Anti-theft meeting
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.VILLAINS are infiltrating haulage fleets, Suffolk police warned last week. Drivers and clerks join firms to get inside information which helps. gangs to set up thefts, Inspector John Bale said.
Around 100 representatives of hauliers and port users from Felixstowe and Ipswich were at a meeting called by the police, who asked for help to nip in the bud a sharp increase in container crime (CM June 15).
Hauliers were urged to check carefully the references and hgv licences of drivers before they are taken on. Photographs should be used to check the bona fides of drivers, Inspector Bale said.
Police ran through a lengthy list of container thefts from sites in and around Felixstowe docks. Eight serious thefts were reported in a six month period to February this year, with goods stolen worth more than Om. There were also many reports of pilfering.
Main causes of major thefts were insecure sites and the theft of documents needed to get loaded containers out of the port. Fast road links with London has also made Felixstowe more attractive to villains.
Suffolk police urged firms to accept the offer of a free security inspection and report, and asked more operators to join the Vehicle. Observer Corps, which tries to prevent thefts and to find vehicles when they have been stolen.
There has been a brief lull in serious crime following a series of arrests, but police believe the respite will prove temporary.
Russell Davies., the port's biggest haulier, installed 24hour security at its Felixstowe depot after a major theft 18 months ago, and has lost nothing from the depot since, said Inspector Bale.
The firm's traffic and administration manager, Ron Simmonds, told CM: "Small hauliers can make more of elementary crime prevention measures.
"It's not that expensive to improve security of the trailer with a substantial padlock to supplement the usual seal and a trailer kingpin lock for those occasions. when one is forced to drop a trailer outside the consignee's premises."
Some companies fail to vet their sub-contractors and owner drivers, he said, but Russell Davies vets its owner drivers thoroughly, and checks that their insurance is satisfactory and that they are educated to take precautions, "ie, they do not leave containers unattended overnight unnecessarily".
The police meeting last week had made firms realise the extent of thefts at Felixstowe. "It is getting people talking about the problem of security and exercising their minds,Mr Simmonds said.