This put up is a part of a sequence sponsored by IAT Insurance coverage Group.
Late at evening within the Fall of final 12 months, thieves stole 13 ECM models from a fleet of business vans in Chicago. Whereas cameras recorded the theft, no person checked the feed in the course of the hour-long crime. Because of this, the thieves bought away with roughly $100,000 of stolen items.
An ECM, or Digital Management Module, is a pc in a truck’s engine that screens and controls its transmission, braking, and different techniques needed for the truck’s fundamental operation. Vehicles received’t begin with out one and the prices are excessive to interchange. A brand new ECM can take as much as 30 hours of labor to put in and prices round $9,000 in supplies alone. The actual price of ECM theft should additionally embrace misplaced income because of downtime whereas the truck is out of fee. A scarcity of alternative ECMs solely provides to the issue.
ECM theft is rising in frequency nationwide, notably in Freightliner vans, because it takes simply seven minutes to take away an ECM from underneath a Freightliner’s dashboard. Non-Freightliners’ ECMs are tougher to entry, however thieves have developed strategies to steal them as nicely.
Thankfully, ECM theft prevention is less complicated than you may count on. Taking the precise precautions can doubtlessly save your corporation 1000’s of {dollars} in enterprise interruption and direct monetary loss.
Defending your corporation from ECM theft
Keep a step forward of ECM thieves by defending your fleet with these 4 measures:
- Safe your automobiles
Think about including these fundamental safety measures to your fleet:
- Lock your automobiles when not in use, particularly in a single day.
- Park your vans in a fashion that makes accessing the cab harder. For example, park near a wall or one other car.
- Rent safety for the vacations when extra vans are idle and on web site. Thieves typically goal business vans over holidays after they know they received’t be in use with much less on-site safety.
- Set up cameras alerting your corporation to exercise in your yard throughout non-operating hours. Rent somebody to observe it throughout these high-risk durations and alert authorities after they detect suspicious conduct.
- Hold parked automobiles in well-lit areas with restricted entry to unauthorized events. Think about putting in fences round your lot and utilizing a gated entry system.
- Use anti-theft bolts
4 bolts safe Freightliner ECMs. Thieves look forward to finding these commonplace bolts and are available ready with the precise instruments for straightforward removing. Catch them off guard by utilizing an alternate anti-theft bolt.
Anti-theft bolts are sometimes made to order. Customary instruments received’t work on them, so it’s tougher for thieves to steal ECMS secured by them.
- Contain regulation enforcement
Hold regulation enforcement within the loop if ECM theft happens. The police can examine and doubtlessly get better the stolen ECMs in the event you alert them shortly sufficient. It additionally helps in monitoring patterns of those thefts, which permits regulation enforcement to raised allocate assets towards stopping them.
Phrase will get round shortly amongst thieves. In the event that they know your corporation is reporting each incident of ECM theft, they could transfer on to a better goal.
- Name Freightliner
Right here’s one other potential deterrent towards future crimes in the event you’ve been hit by ECM thieves: Freightliner can remotely disable your ECMs to allow them to’t be bought. Name 1-800-385-4357 to report the theft. All you want is the truck’s VIN.
Remotely disabling the ECM renders it nonfunctional. This makes it ineffective to the thief and reduces the probabilities of them concentrating on your fleet once more.
ASK A LOSS CONTROL REPRESENTATIVE
Have a query on how you can mitigate danger? Electronic mail losscontroldirect@iatinsurance.com for an opportunity to see your query answered in a future weblog.
By Tom MacCallum
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