Caterpillar 301.5 mini excavator. Stolen on 14th June 2006 from Manchester. Recovered in Bredbury, Manchester on 19th June 2007.

JCB 535-125 telescopic handler. Stolen on 31st May 2006 from Besicar, South Yorkshire. Recovered in Northern Ireland on 5th October 2007.

Ifor Williams HB510R horsebox. Stolen on 3rd May 2007 from Cheshire. Recovered in Clayton, Manchester on 3rd May 2007.

Kubota KX61 mini excavator. Stolen from Nelson, Lancashire on the 23rd July 2005. Recovered in Rochdale, Manchester on 18th July 2006.

Manufacturers

Compared with motor vehicles plant and equipment has very low levels of integral security.

There is a universal key policy, which means that everyone has the key to your equipment, there are few immobilisers linked to a unique key, which means that everyone with your key can start and drive away your equipment, there are few tracking devices fitted, which means that when anyone does drive away your equipment, you won’t be able to see where they have gone.

In short, hugely expensive plant and equipment is there for the taking. And take is what the criminals do

But manufacturers will only manufacture what their clients want, and if their clients, who are in the main the plant hire companies, do not want to pay for the security enhancements which would help to bring down equipment theft because it would add to their hire costs, and their clients, the contractors, do not want to pay additional hire charges for security which their insurers do not make mandatory! There you have it.

Many of the largest manufacturers already register their equipment sales with TER – what equipment they sold to which client. This is a free service. TER make the data available to the police 24/7 on an enquiry by enquiry basis.

Plant and equipment theft issues for manufacturers

The equipment does not have sufficiently robust or covert identification data to resist tampering, alteration and destruction
Equipment is fitted with a universal key, has few deadlocks, few factory fitted immobilisers or tracking devices

The Solutions

Stamp in the serial/chassis/VIN number in more than one place on the vehicle chassis, at least one of which should be in a place not easily viewed (i.e. covert)
Discard the universal key and fit unique keys linked to an immobiliser
Register new and used equipment sales with TER
Register theft data with TER

TER’s services for manufacturers

Equipment registration. Plant and equipment manufacturers can register all their new and used equipment sales data with TER in order to make this data available to the police and law enforcement agencies 24/7. This is data is only available to the police and law enforcement agencies and then only on an enquiry by enquiry basis. The data enables the police and law enforcement agencies to quickly access data during operations. Equipment registration

Manufacturers registering with TER include:

JCB, Caterpillar, Manitou, Kubota, Liebherr, Ifor Williams