Fear and fact
Page 2
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Some time ago, one of our team here at CM found his street ranked in a newspaper as one of the highest in the country for 999 calls. The story failed to mention that all but one of those calls were made by a person who was suffering from mental difficulties. In the main, his street is rather pleasant.
So, with some trepidation, we note that for the first three months of the year there were 884 reported crimes relating to road freight, up 16% from 758 in the same quarter in 2010.
Digging a bit deeper, thefts of vehicles are down, according to TruckPol, (349 from 396), but thefts from vehicles are way up (448 from 244, an 83% rise). Oddly, you are more likely to have your vehicle stolen in Birmingham or South Yorkshire, but more likely to have your load stolen in West Yorkshire. All this evidence goes to show that you just cannot predict criminal behaviour – but you can prevent it, however.
This week, CM takes a look at insurance scams perpetrated by uninsured drivers against insured HGVs (p16), while TruckPol shares details of the four most common truck crime scams, so you can be vigilant (p18). Finally, we have a detailed look at the latest innovations in truck security (p44) so, if the worst does happen, you are prepared. We are not saying ‘be scared’ or that Leeds is the truck crime capital of Britain – incidents of crime
are still incredibly low compared to the number of vehicles on the road – we are just encouraging you to arm yourself with the information you need to be careful.
As they say on Crimewatch: “Remember don’t have nightmares, do sleep well...” Christopher Walton
Commercial Motor – the official UK journal of the International Truck of the Year and International Van of the Year Awards