The value of construction equipment stolen each year in Europe could be as high as € 7.000.000.000. The most frequently stolen items are light equipment like breakers, generators or compressors but the theft of heavy equipment is rising, especially that of backhoes,bulldozers and excavators, which are surprisingly easy to steal and fetch high prices in foreign markets. In spite of law enforcement efforts, recovery rates of stolen equipment are abysmal, roughly 10%. The reasons for this are multiple: the ease of falsifying serial plates, the lack of standard product identification numbers, the liberalisation of border controls, such as in the EU, and the absence of international database of stolen plant.
The BBI, BMWT and SIGMA developped a database of stolen equipment under the embrella of ECED.
With construction equipment increasingly being targeted by professional criminals, there are likely to be some significant changes in antitheft measures.
There are numerous anti-theft measures that plant owners can take in order to reduce their risk, including:
- Securing job sites with fences,lighting, alarms and high-security cabinets.
- Immobilising equipment by installing steering/wheel-lock devices, disconnecting batteries and lowering arms of machinery int the ground.
- Registering equipment and marking all plant with company identification, such as painting equipment in corporate colours and/or die stamping ID numbers.
