Ask the Experts: Combating the Rise in Plant Theft

Question: What can I do to reduce plant theft?

Current estimates say that construction and surveying plant theft is costing UK businesses up to £1.5million each week and this is predicted to rise. The construction industry estimates that plant is stolen every year to the value of £70million.

The cost of replacing the stolen property is often insured, however, it is the uninsured cost of downtime and idle crews along with the knock-on effect of increased insurance premiums that could have serious implications on the profitability of some businesses in an industry that has already suffered during the recent downturn in the economy.

High value plant has always been surprisingly easy to steal. Manufacturers, for many years, did not fit security devices as standard and it was not always practical for contractors to spend time and money fitting after-market devices or create more secure areas for the storage of plant at the end of the working day. It was not difficult to find a £60,000 excavator, without any form of reliable security, being left overnight on an open contract site.

Equally, a significant amount of driven plant is not road registered and often manufacturer markings are either difficult to find or easy to remove. This means that, not only has it been easy to steal high value items of plant, the lack of proper identification mean that Police cannot accurately identify rightful ownership should they suspect an item is stolen.

Statistics from the Police and Insurers show that 24 hours after a theft has taken place most stolen plant is in a container ready to be taken outside the country.  It is common for thousands of shipping containers to leave the UK without checking if the consignment documents match the cargo.

The Plant Theft Action Group (PTAG), is a Home Office advisory group reporting to the Government, and attempts to reduce the impact of theft that organised criminal networks have on the Construction Industry. In consultation with the Police they launched a National Registration Scheme for construction plant in 2007.  CESAR (Construction Equipment Security and Registration) is a covert and overt identification and registration system for plant. Construction plant items will be registered on a central database with a secure 24/7 call centre. It provides security marking – overt bonded triangular shaped unique security markings combined with advanced technology covertly applied to the plant and enabling immediate identification of ownership by all UK Police forces who are equipped with a handheld data scanner.

CESAR has been proven to deter theft, however where plant is left unattended on contract sites, additional physical security devices are essential to limit the potential for unauthorised movement.

Thatcham, a company that specialises in the development and testing of security devices, has developed a security rating system for plant manufacturers. It awards “security stars” for Thatcham tested security devices proven to resist theft. The security star rating provides an indication of the level of anti-theft protection based on key security features.

A 3 Star Rating is viewed by the Construction Industry Theft Solutions (CITS) group as a sensible minimum requirement to insist upon when purchasing new driven plant. JCB were the first manufacturer to sell plant certified with a 3 Star Rating, however, there are thousands of items in current use without any form of reliable security at all. CITS therefore recommend that Aftermarket Theft Prevention devices are fitted.

Additional resources are now joining the fight against this, increasingly organised, wave of crime.   The Plant & Agricultural Intelligence Unit (PANIU) has been set up by the Metropolitan Police. It provides a national focal point to tackle plant theft. Insurers and CESAR are now working together to establish a UK database of stolen plant and this information is shared internationally via Interpol.

Together, the PANIU and CESAR are having a positive effect on plant crime with recovery rates on stolen equipment doubling since the setting up of the PANIU in October 2008.

Most insurers of contractor’s plant offer generous premium and excess discounts to new and existing customers with a good claims history which itself has been generated by a voluntary and proactive approach to management of their theft risk and there are some discounts permitted for embracing risk management initiatives such as CESAR.  Risks presented to insurers are normally each underwritten on their own merits giving consideration to the positive risk protection features.

For more information, please visit www.cesarscheme.org or speak to your insurance advisor.