July Is A Hot Month for Equipment Theft
It may be a good time to revisit your jobsite security: More heavy equipment is stolen in July than any other month of the year, according to a new report from the National Equipment Register and National Insurance Crime Bureau.
The summer months, when construction activity is usually in high gear, collectively made up for about one-third of all heavy equipment thefts last year, says the July 21 report.
During 2010, NICB received 13,374 reports of heavy equipment theft, valued at approximately $400 million. Last July, it received 1,493 reports, the highest month for the year, followed up closely by June and August. The lowest number of reported incidents came in December, at roughly 700.
About 19% of the reported stolen equipment last year was found. "Recovering stolen equipment and identifying the rightful owners remains a challenge," says Joe Wehrle, president and CEO of NICB.
The most frequently stolen pieces of equipment, says the study, were landscaping equipment, such as mowers. That category is followed by loaders, such as skid-steers, wheel loaders and loader-backhoes. The smaller the equipment, the more likely it is to be stolen, experts say.
Although frequency of theft has remained flat for the last few years, it remains the top insurance claim. Theft last year occurred most frequently in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina.
Which brands are most at risk? According to NER, the top-ten stolen marques in 2010 were John Deere, Kubota, Caterpillar, Bobcat, Case, Cub Cadet, International, New Holland, Ford and Takeuchi.
Fleet owners can reduce the risk by locking up machines, surrounding small iron with larger equipment, keeping up-to-date records of machine serial numbers and offering records to authorities when a theft occurs, experts say.
How come the editors at ENR will not allow commentary on the crane rigger losing his license. He should be in Jail for killing those 7 people, by his gross negligence and failure to abi...
No more boo hoo stories on how he feels the families pain. That's pure bull, I hop the families get a whopping reward the company & their insurers will never forget. Of course, as usual, the crooked Insurance Company attorneys will always try to lie and lay blame at the foot of the Victims - anything to avoid the culpability and the dollars they owe these families. When a man reports to work in the morning, he should be going home at night.
The City of New York and the DA should sue the CM and GC and their staff and put these birds in Jail alongside this rigger. They all failed miserably in going their jobs and in training and enforcing the safety reg's.
Note - OSHA and the City Inspectors have limited liability here too. Their job is not to just come to the site after the fact and write their report on the body count. Typical of OSHA, ALWAYS TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE....Useless Agency!!!!!
