ECM Theft Is Skyrocketing—Right here’s Keep Forward

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

Late at evening within the Fall of final yr, thieves stole 13 ECM items from a fleet of business vehicles in Chicago. Whereas cameras recorded the theft, no one checked the feed through the hour-long crime. Consequently, 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 displays and controls its transmission, braking, and different methods obligatory for the truck’s primary operation. Vehicles gained’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 value of ECM theft should additionally embody misplaced income resulting from 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 below a Freightliner’s dashboard. Non-Freightliners’ ECMs are more durable to entry, however thieves have developed strategies to steal them as properly.

Happily, ECM theft prevention is easier than you would possibly anticipate. Taking the precise precautions can doubtlessly save what you are promoting hundreds of {dollars} in enterprise interruption and direct monetary loss.

Defending what you are promoting 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 vehicles in a way that makes accessing the cab harder. As an example, park near a wall or one other car.
• Rent safety for the vacations when extra vehicles are idle and on website. Thieves usually goal business vehicles over holidays once they know they gained’t be in use with much less on-site safety.
• Set up cameras alerting what you are promoting to exercise in your yard throughout non-operating hours. Rent somebody to observe it throughout these high-risk intervals and alert authorities once they detect suspicious habits.
• Maintain 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 look forward to finding these normal bolts and are available ready with the precise instruments for simple 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 more durable for thieves to steal ECMS secured by them.

3. Contain legislation enforcement

Maintain legislation enforcement within the loop if ECM theft happens. The police can examine and doubtlessly 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 what you are promoting is reporting each incident of ECM theft, they may transfer on to a better 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 offered. 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 focusing on your fleet once more.

ASK A LOSS CONTROL REPRESENTATIVE

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

By Tom MacCallum

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