ECM Theft Is Skyrocketing—Right here’s The best 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 yr, thieves stole 13 ECM models from a fleet of economic vans in Chicago. Whereas cameras recorded the theft, no person checked the feed throughout the hour-long crime. In consequence, the thieves bought 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 crucial for the truck’s primary operation. Vans received’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 actual price of ECM theft should additionally embody misplaced income attributable to downtime whereas the truck is out of fee. A scarcity of alternative ECMs solely provides to the issue.

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

Luckily, ECM theft prevention is less complicated than you may anticipate. Taking the appropriate precautions can probably save your small business hundreds of {dollars} in enterprise interruption and direct monetary loss.

Defending your small business from ECM theft

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

1. Safe your autos

Think about 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 way that makes accessing the cab tougher. As an example, park near a wall or one other automobile.
• Rent safety for the vacations when extra vans are idle and on web site. Thieves typically goal business vans over holidays once they know they received’t be in use with much less on-site safety.
• Set up cameras alerting your small business to exercise in your yard throughout non-operating hours. Rent somebody to observe it throughout these high-risk durations and alert authorities once they detect suspicious habits.
• Preserve parked autos 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 anticipate finding these customary bolts and are available ready with the appropriate instruments for straightforward removing. Catch them off guard through the use of another anti-theft bolt.

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

3. Contain legislation enforcement

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

Phrase will get round rapidly amongst thieves. In the event that they know your small 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 bought. 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 concentrating on your fleet once more.

ASK A LOSS CONTROL REPRESENTATIVE

Have a query on how one can mitigate threat? Electronic mail [email protected] for an opportunity to see your query answered in a future weblog.

By Tom MacCallum

Subjects
Fraud