the contemplative detectives are on the scene to sweep for fingerprints, search for clues and collect evidence. While the detectives of yesterday used eye-witness testimony and good ‘ole fashion hunches, today’s law enforcement officials are backed by piles of recorded data — including usage logs and machine location — thanks to GPS tracking. With industry losses exceeding $1 billion annually in the United States, equipment owners are turning to this technology to curb this fast growing epidemic.
Though one component of the broader technology named “telemetry,” GPS is quickly becoming the innovative solution of choice for theft prevention. Many owners are already aware of and evaluating telemetry systems on the merits of their productivity enhancing, service management and diagnostic capabilities. The added bonus is the theft protection component, which any savvy fleet manager should include in his or her assessment of this technology.
When it comes to protecting your valuable construction equipment and trucks, there are two basic approaches: prevention and recovery. The former is the favorite strategy, since it significantly reduces potential damage to the asset as well as eliminates the time and effort required to chase it down once gone. Unfortunately and too often, contractors wait until something is stolen before starting to look at implementing a theft protection strategy. When it comes to equipment theft, an ounce of GPS prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure.
Easy Access — Since most equipment is universally keyed, a single key starts any machine from the same manufacturer. Unfortunately any thief in the world can get these keys at a local dealership or even easier online. Since the equipment is literally sitting on the side of the road or behind a chain link fence, all the crooks have to do is hop in and drive off. Though chain link fences once were a sufficient deterrent, thieves now simply jump over them, drive the machine through them and load the stolen equipment in the street. The average construction equipment theft takes about 20 minutes. For trucks, the theft occurs in a matter of minutes with a quick break-in and hotwire.
Delay in Discovery — Equipment can sit for days at a time without anyone touching it, but assumed to be in the same place. Thieves are smart and will routinely steal on Friday night or over a weekend, knowing that nobody will be back to the jobsite until Monday morning. This gives them several days head start before the theft is even discovered. Since trucks are an integral part of transportation, their theft typically comes to light within a few hours of their disappearance.
Difficulty in Recovery — Stolen equipment is easily moved out of the country, chopped for parts or resold on the auction block to an unsuspecting buyer. Organized crime rings are becoming the major players, and even worse, a number of theft organizations post the recovery rate for stolen equipment at a mere 20 percent. A thief’s modus operandi with trucks, especially service trucks, is to loot the vehicle for tools and parts. Trucks have a higher recovery rate but are often found abandoned and stripped of everything valuable.
The crooks can easily get to your assets, start them just as easily and get a significant head start. Should you experience equipment theft, the best you can expect is a one in five chance of recovery. The deck is clearly stacked in the thieves’ favor, but now you have an opportunity to swing the advantage back to your side — GPS tracking.
Criminal Intent
Prevention is the preferred strategy for protecting against theft. In addition to reducing potential damage to your asset and avoiding spending hours coordinating a recovery effort, prevention methods keep the thieves from moving your assets at unauthorized times. To implement a preventive approach, the specific facets of the GPS tracking technology come into play.
Since theft typically occurs after hours or on weekends, when witnesses are less likely, a GPS unit will set up a curfew on your equipment at that time. What that means is that the unit will literally call your cell phone, pager or PDA or drop you an e-mail if someone tries to start the machine or moves it during those off hours. The system can even go as far as to automatically disable the equipment from running at that time. It’s all based around your schedule of operation, and if you ever need the machine during those off hours simply log in to the software and remotely lift the curfew.
Let’s say you routinely want your machines available to run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with Sunday off. At 7 p.m. every night and all day Sunday your machines will automatically disable themselves and call you if someone touches the key switch or manages to move the equipment. At 7 a.m., everything goes back to normal and nobody is the wiser. If you need that equipment to run until 10 p.m., simply log in online and 30 seconds later your machine is enabled to run. Conversely, if you know an asset will sit for a longer time or goes missing, then log in and set the curfew to disable immediately and remain disabled until you tell it otherwise. From any Internet connected computer or PDA anywhere in the world, you are in control to shut down your assets at any time. This powerful feature is particularly useful over the long holiday weekends, when assets are sitting and thieves are on the prowl.
For trucks, the curfew has the added benefit of curbing unauthorized use and mileage by the driver, particularly when they take the trucks home on nights and weekends. As before, the curfew can emit the silent alarm for movement, disable the truck or perform both depending on your needs. For those who put full faith in their service truck drivers, an option exists where the driver manually engages the alarm/disable combination via a hidden switch every time the driver leaves the truck and disengages it when he or she returns. If a theft attempt occurs, the tracking system calls the driver’s phone immediately and he or she can return to the truck.
Consider the case of a Tracy, Calif., contractor who got a call on his cell phone late one Sunday night indicating that somebody was trying to start his Caterpillar backhoe during the curfew. Upon arriving at his yard after he remotely confirmed the backhoe’s location via the online satellite image in the software, the contractor found his guard dogs poisoned but all his equipment intact. Unfortunately the neighboring contractor’s yard was also broken into and the identical model backhoe, which was unprotected, was stolen.
Organized crime rings are the major players and they will case multiple jobsites and yards to plot out target A, target B, etc. So when the thieves’ attempt for a quick grab was thwarted by the disabled machine, they simply went for the next available, easier target. By immobilizing the equipment with a curfew, the target was “hardened” and the vandals were deterred. This technique is also very effective in warding off other subcontractors and late night joy riders, who typically end up damaging the equipment, jobsite or themselves.
SRU — The Special Recovery Unit
From a recovery standpoint, GPS by itself accomplishes this by empowering the equipment owner to find his or her asset anytime from an Internet connected computer. Simply log in, request the most recent location update (i.e., “ping the machine”) to see the current address and mapped location. If the machine isn’t where it is supposed to be, then call the police and route the info to them.
For the more courageous manager, you always have the option to chase down the machines yourself as one Maryland contractor did when his subs stole two of his compressors. Upon receiving a geofence (an invisible perimeter breach violation) notification from the transponder unit to his phone, the Vice President of Operations sat down at his computer and remotely used his GPS tracking system to locate them in one of their subcontractor’s garage.
Within minutes, his nearest crew truck pulled up to the garage to recover the stolen property and confront the subs, who had removed the compressors just hours before in broad daylight. The importance of being able to locate a stolen asset immediately with GPS was underscored in this case, as the subs had already scraped off the company identifying marks and were cannibalizing the assets for parts by the time the crew truck arrived. If the recovery had waited another day, then the compressors would have been gone altogether.
“We discovered the value of [a GPS system] after recovering only two pieces of equipment,” said the Maryland contractor (anonymity requested for security purposes). “And when you’ve recovered your equipment and you see it coming back to the yard, you realize you’d be willing to pay a lot more for it.”
Another important GPS based feature is the homing beacon, which remotely instructs the unit to send out a location every two minutes. This creates a “bread crumb trail” and all the police need to do is follow the dots to the stolen asset. Most GPS systems will give you a satellite image of the asset’s location, which is necessary since stolen assets usually end up well off the beaten path. Imagine the surprise a North Carolina company received when they located one of their missing machines in Texas, just twenty minutes from the Mexican border. They remotely turned on the homing beacon and routed the local authorities to its hiding place for recovery. Using both the map and satellite view, the owner informed the police exactly which Texas wrecking yard’s tree line was hiding the stolen asset.
As often happens, this one recovery yielded even more recoveries since that wrecking yard was a staging area for stolen equipment being sourced from all over the country. Their procedure was to strip the decals and identifying marks off in the Texas yard, and then move the contraband across the Mexican border and on to their buyers.
Book’em Danno
If the peace of mind isn’t enough to encourage you to protect your entire fleet, then the insurance savings will. As insurance rates continue to rise, a recent theft on the record is sure to skyrocket your premiums. With over 50 percent of equipment losses due to theft, you are cutting your risk by that same percentage when you use GPS technology. You should expect a generous discount from your insurer for this proactive approach. One industry insurance agency, Networked Insurance Agents, gives premium reductions anywhere between 20 to 50 percent below industry standard rates, where the savings often pay for the entire system in less than two years.
The costs of theft run much deeper than just replacing the stolen machine. You have to factor in the downtime for the operator and the job, the cost of the replacement rental, the time required working with the authorities, as well as the paperwork for both the theft and the claim.
From time to time, the statement “we don’t have a theft problem” comes up when exploring GPS tracking technology. The reality is that every contractor has a theft problem, some of them just don’t know it yet. For this reason if you are going to invest in an asset management technology, then theft prevention should be as much a part of the criteria as anything else.
Tony Nicoletti is the Director of North American Sales for DPL America, San Francisco, Calif. Contact Tony at (650) 965-1636 or tony@dplamerica.com.
How GPS and Asset Tracking Technology WorksEquipment tracking with a GPS equipment monitoring system, like the DPL America TITAN, involves three basic parts:
The transponder unit is about the size of a large ashtray and houses the GPS receiver and wireless radio. Wireless networks, the same used by mobile phones, provide communication between the transponder on the asset and the manager at the computer. The unit literally “calls” information such as location, on/off status, movement alarms, and unauthorized usage alarms directly from the asset to the software in real time. Additionally, the manager may “call” the unit from the software and request an update of this data anytime with a click of the computer mouse. It is almost as if the machine has its own cell phone, from which it can call you and vice versa. How to shop for and evaluate a GPS and telemetry systemThe hardware cost for a telemetry system will run you anywhere from $400 to $1,000 per unit with a monthly messaging charge of between $5 to $30 per unit. Here are some important factors to consider: Unit quality and reliability — The unit must hold up in the construction environment so a rugged design is required, and thus a metal enclosure. Be wary of plastic units, as they tend to wear down over time and are not resistant to pressure washing, excessive heat or vibration. Also inquire about the warranty and replacement policy. Anti-tamper features — Crucial for a theft protection system. Ask, “What happens if a thief finds the units and smashes or removes it?” Some units disable the machine from running and some do nothing at all once they are compromised. Also confirm that the antenna is installed out of sight, as that is the first thing a smart thief will look for. Multiple levels of theft protection — Does the unit just provide GPS tracking or does it offer a curfew with cell phone notifications? Does it include machine disable capabilities, homing beacon? Find the system that matches up with your desired level of security, and naturally more levels increases your theft protection. Hidden costs and add-ons — Check to see if you will have an activation fee, support charge, maintenance fee, training fee, software costs, etc. Be sure you thoroughly understand the pricing structure, as $5 a month can quickly become $20 or more if it’s not explained properly. Long-term contract — Some vendors require a multi-year airtime contract; others give you a month-to-month option. Check for early termination penalties as well. Company background — Now more than ever, make sure your provider has been in this business for years and has the capacity to support you through the product’s life. Is the vendor the original manufacturer or a reseller of the system? How is support handled? Where is the product made and where does the warranty come from? GPS theft protection options:
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