ECM Theft Is Skyrocketing—Right here’s The way to Keep Forward

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

Late at evening 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 in the course of the hour-long crime. In consequence, the thieves obtained away with roughly $100,000 of stolen items.

An ECM, or Digital Management Module, is a pc in a truck’s engine that displays and controls its transmission, braking, and different techniques obligatory for the truck’s primary operation. Vehicles gained’t begin with out one and the prices are excessive to switch. 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 as a result 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 underneath a Freightliner’s dashboard. Non-Freightliners’ ECMs are tougher to entry, however thieves have developed strategies to steal them as properly.

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

Defending your online business from ECM theft

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

1. Safe your autos

Take into account including these primary safety measures to your fleet:

• Lock your autos when not in use, particularly in a single day.
• Park your vans in a fashion that makes accessing the cab tougher. As an illustration, park near a wall or one other automobile.
• Rent safety for the vacations when extra vans are idle and on website. Thieves typically goal industrial vans over holidays after they know they gained’t be in use with much less on-site safety.
• Set up cameras alerting your online business to exercise in your yard throughout non-operating hours. Rent somebody to observe it throughout these high-risk durations and alert authorities after they detect suspicious conduct.
• Hold parked autos in well-lit areas with restricted entry to unauthorized events. Take into account 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 normal bolts and are available ready with the appropriate instruments for straightforward removing. Catch them off guard by utilizing another anti-theft bolt.

Anti-theft bolts are sometimes made to order. Normal instruments gained’t work on them, so it’s tougher for thieves to steal ECMS secured by them.

3. Contain legislation enforcement

Hold legislation enforcement within the loop if ECM theft happens. The police can examine and doubtlessly recuperate the stolen ECMs in the event you alert them shortly sufficient. It additionally helps in monitoring patterns of those thefts, which permits legislation enforcement to raised allocate assets towards stopping them.

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

4. Name Freightliner

Right here’s one other potential deterrent towards future crimes in the event 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 find out how to mitigate danger? E mail [email protected] for an opportunity to see your query answered in a future weblog.

By Tom MacCallum

Subjects
Fraud