Rescue 911: Create a Stolen Asset Plan

It’s 3 a.m. Do you know where your vehicles are?

If you’ve ever had business property stolen, you know that it’s the stuff of nightmares – and the stuff that keeps you awake at night, worrying. 

You’re looking at not just some pretty serious replacement costs, but also lost opportunity costs – being down one or more vehicles while maintaining your same customer and job order load might not be feasible, and you risk losing customers or frustrating them with longer wait times. 

You can try to avoid this situation with a plan, however: loss control strategies.

Keep an inventory

For all equipment, including computers, phones, vehicles, software, etc., keep a file – both digital and physical – with receipts, serial numbers and manufacturers’ info for easy identification in the event of a theft. Take pictures or video of your assets and store it in a secure, off-site location, which helps if you need to file a claim. Have multiple back-ups, both physical and digital, in several secure places, both onsite and offsite (fireproof office safe, bank box, backup hard drive, etc.). 

Have a plan

All employees should know what to do in the event of a theft (whether they were an eyewitness or whether it was during off hours and they’re the first to discover it). Employees should know who to contact (company leadership as well as law enforcement) and how to file any necessary paperwork, if it happened on their watch (e.g., if someone stole a company truck because the employee left it unlocked).

And here’s something you might not have realized: GPS vehicle tracking softwarecan help recover assets more quickly and keep data safe.

You already know the basics of what it does – keep an eye on where employees and vehicles go – but it helps out in the worst-case scenarios as well. 
If a truck is stolen, the tracker attached to the vehicle helps managers know where the truck ends up. With alerts that can be set up to go off if the truck is turned on or moved during off hours, you’ll find out immediately, and not be surprised when you get to work in the morning. This means you can call the police ASAP, as the crime is in progress – upping the chance of the vehicle being recovered, and being in one piece when you get it back.

In an even scarier scenario, in the event of a car-jacking, drivers can hit a panic button that alerts authorities and helps them get to safety more quickly. 

And if, heaven forbid, the person who stole it is one of your guys (unfortunately, there are some bad apples out there), you can see which driver’s fob was used to start the ignition, and give the police their information to apprehend them as a suspect.

The software also provides digital backup of important info like customer files and can store information about equipment and assets – so even if other equipment is stolen, you’ll have your digital proof-of-ownership available and ready for you to use to file a claim. This info lives in the cloud, not in a physical file cabinet or hard drive, so it’s always safe. 

It’s a shame we have to think like this, but “better safe than sorry” has never been more true than when it comes to vehicle security and employee safety. GPS vehicle tracking’s everyday capabilities that help save money and ensure safety also come in handy during those worst-case scenarios – so you’ll always have something watching out for the vehicles, giving you peace of mind.