I have lost track of the number of times we’ve been contacted by construction companies or other customers who are hoping that one of our drivers has seen their stolen equipment. Just this week we received a bulletin from someone whose firewood processor had been stolen from somewhere in the BC Lower Mainland.
FleetFINDTechnology Used to Capture Construction Equipment Thieves Red-Handed
Aurora, ON – FleetFIND Technologies Incorporated announced its new theft prevention and recovery system for construction equipment. The system allows the owners of backhoes, bulldozers, cranes and other equipment to locate their equipment on any street in North America and to disable the starter if the use of the equipment is unauthorized.
In today’s economy equipment theft can have a major impact. “Equipment theft results in higher insurance premiums, down time and the inability to meet deadlines,” said Jonathan Persaud, Managing Director of FleetFIND, “our system costs less, is easily accessible for installation and has more features than similar products on the market.”
In a recent instance, the FleetFIND device was used to retrieve a tow behind generator. On a Sunday evening the owner of the device received an alert on his cell phone indicating that the generator was moving. He telephoned his partner to see if he was using the equipment. When his partner said no, he called the police to report the situation. He explained that he was using FleetFIND technology to track the device via the Internet. The police dispatched cruisers to the location where the equipment had come to a stop and the thieves were apprehended red-handed along with several other pieces of equipment.
In 2007, heavy equipment theft was pegged at about $33 million in Canada. A recent American study revealed that loaders were the number one piece of equipment stolen in the United States and that the overall industry losses due to theft amounted to nearly one billion dollars. In 2005, costs in Canada due to theft were estimated at about $46 million.
FleetFIND Technologies Incorporated provides wireless location based fleet and asset management applications. This enables to increase productivity of their assets, while adding an unprecedented element of safety, security and convenience.