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It can't happen to you?

12th September 1981
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Page 19, 12th September 1981 — It can't happen to you?
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Maybe it already has!

Hi-jacks, break-ins, jump-ups — no matter what it's called it's crime, and it's bad news for the haulier. Be prepared is the motto, but just how can you do that? David Wilcox has some secure advice

IE PROBLEM with security is at you don't know how good bad your arrangements are til they break down.

You might have spent £5,000

making your depot and hides secure, when in fact no ef has ever even considered )aling anything from you. On a. other hand, even at this very Dment a gang of felons might deciding to avoid your depot cause it looks too difficult a Dposition.

As a result of this uncertainty, .erators can be tempted to pay service to security — until the pot is broken into or one of 3 vehicles has its load stolen. en their chickens come home roost and the operators curse emselves for having paid ant attention to safeguarding 3ir assets in the belief that "it )n't happen to us".

Secretary of the Road Haulage sociation's security commita, Ben McGuire, confimed this itude was only too common. .199 cases out of 100 I only get luiries from members about curity after there's been a eak-in or theft, when of urse, it's too late".

As far as haulage is conmod, security security is concentrated two main areas; vehicles that are on the road or parked up, and the depots. The vehicles pose more of a security problem since security is primarily a management function and so vehicles away from the depot are out of the immediate management control.

Vehicle security itself has two sides: theft of the complete vehicle (usually to obtain the load) and theft from the vehicle, either stealing part of the load or parts of the vehicle itself.

The most spectacular way of stealing a lorry complete with load is to hi-jack it. In fact, though hi-jacks are newsworthy they are now comparatively rare. Inspector John Marie, the motor vehicle security specialist at the Crime Prevention Service of the Metropolitan Police, told me there were just three lorry hijackings last year in the Met area and only one so far this year.

This sort of crime is usually directed at lorries carrying very high-value loads, such as bullion, and can almost be ruled out as far as conventional haulage operations are concerned.

A far more common way of removing complete vehicles and loads is to steal them while they are parked up overnight on the street. The first line of defence against this is a mortice dead lock fitted to the cab doors and a stout, quality padlock for the rear doors. The next stage up from this to immobilise the vehicle. Stee ing locks are still not standard c all commercial vehicles, but n tro-fit models are available.

An alternative method is • use a diesel fuel cut-out, ince porating an electrically operate valve in the fuel line which he to be "live" to allow fuel to pas As the driver leaves the vehic he switches off the power to tF valve and so even if the thi. manages to get in and start If lorry he won't get far before ft fuel residue in the pipe quick runs out.

If the device starts to play ui however, as has been know and cuts out when it isr supposed to, the driver can fir himself the centre of some vei unwelcome and embarrassir attention.

The most sophisticated type e security device is the audib alarm and there are many type on the market.

Some require the driver to s the alarm as he leaves tivehicle, while others are s automatically and so obviate tF problem of a bad memory ar the possibility of intrigue b tween driver and would-be thie The alarm is usually activate by switches in the doc openings, or sensors which d tect the sound frequency someone breaking into th vehicle.

Rather than attempting t steal the complete vehicle an load, many small-time thieve will content themselves with re moving spare wheels, batterie: or siphoning fuel. A lockabl spare wheel carrier and a lockin fuel cap are, therefore, worthwhile investment if th vehicle is to be left overnight o the street.

Inspector Marie said the the of unattended trailers from th street presented police with big problem. You only have t walk round the streets of Lando or any other city at night to se isolated trailers parked up on th street, many loaded and moi with no security device fitted.

The trailer theft problem impounded in two ways. First, a trailer is left overnight in a irticular side street and it's still ere the next morning, the iver will consider it a "safe" ace and continue to leave the tiler there in future — so the cal villains know there's a iiler there for the asking.

Secondly, the interchangeabil, of trailers and their lack of isitive identification means at stolen trailers are difficult to ice. Most operators with more an 50 or so trailers may be ird-pushed to pinpoint the :act location of a particular trailer at a particular moment, so the loss of a trailer may go undetected for quite a long time.

Moreover, because trailers don't have their own registration plates there is also an identification problem; the only positive means is the chassis number and some operators don't have a record of this, particularly if the trailer was bought second-hand.

The easiest way of thief-proofing an unattended trailer is to fit a kingpin lock which is simply a solid collar that locks over the kingpin, preventing it being hitched up.

Of course, the best way of preventing theft of or from any unattended vehicles and trailers parked up at night is to leave them in a secure lorry park. Admittedly, there aren't an abundance of these, but Inspector Marie said if he was an operator he would take the trouble to find one, and that must be good advice.

I asked the Inspector if he considered it worthwhile painting some form of identification on the vehicle's roof so it could be spotted from the air.

It could do no harm, he re plied, but to be realistic, he also pointed out that the Metropolitan Police has only two helicopters and because of the expense of operating them they are not generally used for spotting stolen lorries unless they are carrying high-value loads.

One school of thought says you shouldn't advertise the fact you are carrying a high-value load, such as cigarettes or wines and spirits — use a plain, unmarked lorry. Ben McGuire and Inspector Marie both said that there was no proof that this is any safer than using a livery on the vehicle.

A theft of a high-value load from such a vehicle is likely to a planned operation, no one fooled by unmarked lorries. A once stolen, a plain lorry is rre difficult to trace.

Though lorry hi-jacking I. decreased, what the police c the "jump-up" type of crime rampant. Jump-up theft is p valent in urban areas and lorr involved in multi-drop shop t liveries are favourite targets.

The driver will pull up outsi the shop and may then me several trips into the shop complete the delivery — ez time leaving the lorry un tended with the rear doors wi open, tempting thieves.

This is often an opportur theft. But it can also be or nised crime and the Inspec said he had had experience gangs who specialised in t type of jump-up theft operati in the East End of London.

He suggested two ways countering it. The most obvic is to employ a driver's mate that the vehicle is not left un tended for any great length time.

The other, cheaper, alternat is to fit slam locks to r( shutters or sliding side doc With these, the driver does have to lock the rear shutter doors between trips into i shops — slamming the shut automatically locks it. Sta slam locks are manual operated so they have to be t locked again by key, wherf some are electrically operal d unlock when the driver turns e ignition off.

To make the manual slam ck even more effective, it's a pod idea to put the keys to it on

e same ring as the vehicle's nition key and weld the ring rut. In this way, every time the -iver gets out of the lorry to ake a delivery he must take the nition key with him, stopping e habit that most multi-drop .ivers have of leaving the key in e ignition.

Many delivery or distribution ivers have to collect cash, and t the end of the day they can illect a fair amount of money. 3ther than just giving the driver brown envelope to put the ish in, travelling safes are failable which bolt securely to e vehicle.

The driver can put money in e safe but can't get it out — the y to it is held back at the depot. You may think the problems of ;curing your vehicles for rernight parking disappear if e vehicles are always back at e depot during the night. But a :pot with a well-stocked wareuse is always a target for vilns. Most of these warehouses II be filled with goods which e easily saleable on the open arket and so present no dispoI or fencing • problems, Many :ulage depots tend to be on the iiet outskirts of town where ieves can work indisturbed.

Though fairly common, a deit break-in doesn't pose quite the same problems for the police as does the jump-up theft: more tangible and forensic evidence is usually left at the scene of the crime in the former case.

An enormous amount of money can be spent on making a depot secure — everything from a padlock on the front gate to guard patrols and closed-circuit TV. It should be obvious, therefore, that the cost of the security system chosen must reflect the value of the property — goods, stocks and vehicles you are trying to protect.

The first two essentials are a strong perimeter fence and lighting system to illuminate ti yard and the building; no thi likes to work in a well-lit area.

Many larger companies have gatehouse and barrier at tl main entrance and employ security guard to check in : drivers and visitors. This stoi unidentified people just wandE ing into the depot or warehou: while everyone assumes som one else knows them.

During the night, if the dep is closed up completely, the can be a straight choice betweE a security guard(s) or an aut matic alarm system — or a cor bin ation of both. The sort of SE vices offered by the securi guard companies are dealt wi. elsewhere in this issue, but be systems have their weaknessee Security guards aren't special breed. They can fi asleep, be incompetent, unreli ble, even corruptible. But alar. systems can also be unreliabl badly installed, they can be b. passed.

The problem of false alarms the case of automatic systerr with a direct line to a central e change or police station is we known. If this happens too oftE the depot will be "black-listec by the police and the respon: to the alarm is not all it could — and any alarm is only as goc as the response it brings.

If the depot is out in the wilc and a 30-minute ride from if nearest police station, the thieves can just keep on workin right through the alarm.

When deciding on the opr mum level of security for the di pot don't look at the problei through your own eyes; see rough the eyes of a well:epared criminal. Looking ound the Metropolitan Police :hibition of crime prevention it amazing to see the lengths to lich villains will go.

There have been cases where complete section of wall has ten dragged out with grappling loks attached to a vehicle. lother exhibit is a doorknob rd lock which has been reoved by drilling dozens of les around it with a power ill. Supposedly strong padAs lie mangled, cut or drilled a display case.

Some transport companies ed to leave their lorries loaded the yard with keys in the igniin, just in case they had to be oved in the night because of a e. Inspector Marie said this as asking for trouble; under no :cumstances should keys be 't in vehicles'. It is better to pay member of management to me in early, open up the deit, and hand out the keys as the ivers report for duty.

Both Ben McGuire and Inspecr Marie said ideally they prerred the vehicles to be left unaded in the yard at night, but if is was not possible they sug gested lorries should be reversed up against a wall so that the back doors can't be opened.

"Wastage" is the euphemistic them used by many transport companies to descibe the small amount of goods lost in the course of everyday business. It might include loading or delivery errors or breakages, but it also includes more deliberate disappearances. inspector Marie believes most operators are far too casual about accepting this pilfering: "It's straightforward theft," he said.

The first way of reducing the risk of internal theft is by careful staff selection after that it's down to systems. Load assembly, stock control, a proper routine for returns and breakages, plus checks on diesel consumption and vehicle mileages are all recommended procedures.

High-value goods can be kept in a security cage within the warehouse. If loading or unloading valuable goods, it's a good idea to have a warehouse with a ramp right into it so that the vehicle can be driven into the warehouse and the building's doors shut so that it's a completely contained operation.

Outside drivers coming into the depot to make deliveries or collections should not be allowed to wander round the yard or warehouse at will.

Inspector Marie commented that these rules often exist but • are not enforced. Security doesn't happen by accident you have to work at it.

Security isn't all expenditure; it's education as well. The most elaborate system with vibration or frequency sensors in the warehouse walls and invisible beams across the aisles is rendered useless if its operation is not carried out correctly. If drivers, warehousemen and management are trained to become generally more security conscious, then significant improvements can be achieved with faily little expenditure.

In these belt-tightening days it's inevitable security will suffer. In virtually any staff cutback, the first man out of the door is the security man, because he can't prove his presence is worthwhile. Inspector Marie and Ben McGuire say this will almost always prove a false economy in the long-term.

If you as an operator would like advice about security for your vehicles or your depot you do not necessarily have to approach a private security company for a consultation. Your local Crime Prevention Officer should be pleased to give you unbiased professional advice freely.

RHA members can also speak , to Ben McGuire, secretary of the RHA Security Committee, who is based at the RHA headquarte at Upper Woburn Place, Lorick WC1. The Committee has pr duced a booklet on security e titled Hands Off Our Freigi which covers many points of i terest to road freight operators It can also supply a list manufacturers of security d vices, though Ben McGui points out the products listed a not necessarily recommend' by the RHA or other members the Security Committee.


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