NICB Heavy Commercial Equipment Theft and Fraud Prevention Tips

Heavy commercial theft and fraud are no joke. Theft and fraud schemes can seriously cut into any company’s bottom line by stealing valuable assets, like expensive heavy commercial equipment. While everyone wants to think it won’t happen to them, if you don’t take some simple steps to prevent theft and fraud, your business can become an easy target for thieves. Below, we’ll go over some theft and fraud prevention tips, and offer a great solution to protect your heavy commercial equipment.

Tips to avoid theft and fraud

 The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NCIB) offers some easy and effective tips to avoid being victimized.

• Never leave equipment unattended in remote places
• Orient your equipment so that it is difficult to move mobile equipment overnight and over weekends. Consider using the “wagon-train circle” method. Surround easily movable equipment with more difficult-to-move equipment. Therefore, if anyone tries to steal something from within the circle, they would first have to move the heavier equipment out of the way.
• Have a photo archive and list of the PIN and serial numbers of each piece of heavy equipment. Also, engrave or stamp equipment parts with corporate logos, numbers, or other identifying marks to prevent theft and fraud schemes.
• Register all equipment with the National Equipment Registry. This will prevent any theft or selling of stolen goods in a fraud scheme.
• Use hidden fuel shut-off systems.
• Use secure lever controls and lock-out systems to lock the equipment in a curved position. This will prevent any equipment from being towed or traveling in a straight line.
• For backhoes, use sleeve locks to keep the wheels off the ground.
• If any equipment is stolen, report it directly to the police. Provide them with the corresponding PIN and contact your insurance company.

Recovering equipment with GPS Asset Tracking

Although it’s essential to follow the above steps to reduce the chance of any heavy commercial equipment theft, there’s nothing you can do to completely eliminate the chance of being victimized. Unfortunately, diligent thieves can find ways around security measures and still manage to steal.

According to the NCIB, equipment theft is estimated between $300 million and $1 billion each year. In addition, the recovery rate is less than 20%, meaning that if your equipment gets stolen, there’s a good chance you won’t get it back.

However, GPS asset tracking is a great workaround. While there is nothing you can do to completely eliminate the chance of equipment theft, GPS asset tracking provides a very effective way to recover your equipment after it’s stolen.

GPS asset tracking can be installed on any piece of equipment. It provides the real-time location of any equipment it’s tracking so that you can provide law enforcement with the location of your stolen asset. Furthermore, you can set up geofences and alerts to notify you if any of your tracked equipment goes beyond the perimeter you set, so you can know as soon as any of your equipment is stolen.

For more detailed information on how GPS tracking will help track assets in your business, contact a Live View GPS professional today at: 1-888-544-0494.

You Are Here: LiveViewGPS Blog » NICB Heavy Commercial Equipment Theft and Fraud Prevention Tips