Category Archives: Theft

Why heavy construction equipment is always vulnerable to theft!

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Heavy construction equipment is one of those inventions of the human beings that have made work easier and lesser. Regardless of how difficult or time consuming the work may be, the heavy construction equipment always makes it absolutely easy to complete the job –

  • Efficiently
  • Faster
  • Better.

Besides, the role of the heavy construction equipment is quite versatile. One single machine can perform a number of works. They can cut, excavate, load and carry. No type of heavy work, construction work or job specific work is difficult, if you have these.

However, the heavy construction equipment has a problem and that is the problem of theft. You will often hear the heavy construction equipment being stolen. There are many reasons, why this actually happens.

  • Expensive price:

 

The first reason, why the heavy construction equipment gets stolen so frequently is its price. The price of the equipment is extremely high. Not only the equipment, but also the parts of the equipment are very expensive. Therefore, the thieves are always in the trial of stealing the equipment and its parts.

  • Demand:

 

Despite the price of the heavy construction equipment being so high, the demand is never disturbed. Due to the high price and the constant demand, stealing is an activity that the dishonest businessmen indulge in. They steal the equipment and sell it for half the market price. However, it must be kept in mind that these stolen heavy construction equipment or machines do not come with valid papers and without this; you will neither get its license nor the permit to operate it.

  • Little chance of detection:

 

Why the stealers of the heavy construction equipment prefer stealing these machines, tools and equipment is because of the very little chance of these getting detected. The lesser is the chance of detection, the easier it is to steal.

  • Lack of surveillance:

 

In a jobsite, where there is the need or use of the heavy construction equipment, there is very little to no surveillance that makes it easier for the thieves to steal these. What is even easier is that the heavy construction equipment does not have a garage for parking them, once they have been stopped for the day of work. Lying open on the jobsite is an easy chance for the thieves to steal them.

  • Soft sentences for the thieves:

 

Even if the thieves are caught for stealing the heavy construction equipment, they get a very soft sentence for their deed.

These are the common reasons, why the chances of heavy construction equipment stealing are so high. Hence, if you own any of these heavy construction equipment, it is a must that you follow the anti-theft rules and regulations and make sure that your equipment does not stay vulnerable to stealing. It does not take a huge lot of money to prevent the equipment from stealing. But, if it is stolen, it can cost you huge and you might not be able to recover from the loss.

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How to protect heavy construction equipment from theft?

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Heavy construction equipment and machines are one of the most important and essential parts of the construction projects. The jobs at a construction site are done way easily with the heavy construction equipment. It completes the construction task faster and more efficiently and that too for an affordable investment. Relying on manual labour only increases time consumption as well as expenses.

It is because of this that the heavy construction equipment is always in demand. However, the prices of these machines, tools and equipment are not very affordable. Hence, stealing the heavy construction equipment is a common practice all across the globe. Whenever there is a possibility or ignorance, the thieves steal the equipment. That is why, preventing the stealth as well as protecting the heavy construction equipment from any such damage is a must.

Here are a few steps that need to be followed.

  • National Equipment Register:

 

When the heavy construction equipment gets stolen, the police find it very difficult to track down as many of the vehicles are not properly registered. Also, there is a parallel business industry that deals in the stolen heavy construction equipment and hence, finding your heavy construction equipment might be difficult. That is why, in order to track down your stolen heavy construction equipment, registering it to the National Equipment Register is a must.

  • Do a verification of the workers:

 

More often than not, the workers are found guilty of either stealing or accomplishing in the theft of the heavy construction equipment. Hence, before you employ anyone, it is a must that you do a thorough background check of the workers. Sometimes, the thieves or the gangs send their members to be employed as your worker in order to find out how secure your heavy construction equipment is and what measures you take protect it. Finding the loopholes is way easier from within the team.

  • Keep the garage or construction site well-lit:

 

If you park you heavy construction equipment within the construction job site or somewhere else in the parking lots, it is a must that you have the place well-lit. This is a very useful step that will help you to monitor the site at all times through close circuit cameras. It is also a great idea that you keep the heavy construction equipment blocked on all sides by other vehicles, so that there is no easy escape.

  • Using Security Systems:

 

Chaining or locking the heavy construction equipment is not always a solution as the thieves can spend hours or even bribe the security personnel and cut down the chains, if there is enough time. In case there is no other security system such as the CCTV camera or enough lights or even an advanced alarming system that will notify you in case of any intrusion, chains and locks would not be able to do the job for you.

  • Insurance:

 

Insurance is a safety protection that will help you to overcome the losses in case of any theft of the heavy construction equipment. Hence, always have it insured, so that you do not have to bear the damage at all.

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5 tips to prevent the heavy construction equipment from being stolen

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Theft is a common problem, when it comes to the heavy construction equipment. These are so expensive, so much in demand and so easy to steal that the thieves frequently make a target of the equipment at a jobsite. Despite the fact that these machines and equipment are so huge, stealing them is not a problem because of the lack of anti-theft or theft-prevention measures that the owners take.

Here are a few tips that will help you to prevent the chances of theft and make it easier to find, if at all it is stolen.

  • Indicate the parts and label them:

 

It is very important that you add an indicator and make a note of all the parts and machines of the heavy construction equipment. There are indicating stickers and labels that can help you in doing so. However, it is quite easy to remove these indicators and sell the parts in the black market.

Hence, it is a better idea that you use an inscription to indicate every part of the equipment and have a note of these parts. This will not only help you to keep a track of the different parts of the equipment, but also, in case there is a theft, it will make it easier for the investigators to have a note of the part that is missing. Even after finding it, identifying it becomes a lot easier.

  • Use apps to monitor all activities:

 

There are anti-theft apps that can be installed to your system and it becomes easy to control and monitor, whether the equipment is being stolen or not.

  • Area surveillance:

 

Most of the heavy construction equipment thefts have taken place because of the lack of surveillance in any part of the jobsite. There is less CCTV surveillance than needed and even the lights are turned off making it easier for the thieves to steal.

In any jobsite, where there is the use of heavy construction equipment and if they are parked at the jobsite, it is a must that you install motion sensors. This will help you to detect any activity and movement that is caused to move the equipment from there. There must also be enough light towers that will help you to keep a notice of the equipment.

  • Parking the heavy construction equipment:

 

This is something that not every heavy construction equipment owner keeps in mind. When you park the equipment or the vehicle after a day at work, you need to park it one after the other, in a queue, so that it is not possible to remove any one of the vehicles or machines or equipment, without removing the other.

If you follow these simple and yet useful tips, it will be absolutely easy to keep a track of all of your vehicles. You will be able to prevent any chance of theft. However, thefts can be very expensive and to make sure it does not lead to financial loss, you need to have the heavy construction equipment insured.

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How to protect your heavy equipment against theft

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A construction business gives a lot of importance to its heavy equipment as they understand how crucial it is for the smooth running of the business and which is why they take every care to ensure that it works fine all the time. They take necessary steps to keep the equipment well maintained, service it at regular intervals and if they see a need to replace any of the faulty part with a new one, they do it immediately. But there is one particular thing which not all big construction businesses give due importance to and it is protecting their heavy equipment against theft.

There have been a lot of instances of theft in many parts of US and the number is simply rising. The cops are also having a hard time to get hold of the gang who is into this. So it becomes the responsibility of the owners to take utmost precaution of their equipment when it comes to theft. Please do not consider it to be a trivial matter. There is a parallel industry operating who are into selling stolen machines at a considerably cheaper rate. The modus operandi is fairly simple. They first lay their eyes on machines that are not sufficiently guarded. Once they have identified such equipment, they do a thorough study of the zone and chalk out a plan to get it out safely from the zone without letting anybody get a sniff of it.

Let us now talk about the solution. First and foremost once you buy heavy equipment, ensure that it is registered with National Equipment Register. They are the organization that preserves the databases of heavy equipment. So in case if your machine gets stolen, you can raise an alarm and let the cops know about it. The cops will then get the relevant information from the National Equipment Register’s office and will find it helpful to track down your machine.

It is also crucial to do a background verification of all your employees. It is not that your employees will steal the machine but they can turn out to be an accomplice. The gang ideally will first send one of its members to your company and will get employed as a laborer. But his main intention is to know how well you guard your equipment and will try to draw loopholes. Taking benefits of those loopholes they will hatch a plan and execute it before you even get to know anything about it. Therefore, doing stringent background verification is way too important.

You got to keep the jobsite well-lit at all times. Thieves can make good use of darkness and can steal away any heavy item. They are smart and therefore you got to be smarter. If possible, install heavy duty cams all around the jobsite whose visuals shall be monitored inside the security cabin so that they get to know who is doing what with the machine. Following these basic steps can help you in a big way to keep your heavy equipment safe.

How to prevent your heavy equipment getting stolen

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Thieves always have one thing in mind. Steal a highly priced stuff and sell it at a lower price. It will still leave them with a bounty. It really does not matter much if the item they want to steal is the car parked at your backyard or the heavy equipment that is lying at your construction site. For them, it is good money lying unprotected and definitely a chance to earn a lot of money in a comparatively shorter span. They know for sure how highly priced heavy equipment are and therefore if you have left your machine unprotected, it is definitely a cause of worry. If you feel that keeping the equipment in the construction site will keep it away from the eyes of the thieves, then you have completely mistaken them. You will never know what they have set your machine as their next target and one fine day you will get to see the equipment missing from the site.

It is better to be safe than sorry for not doing the right thing at the right time and therefore it is important that you keep your heavy equipment protected. Thieves will never let you know when they are planning to steal your machine and therefore installing a camera or keeping some sort of security will deter them to take this step. Efforts that you should take to keep your machine safe are stated below.

Install cameras at major points in the construction site:-

Installing cameras at all the important points can work a great deal in keeping the thieves at bay. It has been noticed that thieves do not want to get inside the compounds that has cameras all around the place. Trying to steal a machine from a place that has lot of cameras has more chance for them to get caught and therefore they kind of like to play it safe.

Deploy security men to protect your machine:-

Alongside installing cameras you can also deploy security men at the site who will keep a constant check. It will be too much of a risk to try any misadventure when you have the security guys available at the site. They would rather not dare to drive away a big machine especially when there are people around and guarding the place. This would act a big deterrent to the ones who enter the site with the intention to steal the equipment.

Give a suitable indicator to all your machines:-

If you have a lot of machines with you, it becomes difficult for you to identify which equipment is yours and which one you have taken on rent (if at all you have taken any machine on rent). What needs to be done is tag the machines with numbers or codes engraved in it. The numbers should be visible to everybody which if stolen will not be easy to sell in the black market. The thieves will also not want to make the selling part difficult and hence will not lay their hands on machines that have those numbers or codes.

 

 

Follow the tips before choosing the right equipment tracking system

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To start a construction business or make a new path for your business, it is very important to organize it properly.  If you cannot maintain your business, then you will not get success in this field. It is really essential to purchase some good and reliable heavy equipment to maintain your business properly. There are a number of heavy machines that can help you to establish your business. To continue it properly, you should rely on such machines. Now, if you start to rent on equipment or operate it then you have to take several experienced workers who can control these machines. To manage everything properly in your site and operate them properly you should take help of equipment tracking system. This will help you to make your business more profitable and productive. However, there are different types of equipment tracking systems so you can choose the right system that is fit with your requirement.

Before choosing the best equipment tracking system to track down the detail information of your equipment you need to consider few things. It is your responsibility to select the best tracking system that has great features. Here are some tips that can help you to choose the perfect equipment tracking system for maintaining your business.

  • At first you need to find out the right provider who can definitely provide you the best equipment tracking system. There are a number of companies that provide different types of tracking systems. You need to find out the best one. You should check the background of the company and try to know which types of equipment tracking system they actually offer. If they can provide different types application then you can definitely try their service.
  • It is also important to check the features of the equipment properly before buying it. If the equipment tracking system doesn’t have reliable features then you will have to face many difficulties. So, it is always good to check the features. You should check whether they can provide good services or not. It is important to check whether they can work in rough situations or not. It is also important to know whether it can run for long time or not. When you are going to work with equipment then you should know the duration of its working.
  • Well, you also need to provide proper maintenance on your equipment. It is really essential to maintain your machines properly so that it can work well. Without proper maintenance you cannot work with it. So, it is your duty to look into the machine and take care of it properly.

These are the most important things that you should always take care of before choosing the right equipment. As it helps you to track down the records of your essential equipment so, you should be very careful and handle this machine properly.

 

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Have some anti-theft measurements for your heavy construction equipment and be relaxed

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Heavy construction equipments are very much in demand in the recent era. They are the basic requirements for any construction work taking place all over the world. However, the extremely high price of these equipments makes the construction equipment subject to theft. If you are afraid of a theft of any part of your construction equipment, then taking some anti-theft prevention in favor your machine is very helpful and mandatory as well. When you think of the anti-theft measurements, there are either too many confusing devices, techniques that confuse the owner, or the owner becomes very threatened of the situation that he fails to follow the simple way outs. Here are some simple tips that can help any owner from having to lose his heavy construction equipment.

  1. When a part of your equipment gets stolen, most of the time it is brought to the manufacturer or a dealer of heavy construction equipment for repairing or servicing the part. So, if you inform the manufacturer or dealer of the equipment about the theft, it is possible that you will get to find it soon. So, if you face a theft, you must contact the manufacturer immediately after informing the police, so that the manufacturer can go through their stolen equipment servicing database and contact you.
  2. Inscribe your name, company name and phone number on the parts of the equipment, especially on the boom, bucket, engine, frame and the other parts of the equipment. Painting the names would also work, but painted names can be easily removed. So if you inscribe your contact details, it would be easier for the police to find the owner once they get the thieves finding difficulty in selling the equipments due to the inscription. As a result of this, the thieves will avoid stealing such equipments.
  3. To make sure that nobody can drive away your heavy construction equipment, you can weld a rectangular piece of steel plate on to the rim of the wheels. When you use the locking wheel lug nuts, this steel plate will work as a lock and no one can drive away your construction equipment.
  4. Installing the newly developed ignition key system is another excellent way of managing the safety and security of the heavy construction equipment. As the ignition key is a magnetic key system, without the unique code, the equipment cannot be accessed. The codes can be the same for every part of the equipment, or it can be different for different parts.
  5. A very helpful way of preventing the theft of the heavy construction equipments is to install a theft recovery device. This is a very sophisticated device that helps the owner find easily where the equipment is lying. When the device is equipped with a theft recovery device, unless and until the thief is technologically very sound, the equipment can be recovered within a few hours of the theft.

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Want To Protect Your Heavy Equipment From Theft – You’ll Find This Helpful

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You must have come across this many times when one fine morning, you are informed by your employees that a particular part of heavy equipment is missing. You get up in a state of shock and wonder how this can be possible and what use a part of an equipment would be for any person. Well, such thefts are quite rampant in the entire US and one got to be very vigilant to ensure that his things are at place. Many a times, the entire machine gets stolen and shipped to other country and you are left with miseries. Before we begin noting the possible solution for this problem, let us first understand the reason why one would steal parts of heavy equipment or the equipment as a whole.

The market for stolen equipment is very big in the United States and the money involved in this business is huge. Therefore, it has gangs that have the skill to open up equipment and carry away few important parts of the machine in no time. The people who are running this business never fall short of men and therefore in spite of the cops taking every possible action to nab them, their counts keep on increasing.

Let us now discuss what could be done to contain this problem so that you do not suffer loses.

Keep your documents in place:-  Ideally, most owners of construction companies lose the track of important documents pertaining to the equipment they have bought. Due to this, if the equipment is stolen, it could not be traced by the cops and they end up taking all the trouble for nothing. Hence, it is crucial to keep all your documents like model or the serial number, the manufacturing year of the equipment, photos etc. that will prove to be helpful to the cops to catch hold of the miscreants.

Conduct a sound background check of your employees:-  It is highly recommended to do a thorough background check of all your employees and employ only them who have a clean record with no criminal background. Alternatively, it is prudent to keep a watch on employees whom you find to be suspicious. Questioning them directly may not be the right way to deal with them but checking their behavior may give you some idea if not all.

Maintain a register:-  You should maintain a register where you can keep a record of people coming in and going out of the site. Alternatively, you can also employ security personnel who will check the employees every time they enter or exit the construction premise.

Install cameras at different locations:-  This should be really helpful in nabbing the culprits. If the thieves do not know that you’ve installed cameras would definitely make the mistake of not wearing masks and that will help the cop nab them. However, if at all the thieves know that there are cameras installed, they would rather look out for some other place and may skip yours.

Protect Your Heavy Equipment from Potential Theft

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The use of the heavy construction equipment is perhaps the very first requirement for the construction industry to operate perfectly. If you want your construction project to be finished off within the given deadline, then you have to ensure that your heavy equipment is in perfect order. However, heavy construction equipment theft can prove to be a major hindrance to the entire business.

When Is Your Heavy Construction Equipment Vulnerable To Theft?

The heavy construction equipment forms one of the core ingredients of your entire construction business. Needless to say the theft of the equipment can prove to be a huge setback to your construction project. Not only does it affect you economically, but also damages the repute that you have in the construction arena. It is quite obvious that your heavy equipment is quite expensive and this makes it a sure target for swindlers all around. Your heavy construction equipment is most susceptible to theft when left unattended at night or during break times. It is quite likely that the heavy equipment will be stolen if you do not have enough equipment security measures up your sleeve

Preventing Heavy Equipment from Theft

Taking preventive measures to stop the heavy equipment from being stolen seems to be the best thing to do since they form such an important part of the whole business.

  • Installing anti-theft security and tracking devices are perhaps the very first equipment theft prevention measure that you could take. There are a number of geo-sense equipment tracking devices that you could use to track the location of your stolen heavy equipment.
  • Registering your equipment at the national equipment registration office is another thing that you could do in order to protect your heavy equipment from damage due to theft. By taking this measure you will ensure that your equipment is registered in the database of the law enforcement squad, thereby, making the tracking part a hell lot easier.
  • It is not possible to carry the heavy construction equipment about when there is no work going on at the construction sites. It is best to arrange for certain security measures in order to protect your heavy equipment when it is not in use. Increasing on-site security can thus, protect your heavy equipment from theft to a great extent.
  • You could also consider immobilizing the heavy equipment at the end of the day in order to ensure that burglars don’t get to drive it off.
  • And last but not the least- keeping an up to date record of your inventory is another thing that you could do in order to ensure that your heavy equipment is well protected from theft and to make tracking the devices easier. You could also consider painting your equipment in a way that makes it stand out from the rest of its lot. This too, enhances the tracking of heavy equipment in case it falls prey to theft.

The robbery of heavy equipment can be the cause of a huge set back to your construction organisation. Not only will it prove to be a great hindrance in meeting the deadline, but it also spells a heavy economic loss for the company as well. Hence, preventing them from potential theft is the best thing that you can do.

Tips on How to stop Heavy Equipment Theft

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Theft of an essential commodity especially something that comes handy in your day to day activity can be really irking and then you got to leave your work and run from pillar to post to lodge a complaint with the police, try to work things out with the insurance company and to add salt to the wound, you are out of work till the time you seek a replacement for the stolen equipment. This is something which you would never want to happen in your business but these things happen unwillingly and the owners pay the price for it.

Let us first understand what makes stealing heavy equipment a lucrative business for the thieves. How much do they gain from the deal and what do they do with the stolen equipment. We all know by now that heavy equipments are the most expensive equipment required in the construction domain and they always have a resale value attached to it. Moreover, if the machine is in good working condition, then the value simply multiplies. Stealing heavy equipment can give them good deal of money in a single shot, which means that they do not have to work hard in stealing things which are less valuable and for which they are more at risk of getting caught. All they have to do is make a healthy plan to steal heavy equipment from a construction site and find ways and means to sell it off to a buyer in a different city or ship it to a different country.

In this bargain, they earn more with minimum effort and also take less risk. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau and National Equipment Register, it has been estimated that equipment theft differs from 300 million USD to 1 billion USD on an annual basis. This is indeed a huge figure. Reading this, many would want to leave their existing business and join the thugs. (Said on a lighter note) Well, it has become very important to ensure that you discourage the thieves stealing your stuff by training your staff on how to prevent robberies of heavy equipments, installing cameras at different places of the project site, installing other devices that will throw signals to you confirming its current location. This way you will be able to track the machine and in this process may also catch the thieves’ red handed.

Register your equipment to make it identifiable:-  It is not mandatory to register your equipment and this makes the work simple for the crooks. You have your stuff unregistered and once it gets stolen, you have no other means to get it back as there is no record of that machine. This also gives a hard time to the cops to trace your machine. You should therefore register your equipment and also try to engrave some markings on the equipment which will help the cops to indentify your machine.

Install cameras around the construction site:-  As heavy equipments are big in size, no thief can go unwatched from the eyes of the camera if they attempt to steal the machine. You can also spend on security personnel to guard the equipments during nights.