AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Star, and deliver

12th January 2006
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 38, 12th January 2006 — Star, and deliver
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Truck crime costs

more than E 100m a year with hijackers increasingly resorting

to guns and knives.

Guy Sheppard reports on whether a co-ordinated approaci could beat the villains

The timeworn phrase 'it fell off a back , a lorry' implies some form of trivi pilfering by opportunist thieves. Th misrepresents the true nature of many trus crimes in Britain and Ireland today. Losses a running at well over £100m a year and growing proportion of thieves belong to orga ised gangs which steal to order followii careful research.

Their increasing organisation is matched 1 a rising level of violence. TruckPol, whi■ collates and analyses road freight crime in tl UK, says that between July and September 2005 there were 19 hijackings; in 2004 hijac ings and attempted hijackings averaged sevl a month.

"Drivers and security personnel have bel abducted and held captive for several hoe after being threatened with firearms, kniv and other weapons," says TruckPol's annu report. It also highlights the growing abili of criminals to acquire delivery details al redirect drivers to alternative destinations.

Spreading the word The criminals aren't getting it all their own Am however. TruckPol's field intelligence offio Detective Constable Mark Gathers, says pu licity about how to avoid truck theft appears be having an impact: "Theft of vehicles will down this year unless there's a big spike in the next few weeks."

TruckPol says nearly £73.7m worth of loads were stolen in 2004, which was double the value of stolen vehicles. The recorded value of truck crime was £110.6m but the actual figure was probably much higher. -We're fairly sure we're missing a lot of incidents from foreigners that don't know how to report incidents or feel there is a language barrier," says Galliers.

Household goods, clothing and shoes seem to be at the top of the criminals' hit list, along with non-consumer goods such as building materials and machinery. The most dangerous area for 1ruck crime is Greater London, followed by the West Midlands, Essex, Kent and Lancashire.

Police success

In Ireland, the problem is less pronounced. Jimmy Quinn, spokesman for the Irish Road Haulage Association, says:"It's a much smaller country and anything out of the ordinary tends to get noticed much faster."

A spate of high-value thefts from the Port of Dublin ended 12 months ago. A spokesman for Ireland's Garda police force says: "They were running at two a week over a period of six months. It was very sophisticated, using forged documents to get through the docks. We've had nothing serious now for several months."

The Dublin investigation demonstrates that the police do have a significant impact when given sufficient resources.

In the West Midlands a dedicated police unit called Operation Indicate succeeded in slashing truck crime in the Black Country by 50% within a year of being set up in June 2004.

Despite losing an officer in the past three months, the unit's intelligence officer, Andy Round, says it is becoming increasingly effective by fostering closer links with neighbouring forces. -Historically, police forces don't talk to each other that much," he admits.

Cross-border crime

Tony Allen, chairman of the Road Haulage Association security committee.agrees: "At the moment, police forces can't deal with crossborder erime.That's the biggest problem."

He warns that detection rates for both vehicle and load theft are extremely low: -You can't tell what they are because they're hidden in Home Office statistics which relate to vehicle crime in a general sense.

Recent police successes include one case where a gang of eight were jailed for up to 12 years in October. In 'Operation Bangle', Hampshire Police linked the men to 10 truc offences across England involving stolen gaol worth more than £800,000. Four of the thel involved foreign drivers being assaulte kidnapped and then dumped.

Essex police report that lorry crime fell t 45% between September and November fc lowing the launch of Operation Blade, whk was set up to deal with curtainsider thei around Thu rrock and Basildon. Although no dedicated officers are assigned to the operation, its boss, acting detective chief inspector Mark Wheeler, says bringing truck crime under a single heading makes detection and analysis easier: -Before. it would have been absorbed into vehicle crime and day-today business.

"Blade has heightened awareness and understanding of lorry crime, how financially damaging it is to companies and how much reward the criminals involved can get."

These two examples go against the commonly held view among operators that police efforts to counter truck crime are underresourced and piecemeal.

Co-ordination and co-operation In the Netherlands the government, police and industry have joined forces in a three-year programme to tackle the problem (CM, 17 November 2005). Bob Quick.chief constable of Surrey police, championed the idea of a national police squad to fight truck crime in the but gave up his national vehicle crime re

sponsibifities this summer. Further momentum may be lost as police forces t h roughout England and Wales are poised for a general shake-up.

TruckPol is currently staffed by two uniformed officers and a civilian -it is forced to rely on industry sponsorship to supplement a Home Office grant.

Better focus

DC Galliers says: "If we weren't here there wouldn't be a great deal of co-ordination across the country." He hopes the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which is due to be launched in April. will provide better focus not least because SOCA is designed to improve co-ordination between police forces. "I'm trying to get them interested in tackling truck crime," he adds.

Industry-supported initiatives to tackle truck crime have had mixed results.

The Truck Watch initiative has only become firmly established in South Yorkshire; it sends out police information about thefts to member companies so their drivers can keep an eye out for stolen vehicles while on the road.

David Ransom, chief executive of umbrella organisation People United Against Crime. says it currently has about 100 members with 1,000 vehicles: 'We do offer drivers a reward of £250 but we haven't paid that out for a couple of years."

Parking shortage

Plans for a network of secure truck parks to counter truck crime seem doomed to failure.

DCI Wheeler estimates that 500 extra secure parking spaces are needed in Essex alone: -A lot of the problems stem from the fact that lorries end up being parked in lay-bys and on roads and become vulnerable as a result." he points out.

But in November, the boss of the UK's biggest truckstop operator, Nightowl, ruled out large-scale expansion because of high counciltax bills and the high cost of land: "Like any other business, you have to make a return on your investment." •


comments powered by Disqus