A stolen fleet vehicle is more damaging to the fleet business than a simple monetary loss. Apart from the loss of vehicle, there are obvious damages to the business’s bottom line, loss of operational hours and prolonged delays in the pipelines during the recovery of the loses incurred.
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To put it simply, a fleet vehicle lost to theft is a nightmare for the fleet owner, the operator and the manager.
“Apart from the loss of the vehicle, the fleet business incurs a loss of time in insurance claims and dealing with targeted personnel to furnish the paperwork. All of this amounts to downtime and revenue loss due to lost capacity.”
Since there is no means of completely stopping a theft from occurring, what separates theft from being a minor inconvenience to a complete disastrous affair is the manner in which a fleet business is equipped to handle it or when such a scenario comes to light.
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Some of the things that can help in securing fleet vehicles and safeguarding them against theft include:
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1. Inventory Management
When a theft occurs, an individual has to report to the concerning authorities, be it the customer or the insurance company. Keeping the paperwork handy eases the process by speeding things up. Collating and registry data about assets/vehicles digitally helps in better identification once they go missing. The data can include purchase receipts, vehicle logbooks, serial numbers and pictures/videos of assets among others.
A proper inventory management system helps in speedier tracing, identification and recovery of stolen/missing assets/ vehicles.
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2. GPS Trackers On Vehicles/Assets
A real-time GPS tracker on a vehicle or an asset is a blessing that updates the location of the missing object in real-time when tracked through a fleet GPS tracking software solution. Live tracking helps in the rapid recovery of the missing vehicle/asset by tracking it to its last known location. The tracker also records the movement of the vehicle turn by turn, thus aiding in accurate track and trace, resulting in recovery.
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3. Geofencing Custom Alerts
For geofencing to work, a virtual fence or a boundary has to be set up around a specified location. This virtual fence can be as simple as a circle drawn over a digital map. The virtual fence once setup triggers an alert or a notification to the end-user once an alien entity enters the set perimeter or if the tracked asset is moved beyond the confines of the virtual fence. With this system, theft can be neutralised right at the source through early detection and rapid recovery.
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4. Event-Triggered Communication Plan
Understanding and implementing a communication protocol is essential when an emergency such as a theft arises.
Communication should include:
- Making sure that the fleet vehicle operator knows who exact to report/inform when a theft occurs.
- Making sure the drivers can report the theft of missing assets through digitised paperwork.
- Making sure that affected clientele and customers get informed of missing/stolen assets and the duration of recovery/replacement of assets.
- Making sure that the transparency of data is pivotal to ensure speedier insurance claims.
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5. Data Sharing
Once a theft occurs, actionable input of knowledge and resources makes all the difference in reducing the losses incurred. The associated insurance company should be contacted to file a claim within 24 hours of the vehicle being stolen. Also, the report of theft should be reported with law enforcement immediately to aid in better recovery with all the relevant data associated with the stolen/missing asset.
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With Linxio, protecting your fleet vehicles is easier through our future-ready telematics solutions that offer real-time vehicle GPS tracking, geofencing alerts and notifications, digitised logbooks and better driver communication.
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