Theft of construction equipment is unfortunately the cost of doing business for most contractors across Canada. The Ontario Provincial Police estimates between $15 to $20million worth of heavy construction equipment is stolen every year, with the value across Canada being reported from anywhere between $300 million to $1 billion.

According to Canadian Insurance provider Aviva, on average construction companies experience two thefts per year, with losses averaging $25,000 for licensed vehicles and $1,600 for tools.

When equipment is stolen from a jobsite, not only does it mean lost productivity, it also results in additional costs incurred from time wasted filing police reports and insurance claims, additional costs of renting new equipment and can also result in higher insurance premiums moving forwards.

So how can the savvy contractor avoid all these costs for their business?

The answer is simple, “You’ve got a better chance of reducing the cost to your business from theft of equipment if you ensure the equipment you’re renting is fitted with GPS tracking, as part of the provider’s telematics solution.” says Rod Lentino, Fleet Manager at Cooper Equipment Rentals.

“In April we received calls from three different customers reporting equipment being stolen from their jobsites, one in Calgary and two in the Greater Toronto Area, and we haven’t even hit the busy season yet.” shares Lentino. “In all three cases we were able to track and locate the stolen equipment, provide information to the police to enable them to obtain a warrant, and we recovered all three units and had them back in our branches for maintenance the same day. In these cases because our customers reacted quickly in letting us know, we were able to fully utilize our telematics technology to recover the assets which meant our customers were not saddled with replacement costs for equipment, which in some cases can be considerable.”

Keep reading this blog on cooperequipment.ca