Currently at Briggs and Partner Ltd, we are investing in anti-theft systems for our plant.
Security of plant has always been an issue that we, like many other plant hire firms, have to deal with on a more frequent basis and over the last 18 months, we’ve been seeking out an effective way to try and reduce the amount of stolen plant that does happen as not only is it inconvenient for the customers, but it is also a lot of extra phone calls and paper work back in the office when trying to recover the cost of the plant.
Many of our excavators are now fitted with a tracker and immobiliser device, provided by Satrak. This remote immobiliser can be activated from the office or via phone. We set the times the machines will be able to work and can very easily adapt this for specific requirements for customers.
The installed device monitors the machines status 24 hours a day, giving us information such as position and status of the plant. The unit also has a GPS tracking system which helps to enable us to pin point where the machines are, if they were to be stolen and hopefully recover the plant.
More recently, we have started to invest in a new system to work alongside the Satrak device. Just before Christmas, we began the installation of Meck Lock Systems on some of our plant. The main reason we took the decision to do this is because the Meck Lock was designed to prevent the theft from happening in the first place, which obviously really appealed to us. Essentially, the system isolates the hydraulics or pneumatic systems so that even if the machine was started, the perpetrator can not move any part of the plant due to the Meck Lock system being in place.
“We are hoping using these two devices alongside one another that our theft of plant is reduced, and therefore ultimately, helping us as a company as well as our customers. We have an installation plan in place for our other machines to have Meck Lock Systems installed.” David Thwaite, MD
For further information on the anti-theft devices we use, visit their websites
http://www.satrakvehicletracking.co.uk/ and http://www.mfhydraulics.co.uk