Ringway's approaches to stopping plant theft

Stopping plant theft doesn't have to be rocket science, as Ringway found out to their benefit. Paul Howard reports.

It sounds obvious, but the first thing to do before being able to tackle plant theft efficiently is to be aware of the extent of the problem.

Nationally, the alarming scale of plant theft is clear. The Plant Theft Action Group places the value of plant stolen annually at up to £100m, while the Home Office suggests the cost of the impact on the wider economy could be as much as £1bn.

Perhaps more important in terms of the practical steps that can be taken to deal with such a serious problem, however, is recognising the impact it has on individual companies - those whose responsibility it is to look after the plant in the first place.

The significance of this realisation is acknowledged by Bob Binder, commercial manager of the Ringway Group. "Three years ago, we were aware that thefts had significantly increased and we were losing more than half a million pounds per year through plant theft," he explains. As if this figure on its own wasn't enough to prompt a response, Binder goes on to point out that the actual cost of this loss - already significant enough for a company with an annual turnover of around £400m - is much more significant. "This is only the invoiced cost. It doesn't take into account the cost of downtime, of delays, of soured relationships, etc. The actual cost is a lot higher."

The inevitable result of this realisation was for the company to develop a plan to try and reduce its losses. The first step was to work with the company's sole supplier of hired in equipment at the time, GE Plant. "We wanted to find out what was happening. What type of kit was being taken, where and how was it parked? Simple things," says Binder.

The extent of the problem soon became clear. "The typical reaction had been to put a large chain round a lamppost. But we used a reformed plant thief to demonstrate at a Construction Industry Theft Solutions (CITS) meeting how ineffective this was. He showed that if you know where to hit a chain four blows would do. In a minute and a half you'd have the compressor in the back of the van. It was a real eye opener."

Information

The next step was to publish a leaflet jointly with GE to provide workers with straightforward information about what they could do to help stop plant theft. The aim, says Binder, was to be pro-active, not reactive. "It's better to stop it getting stolen in the first place rather than trying to get it back."

To this end, the company also encouraged employees to start putting into action some of the advice from the reformed plant thief. "Things like not leaving mini excavators on their trailer if it's not necessary, or if you do have to leave it on a trailer, extending the boom so the trailer can't be towed away before the arm is moved," he explains. "Or putting the boom on top of a bucket that's over the towing hitch, or parking a telehandler with the boom out, or putting locks on the tow-eyes - they only cost £15."

It's not always easy to do the right thing, though. "On one site we put all our tools in a secure container - and then the whole container was stolen."

Yet, according to Binder, by introducing simple methods such as these the company has reduced its losses to plant theft by 60% in two years. The aim now is to ensure this progress continues by complementing such 'common-sense' methods with a very visual shift in attitude to the problem. This includes the immediate investigation of losses to demonstrate the company has a proactive approach.

"You've got to get the message out to the workforce. The aim is to put the accountability on the operator," he says.

Nevertheless, Binder also acknowledges that sometimes there's nothing an employee can do. "The thieves can be very clever. There are distraction crimes where someone stops and asks the lads to help jump start a van around the corner - when they come back, all the kit is gone. They can also be very threatening - they turn up with baseball bats and say 'we can do this the easy way or the hard way'. The lads step aside, and so would I."

Then there are the higher-tech approaches to deterring would-be thieves that are increasingly available on the after market and through manufacturers themselves and that Ringway now insists on from both its plant suppliers (the company has now split responsibility for plant provision between GE Plant and A-Plant). "We stipulate the supply of plant fitted with the Kosran system from GE, and use A-Plant's M-Track system. Hirers still don't have 100% Kosran or M-Track-fitted fleets, but with fleet turn around in the region of every three-four years, we expect there to be more and more of these machines available."

"I think the tide is turning," he adds. "There's still a long way to go but there's been some moderate successes, and not just on Ringway sites. Manufacturers' attitudes have changed markedly in the past few years, from not being helpful to signing up for Cesar. Now it's us and them working together with hirers stuck in the middle and having to go down this route under pressure from both ends. We've adopted a rigorous approach to the way hirers write down their kit, for example - we won't just pay 'new-for-old' if it's stolen. The hirer has already written down its value so we pay the book value."

Then there is the impact of the change in attitude of end customers and law enforcement agencies as well. "Clients are beginning to specify anti-theft measures in their tender documents - even if the client isn't picking up the direct cost for the theft they're still paying for the down time. I also think it's also moving up the police agenda, certainly in forces with main cross-Channel ports, though with no great success yet."

"The aim is to make it as painful for the thief to steal things as he makes it painful for us," Binder concludes. And who could disagree with that?

Who is Ringway?

Ringway is a subsidiary of the French-owned Vinci Group. It specialises in highways maintenance, though it has a developing interest in construction projects, often in conjunction with fellow Vinci Group company Norwest Holst.

The significance of plant theft has for the company has increased since it began to reap the benefits of the philosophy of its French parent of investing directly in the ownership of capital equipment. This includes fixed plant, such as the company's four coating plants, and what Binder says has been a significant investment in the company's vehicle and plant fleet. "We've just bought 12 JCB telehandlers, for example."

The result was an overall capital investment of £2m last year, including fixed plant. Nevertheless, the company still spends around £6m on plant hire yearly. "Around 70% is hired and 30% is owned," explains Binder. "In a maintenance contract you never know what you'll get thrown at you so you need access to a variety of kit to be able to respond."

Ringway's recipe:

• Be proactive and make it painful for the thief
• Simple steps make big strides in reducing theft
• Get the message to the workforce
• Only hire plant with additional security
• Pay only book value for stolen machines