Following on from our posts about preventing rural crime in Kent, here’s a useful pdf from Kent Police about protecting industrial machinery from theft.

Thames Valley Police report that this type of theft runs into millions of pounds every year. They give advice about buying and hiring, marking and registration and moving plant to sites.

Preventing the theft of industrial machinery

Once the equipment is on-site, you should appoint a dedicated site manager to look after it and have a high-security cabinet or secure storage area for any plant machinery or tools that are left on site overnight. If it is no longer required, it should always be returned to the storage area, the depot or the hiring company. Remember to get an authorisation note from anyone collecting machinery as fraudulent delivery men are another way of stealing this type of equipment.

The site manager should always know exactly where each piece of equipment is – if it is stolen, you will need to be able to report what has been stolen when it was stolen and from where.

Make sure that your site has:

perimeter fencing
automatic gates to control access
security lighting
CCTV cameras for surveillance and
intruder alarms.

Keeping plant safe on site

One of the most important things you can do is remove the keys from the ignition of any vehicle when it is not in use and don’t leave them in the machine!

Next up, make sure that you use any security devices supplied with the equipment which can lock it, whether it’s a steering lock, stabiliser legs, or devices to immobilise crane booms or tracks and wheels. Anything that makes it harder to move the equipment will help but particularly things that will require tools or physical effort.

Hydraulic locks are designed to isolate brake, steering and gear selection systems, preventing any unauthorised individuals from moving the equipment. The big advantage is that these usually require no action from a person as they are automatically set after the engine has been switched off.

You could also consider having a security system fitted that sends an alert if a piece of machinery is stolen, tracks its movements and prevents it from restarting once the engine has stopped.

Guardian don’t just deal with homes and offices. Let us help you to protect your industrial premises.

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