As record fuel prices hit the pumps Farmers and Construction sites as well as depots and other fuel storage facilities are more likely to become will become targets for fuel theft as is already being reported on a daily basis.
Insurer NFU Mutual noted that, despite reductions in fuel duty in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement, white diesel is still costing over £1.75 a litre at many service stations and farmers are finding the cost of red diesel almost double what it was a year ago. In Construction the story is even worse with Red Diesel now not being allowed by construction plant machinery. From April 1, rebated diesel, more commonly known as red diesel, and rebated biofuels are no longer be allowed to be used which will result in increased cost of diesel by 55%, threatening the survival of half businesses in affected sectors including construction and mining.
The Mutual's Rebecca Davidson said: “Over the years we have found that criminals react very quickly to target goods which have become expensive and in short supply.
Police across the UK are reporting an increase in thefts from fuel tanks. Because of this, farmers and construction companies and contractors to review security measures in their farmyards and make plans to reduce the risk of diesel being taken, when tractors and combines are left out in the fields.
Every farm and site are different, and needs security measures appropriate to its location, layout, and operation – but with normal trading hugely disrupted, everyone needs to up their game to reduce the risk of losing valuable supplies to criminals. Fuel tanks should be kept locked when not in use, out of sight, and in well-lit areas. CCTV and other cameras such as the wireless SIM enabled smart cameras supplied by iDefigo are ideal and can be quickly and cost effectively positioned anywhere within minutes and live footage viewed at any point by computer, mobile or tablet through the cloud based secure, GDPR complaint platform.
iDefigo is a market leader and supplies cameras to over 50 Local Councils and Construction companies to for example protect HS2 machinery and vacant properties. The benefits are no cables and the associated costs, flexibility to move the cameras within minutes, live feed of images to a dashboard and AI technology to alert events of concern instantly through real time notifications and simple and easy footage reviewing to pinpoint PIR triggers. Powered by Vodafone these cameras can literally be sited anywhere.
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