IN ITS most recent claims and loss prevention publication, Door to Door, the TT Club, which provides liability and equipment insurance to transport operators in more than 80 countries, has published a concise and practical summary of anti-theft measures transport operators might like to adopt in order to safeguard their containers from theft.
1. Never hire temporary personnel for logistics planning.
2. Allow only trusted supply chain managers to know the location of high value stock.
3. All new employees, at all levels, should be security screened as a condition of their employment. (This may not be possible in some jurisdictions.)
4. Do not employ anyone that refuses to provide names and phone numbers of previous employers.
5. Provide secure employee parking areas off the main site, making it more difficult to move illicit goods from the site to private cars.
6. In a warehouse, keep high value cargo in a well-lit central area under 24 hour 'manned' security. (All too often video cameras fail as deterrents, showing only masked thieves removing cargo.)
7. Keep blank forms locked away when not in use, limiting access to those forms to authorised personnel only.
8. Do not allow unauthorised personnel around computer workstations. Nimble fingers can extract desired data from an unattended keyboard in less than one minute.
9. Following loss of cargo, advise police and insurers immediately - every hour counts when trying to recover the cargo.
10. When securing containers remember that padlocks are not always adequate.
