Picture this: it’s an early morning during the holiday season, and your fleet is ready to make someone’s holiday merry and bright. Your vehicles are loaded with packages ready to be delivered, and your drivers are equipped with their optimized routes. You’ve even organized their stops so they can be home in time for dinner.
All of that planning can quickly go south if your fleet isn’t secure—and that special delivery might not make it in time to an excited customer. During the holiday season, it’s important to equip your fleet with a solution that can keep themselves, their vehicles, and their cargo safe, especially during a time when thieves are on the prowl for a quick score.
Between December 23, 2021, and January 2, 2022, the average cost of a stolen shipment was $151,199, including electronics, televisions, major appliances and more.1 With thieves on the lookout for unattended vehicles and trailers, protecting against cargo theft is more important than ever.
Stopping Theft Before It Happens with Digital Keys
You might be worried about rising theft heading into the holiday, but the ideal technology solution enhances vehicle security and deters cargo theft before it ever happens. The critical first step? Start by replacing physical keys with digital ones. Physical keys are a major security risk—they are challenging to manage and are a prime target for those looking to gain quick access to your vehicles and cargo.
Shifting to digital keys fundamentally enhances the security of your fleet and can significantly aid in deterring theft. With keyless technology and the help of a proximity locking solution, you can:
- Assign or reassign drivers to vehicles and provide instant access from anywhere
- Remotely control who can start a vehicle and the areas they access
- Grant specific access based on roles
- Set doors to lock automatically as the driver walks away from the vehicle, increasing the security of the vehicle and its contents
- Unlock doors as the driver approaches to increase security and efficiency
Leveraging keyless entry allows you to control the “who, where and how” of your fleet’s accessibility, immediately and automatically. Only the right people with the right access and the right digital key can enter and start a vehicle. That access can also be revoked, and the engine remotely shut down in case of any suspicious activity or potential theft. Digital immobilization stops vehicle theft before it happens by preventing criminals from moving the vehicle and its cargo altogether.
How Automation Helps with Vehicle Recovery
No matter the season, stolen vehicle recovery has never been easy—until now. In the unfortunate event that a theft happens, you want to recover your vehicles and cargo as quickly as possible. Many of the technology features that help deter theft also come into play when recovering stolen vehicles or assets.
A fleet automation platform uses information from existing fleet management systems combined with business rules to automatically create response workflows. The system oversees every notification coming from your fleet and immediately issues orders for tasks that you have designated to automate.
So, if a vehicle starts without the approved driver’s digital key, the automation platform triggers a workflow that immobilizes the vehicle and alerts the driver, you, and even the authorities. This immediate, automatic notification allows law enforcement to dispatch help ASAP and reducing the time to recover your stolen property.
More Peace on Earth and of Mind this Holiday Season
Protecting your fleet and making sure your cargo, vehicles and drivers are safe is important year-round, but especially during the holiday season. When your trucks are filled with packages, and your drivers are working long hours making sure deliveries arrive on time, you don’t have time to have to worry about theft.
With the right technology, you can enhance your asset protection by improving theft deterrence and detection and speeding up recovery if it does occur. And you can enjoy a more peaceful holiday season knowing your fleet will never get away from you.
For more information on keyless vehicle access technology and how Ridecell can help you keep your fleet safe this holiday season, click here.
Author:
Stacey Papp, Director, Content, Ridecell
Sources
1 Cargonet.com, Winter Holiday Cargo Theft Trends and Security Best Practices 2021.