STOP THiEF
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Crooks who break into a haulier's premises aren't only after trucks, trailers or cargo. They're also after office PCs, and they have a ready market for your workshop equipment. Steve Banner reviews the equipment designed to keep them out....
An opportunist truck thief certainly won't be above loading any bits of kit he can grab into one of your trucks before he drives it full-tilt through the yard gates and off down the road. Many a backstreet inner-city pub sees stolen tools quietly changing hands for cash; the truck thief will treat this as a handy bonus So how do you keep the rogues out? Dave Coward, head of Royal Mail Security Systems Development Group, argues that a yard's defences must be multi-layered. Every barrier can be overcome if a villain is determined enough, but the more hurdles you can erect, the more difficult his task becomes, and the greater his risk of being caught. The first hurdle is a properly maintained palisade fence topped by barbed or razor wire. Don't stack pallets next to it— they can become a handy staircase for the burglar once he's got over the top—and ensure that any tree branches overhanging it from the outside are cut back. A. \
Decent fencing
Companies often protect themselves with decent fencing, then weaken their security by leaving the old chain link fence gate in place and securing it with a cheap padlock and a length of chain. A steel gate is a much better bet (a sliding one is worth considering) and two sets of gates are better than one. There's nothing to stop you having an electrified fence installed, as long as you satisfy the legal requirements. Oakham-based Rutland Electric Fencing (REF) is one of the country's leading specialists, and its products now protect several haulage depots and at least one truck dealership. REF fencing costs £45-450 a metre installed. An unwary intruder will be hit with up to 5,000V, and while the current is low enough to avoid causing permanent damage it's nasty enough that the would-be thief will not want to repeat the experience. REF mounts large warning signs so nobody can be left in any doubt that the fence is live, supplemented by small neon lights which show that a current is passing through it. Try and short it out by throwing old chains or supermarket trolleys at it and all that will happen is the voltage will drop momentari ly—and this can be used to trigger an alarm. The electricity needed to keep the fence active costs about a fiver a year; an annual maintenance contract will set you back L300-£350. The fencing must either be positioned very close to existing fencing, or at least a metre away. This is to prevent any risk of a burglar getting trapped in the gap between the fences and subjected to repeated shocks...appealing though this may sound to his victims. Electrified fencing must not be topped with barbed or razor wire; again, this is to avoid the risk of repeated shocks if an intruder gets tangled in the wire. It's worth investing in closed-circuit TV (CCTV) with cameras linked to a monitoring station. They can be set to work continuously, or to start operating if the alarm goes off. Cameras take pictures every 10 to 20 seconds, which will make the intruder's progress across your yard look jerky, but it means somebody will be aware of his presence. A recording may provide valuable evidence if the police catch him. Don't bother with fake (=eras; experienced thieves can spot them a mile off. An alternative is audible verification. Microphones linked to a control centre can pick up the noise of truck engines being started, or glass being smashed. Any alarm system should ideally be linked to a 24-hour off-site central monitoring station, just like the cameras and microphones. Remember that alarms are designed to cut out automatically after they've been sounding for 20 minutes, and busy police forces won't always respond to an unmonitored alarm; especially if it's gone off falsely in the past.
Monitoring centre
A monitoring centre designed to spot genuine alarms can pass the information on to the police. A range of sensors can be used to set off alarms, including infra-red movement detectors, underfloor pressure pads and glass breakage detectors All doors opening to the exterior should be fitted with security locks, rack bolts, and hinge bolts, and the windows should be fitted with security locks too. Some windows, such as those overlooking the parts department, should also be protected with bars or grilles. You might also consider You might also consider upgrading your doors. Chubb Security Installations makes steel security doors to withstand attacks from everything from an axe to cutting tools. It also produces Metro Walling, a system of interlocking panels made from composite material that can be used to create high-security enclosures. It will resist disc cutting, hammering and drilling for sustained periods. Even if a thief overcomes all these obstacles and forces his way into your offices and workshop, you can still make life hard for him, says Dave Coward. Too many hauliers leave their truck keys hanging on an unprotected peg board, with the relevant registrafion or fleet numbers under each hook. Put them in a key safe or have a safe with a security chute so they can be dropped in last thing at night. Better still, arrange for them to be held off the premises.
Workshop tools
Valuable equipment such as workshop tools should be marked. This can range from simple etching and labelling to tiny radio frequency tags, says the British Security Industry Association (BSIA). "The police have a twofold problem when it comes to recovering stolen goods: proving that they have actually been stolen, and restoring them to their rightful owner," it warns. "Property marking, combined with an effective registration scheme, is a simple way of doing this."
Many hauliers will consider this level of technology to be over the top—unless they have warehousing or a large workshop to protect—but there are relatively simple devices around which will release theatrical smoke when triggered by an intruder, says Coward. Others spray the whole area. burglar included, with a dye which will cause him to glow in the dark and should make him that much easier to catch.
While having a security guard on duty fulltime is likely to be expensive, you could arrange for a local security firm to have one of its guards check your premises regularly at night. Pick a firm that's a 13,SIA member.
Protecting your premises is likely to cost several thousand pounds. But given the potential cost and disruption caused by a break-in, it sounds like money well spent. There are also steps you can take to improve security that needn't cost you a penny.
They include making somebody on every shift responsible for locking up before everyone goes home, and taking up references when you hire a new employee: that three-year career gap your bright new workshop technician can't account for might have been spent honing his skills in Wormwood Scrubs.
The traditional way to guard premises has always been to buy a couple of large dogs with an attitude problem and simply leave them onsite to make a midnight snack out of any intruders. This is another appealing idea that can backfire. As Coward points out, if a child gets into your premises and is savaged, you'll be the one in trouble. "Dogs are best handled by trained dog handlers," he says.