As the world continues to battles the effects of Covid-19 pandemic, more and more people are battling to make ends meet theft has been on the rise. With this in mind, most transporters have fallen victim of cargo theft while trying to fuel and feed the nation. At the same time most transporters and truckers are thinking about how best they can protect the precious cargo they are carrying to avoid continued losses and loss of business. Today FANtracker tries to give you tips to protect your valuable fleet and goods while in transit.
Common theft situations faced by transporters
For us to clearly offer tips on how best to approach theft challenges encountered it is important to first look at the most key issues faced by transporters on our roads every day.
- Fuel Theft: With fuel shortages and continued price increases being faced, and emerging of black market fuel dealers, fuel is now as good as cash, it is difficult for transporters to track fuel usage, filling and drains, for tankers the task is much more difficult.
- Load Theft: Goods especially groceries like sugar, cooking oil, milk, drinks etc are on-demand and can sell at a faster rate in the streets hence they are a prime target by thieves. Every year transporters suffer millions of dollar losses from load thefts.
- Vehicle/Asset theft: Although vehicle theft seems low in countries Fanset operates such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi except for South Africa where vehicle theft cases are high. Recovering a stolen vehicle can be a daunting task. It is much more difficult to recover if the stolen asset is a trailer.
Key tips to prevent & respond to theft
It is very crucial for transport companies to invest in robust technologies that will enable Fleet owners and managers to Monitor.Control.Secure the valuables that make the nation continue ticking. Transporters need real-time visibility of their assets as well as the ability to act faster to theft and hijackings.
For transporters and fleet owners it is good to leverage on FANtracker Fleet Management robust software and hardware technologies to reduce thefts and losses.
1. Fuel Monitoring
Fuel is one of the biggest cost in running any fleet of vehicles, hence it is important to have a telematics solution to monitor fuel usage. With FANtracker Advanced Fuel Monitoring solution you are able to track and accurately get real-time data in order to avoid fuel theft. Monitor where your vehicles are refilling, the time & volume of refillings, actual consumption and also detect fuel drains instantly through FANtracker alerts and our intuitive reports. FANtracker fuel monitoring solution has proved that it can save up to 30% of fuel costs in transporters operations.
2. Remote Immobilizer:
In the unfortunate event of vehicle theft, it is important to be able to use FANtracker remote immobilizer to remotely switch off the vehicle engine and increase chances of recovering it. When implemented FANtracker remote immobilizer will prevent the vehicle from starting again until authorized to start again. With just a click on the FANtracker monitoring platform or a simple unique SMS, your stolen vehicle can be recovered and stopped from being driven to jurisdictions that are more difficult to recover the vehicle.
3. Monitor trailers independently
Most transporters have the tendency to relax when they install vehicle tracking on the horse/tractors however forget the trailers carry the biggest valuables hence any theft of trailers will leave them tracking the horse while the load is gone. Recovering a stolen trailer that does not have independent trailer tracking is very difficult. FANTracker trailer tracking solution helps secure your valuable load in situations of load theft.
Similarly, transporters can make use of Fanset load sensors, door sensors to monitor when the load weight has changed or when doors have been opened at undesignated points. Load sensors paired with door sensors in FANtracker helps not only know when doors have been opened however to also know if something has been offloaded or loaded in the truck.
4. Keep an eye on your load
Load theft detection can be very difficult especially when the logistics departments are extremely busy and often unending arguments with drivers trying to explain how they do not know when the load or part of the load has been stolen erupts, without video footage of these thefts even the police often find hard times apprehending the culprits and recovering the goods. With FANtracker vehicle cameras, can transporters and police help in reducing thefts but with video evidence all is made easier. Our cameras not only help in providing evidence of theft but also evidence in accident situations where accusations often fly left right and centre.
5. Instant Alerts & Geofencing
As a transporter in order to be able to minimize losses from theft, you need to be able to immediately respond to suspicious theft activities. To successfully achieve this you need to have complete visibility of vehicles and keep them in secure safe locations or virtual fence. FANtracker geofencing and route mapping capability help you to easily ensure that vehicles are kept and used in authorised areas, parked at the correct places and time, these alerts can be set to automatically alert the responsible authorities when vehicles or assets leave the predetermined routes or areas such as farms, mining area etc.
Monitor.Control.Secure!
“At Fanset International we value our clients fleet, whatever they carry to ensure the economies continue to run smoothly. We ensure growth of our clients businesses by eliminating losses and theft in the day to day running of fleets hence we say Monitor.Control.Secure.”
Mr. Gaza, Fanset International CEO
To understand more how Fanset can help reduce losses in your day to day operations contact us today as we look to enhance and bolster your loss control procedures and risk management plans
