ECM Theft Is Skyrocketing—Right here’s Easy methods to Keep Forward

This submit is a part of a sequence sponsored by IAT Insurance coverage Group.

Late at night time within the Fall of final 12 months, thieves stole 13 ECM models from a fleet of business vans in Chicago. Whereas cameras recorded the theft, no person checked the feed through the hour-long crime. In consequence, the thieves acquired away with roughly $100,000 of stolen items.

An ECM, or Digital Management Module, is a pc in a truck’s engine that screens and controls its transmission, braking, and different techniques obligatory for the truck’s primary operation. Vans received’t begin with out one and the prices are excessive to exchange. A brand new ECM can take as much as 30 hours of labor to put in and prices round $9,000 in supplies alone. The true price of ECM theft should additionally embrace misplaced income because of downtime whereas the truck is out of fee. A scarcity of substitute ECMs solely provides to the issue.

ECM theft is rising in frequency nationwide, notably in Freightliner vans, because it takes simply seven minutes to take away an ECM from below a Freightliner’s dashboard. Non-Freightliners’ ECMs are more durable to entry, however thieves have developed strategies to steal them as nicely.

Luckily, ECM theft prevention is less complicated than you would possibly count on. Taking the appropriate precautions can doubtlessly save your enterprise 1000’s of {dollars} in enterprise interruption and direct monetary loss.

Defending your enterprise from ECM theft

Keep a step forward of ECM thieves by defending your fleet with these 4 measures:

1. Safe your automobiles

Think about including these primary safety measures to your fleet:

• Lock your automobiles when not in use, particularly in a single day.
• Park your vans in a fashion that makes accessing the cab harder. As an example, park near a wall or one other car.
• Rent safety for the vacations when extra vans are idle and on web site. Thieves usually goal industrial vans over holidays once they know they received’t be in use with much less on-site safety.
• Set up cameras alerting your enterprise to exercise in your yard throughout non-operating hours. Rent somebody to observe it throughout these high-risk intervals and alert authorities once they detect suspicious habits.
• Preserve parked automobiles in well-lit areas with restricted entry to unauthorized events. Think about putting in fences round your lot and utilizing a gated entry system.

2. Use anti-theft bolts

4 bolts safe Freightliner ECMs. Thieves look forward to finding these customary bolts and are available ready with the appropriate instruments for straightforward elimination. Catch them off guard by utilizing an alternate anti-theft bolt.

Anti-theft bolts are sometimes made to order. Customary instruments received’t work on them, so it’s more durable for thieves to steal ECMS secured by them.

3. Contain regulation enforcement

Preserve regulation enforcement within the loop if ECM theft happens. The police can examine and doubtlessly get better the stolen ECMs should you alert them rapidly sufficient. It additionally helps in monitoring patterns of those thefts, which permits regulation enforcement to raised allocate assets towards stopping them.

Phrase will get round rapidly amongst thieves. In the event that they know your enterprise is reporting each incident of ECM theft, they could transfer on to a better goal.

4. Name Freightliner

Right here’s one other potential deterrent towards future crimes should you’ve been hit by ECM thieves: Freightliner can remotely disable your ECMs to allow them to’t be offered. Name 1-800-385-4357 to report the theft. All you want is the truck’s VIN.

Remotely disabling the ECM renders it nonfunctional. This makes it ineffective to the thief and reduces the possibilities of them focusing on your fleet once more.

ASK A LOSS CONTROL REPRESENTATIVE

Have a query on easy methods to mitigate threat? Electronic mail losscontroldirect@iatinsurance.com for an opportunity to see your query answered in a future weblog.

By Tom MacCallum

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