ECM Theft Is Skyrocketing—Right here’s Keep Forward

This publish is a part of a sequence sponsored by IAT Insurance coverage Group.

Late at night time within the Fall of final yr, thieves stole 13 ECM models 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 received 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 techniques needed for the truck’s fundamental operation. Vans received’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 embrace misplaced income as a result of downtime whereas the truck is out of fee. A scarcity of substitute 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 underneath a Freightliner’s dashboard. Non-Freightliners’ ECMs are tougher to entry, however thieves have developed strategies to steal them as effectively.

Happily, ECM theft prevention is easier than you may count on. Taking the precise precautions can doubtlessly save your small business hundreds of {dollars} in enterprise interruption and direct monetary loss.

Defending your small business from ECM theft

Keep a step forward of ECM thieves by defending your fleet with these 4 measures:

1. Safe your automobiles

Think about including these fundamental safety measures to your fleet:

• Lock your automobiles when not in use, particularly in a single day.
• Park your vehicles in a way that makes accessing the cab tougher. As an example, park near a wall or one other automobile.
• Rent safety for the vacations when extra vehicles are idle and on web site. Thieves typically goal business vehicles over holidays after they know they received’t be in use with much less on-site safety.
• Set up cameras alerting your small business to exercise in your yard throughout non-operating hours. Rent somebody to watch it throughout these high-risk intervals and alert authorities after they detect suspicious conduct.
• Hold parked automobiles 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 anticipate finding these normal bolts and are available ready with the precise instruments for simple elimination. Catch them off guard by utilizing another anti-theft bolt.

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

3. Contain regulation enforcement

Hold regulation 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 regulation enforcement to raised allocate sources towards stopping them.

Phrase will get round rapidly amongst thieves. In the event that they know your small business is reporting each incident of ECM theft, they may transfer on to a neater 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 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 possibilities of them concentrating on your fleet once more.

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Have a query on easy methods to mitigate threat? E-mail [email protected] for an opportunity to see your query answered in a future weblog.

By Tom MacCallum

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