TECHNOLOGY is helping farmers and machinery owners to protect their investment.
Closed circuit video, alarm systems and tracking systems are being used in a bid to both discourage plant theft and to regain the stolen items.
In a recent example, proprietary software was used to track a stolen bobcat from Sydney construction company Moits.
Sunshine Coast business, The Fleet Office, installed GPS tracking equipment and custom-designed software with real-time data relay across Moit’s plant equipment.
The Fleet Office, managing director, Jim Lee said the software recognised that the bobcat was being started outside prescribed operational hours and sent an immediate alert to the excavator’s owner.
“As soon as the bobcat was started up, to be loaded onto a truck, the tracking device operated in stalk mode,” he said.
“Mapping the route of the stolen equipment from the work-site in Penrith to an isolated property 51 kilometres away.
“Our monitors provided the times the equipment had been started up, and its precise location which was in secluded bushland behind a machinery shed.
“Within two hours of the alert being activated, the bobcat had been located and police were called to lay charges.”
Moits, chief executive offocer, Joe Vinci said they had installed Fleet Office software in their entire fleet of trucks and equipment six months ago and the system had more than paid for itself.
“Unfortunately, theft is a common problem, especially with bobcats which are re-badged and sold to a buyer who has already been lined up,” he said.
“It’s hard to estimate the real cost to our business when theft happens.
“Not only is there the replacement cost of the equipment, but there’s the additional insurance premiums and the risk of incurring penalties if we don’t meet job timelines.
“Also, it’s not easy to get a new machine in a couple of weeks in order to restart the job.
“For us, one of the biggest benefits was that the machine was back on site the next morning, earning its keep.
“You can’t put a price on that.”
Mr Lee said Fleet Office software had been installed on everything from lawn mowers to a $40 million dredge.
“We estimate that our technology has saved clients millions of dollars,” he said.
“While there’s lots of different tracking products out there, we call ourselves fleet technology partners because we actively work with clients to solve problems such as recovering stolen vehicles.
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