LoJack Recovers $6.6 Million Worth of Construction Equipment in 2015
Law enforcement officials have recovered more than $6.6 million in stolen construction equipment equipped with the LoJack System for Construction and Commercial Vehicles during 2015 LoJack officials said. LoJack’s “2015 Construction Equipment Theft Recovery Report” and infographic highlights the ongoing problem of thieves targeting construction businesses for high-value equipment. The report identifies equipment categories and classes, manufacturers, and geographies where theft is most likely to occur.
According to LoJack, the more than $6.6 million worth of lost assets would have cost their owners about $11 million to replace. Since the study began, more than $180 million worth of stolen heavy equipment has been recovered using the LoJack system.
The top equipment types recovered in 2015 were:
- Towables (33 percent) including generators, air compressors, cement mixers and welders;
- Wheeled and tracked loaders (28 percent) used to shovel or move material around;
- Skid-steer loaders (20 percent);
- Excavators (7 percent)
- Utility Task vehicles.
The top five manufacturers of recovered equipment were Bobcat (25 percent); John Deere (15 percent); Multiquip (6 percent); Caterpillar (6 percent); and Case (6 percent).
In 2015, 64 percent of the equipment stolen was less than 5 years old. In 97 percent of theft and recovery cases, equipment was retrieved in the same state.
According to a 2014 National Insurance Crime Bureau report, up to $1 billion is lost nationwide from construction equipment theft and only 20 percent is recovered by law enforcement. Construction equipment thieves are increasingly part of large, organized crime rings that target high value equipment. Unlike vehicle identification numbers, construction equipment does not have standardization in production identification numbers, which makes the assets more difficult to track and recover.
“Construction sites have been popping up all over the U.S. as part of the economic recovery, making the theft of construction equipment a very lucrative market for thieves,” said Courtney DeMilio, national vice president of commercial and fleet for LoJack. “Because construction projects create jobs, the cost of unrecovered stolen equipment extends far beyond the equipment itself and potentially affects the lives of construction workers. LoJack is dedicated to partnering with law enforcement and the construction industry to recover stolen construction equipment in a timely manner to reduce operational downtime and minimize the impact of stolen equipment.”
For more information on recovery statistics and stories included in the 2015 LoJack Construction Equipment Theft Recover Report, go to: http://www.calamp.com/system/files/resources/corporate-information/theftstudy2016.pdf
For the complete study on construction theft, go to: http://www.calamp.com/construction-theft-study-2016
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.