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

This submit is a part of a collection sponsored by IAT Insurance coverage Group.

Late at night time within the Fall of final 12 months, thieves stole 13 ECM models from a fleet of economic vehicles in Chicago. Whereas cameras recorded the theft, no one checked the feed in the course of the hour-long crime. Consequently, 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 screens and controls its transmission, braking, and different methods essential for the truck’s primary operation. Vehicles gained’t begin with out one and the prices are excessive to interchange. 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 on account of 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 vehicles, because it takes simply seven minutes to take away an ECM from beneath a Freightliner’s dashboard. Non-Freightliners’ ECMs are tougher to entry, however thieves have developed strategies to steal them as properly.

Happily, ECM theft prevention is less complicated than you would possibly anticipate. Taking the fitting precautions can doubtlessly save your corporation 1000’s of {dollars} in enterprise interruption and direct monetary loss.

Defending your corporation 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 vehicles in a fashion that makes accessing the cab harder. For example, park near a wall or one other automobile.
• Rent safety for the vacations when extra vehicles are idle and on website. Thieves usually goal business vehicles over holidays after they know they gained’t be in use with much less on-site safety.
• Set up cameras alerting your corporation to exercise in your yard throughout non-operating hours. Rent somebody to observe it throughout these high-risk intervals and alert authorities after they detect suspicious conduct.
• Maintain 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 commonplace bolts and are available ready with the fitting instruments for straightforward removing. Catch them off guard through the use of an alternate anti-theft bolt.

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

3. Contain regulation enforcement

Maintain regulation enforcement within the loop if ECM theft happens. The police can examine and doubtlessly get better the stolen ECMs should you alert them rapidly sufficient. It additionally helps in monitoring patterns of those thefts, which permits regulation enforcement to raised allocate sources towards stopping them.

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

4. Name Freightliner

Right here’s one other potential deterrent in opposition to future crimes should 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 probabilities of them concentrating on your fleet once more.

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Have a query on learn how to mitigate danger? E-mail losscontroldirect@iatinsurance.com for an opportunity to see your query answered in a future weblog.

By Tom MacCallum

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