A full report on a transport crime conference in the November print edition of Professional Security.
While the number of hi-jacks of UK lorries went up 55 per cent in 2000 compared with the year before, the value of the loads hi-jacked more than doubled, from £7.6m to about £18.4m. The largest single hi-jack was of Nokia mobile phones valued at £1.5m on the M25 between junctions nine and ten. The driver was signalled to pull over by offenders with a shotgun and pistol, and was dumped near Slough. Most of last year’s hi-jacks – 69 of 79 – involved violence or threats, 21 involving firearms. Frank Heinrich-Jones reports: ‘Many incidents occurred whilst the lorry was either at traffic lights or at road junctions, allowing offenders to open a door of the cab and threaten the driver. The other favoured method of hi-jack was to flag the lorry down by using high-powered cars, sometimes with a blue flashing light on the dash or headlights flashing and occupants wearing fluorescent jackets or uniform-type clothes and peak caps. Lorry drivers thinking it was a spot check stopped, which allowed the offenders to gain access. Or fake accidents were placed to stop the lorry.’
<br><br>
Security seals are only as good as the system they are introduced into, the RHA conference heard. Seals costing perhaps three pence are used to protect cargo worth £250,000, said Peter McClelland of Manchester marine cargo surveyors Marker & Eccles. He explained that a seal should be tamper resistant (it should not be possible to move parts of the seal without the use of tools), resistant to re-building (parts from a used seal should not be separated and substituted into another seal of the same design) and tamper evident (once the seal has been fitted correctly, any attempt to fraudulently open the seal should leave visible evidence). The Security Seal Industry Association defines three classes of security seal: high (class one), barrier (class two) and indicative (class three). Class one are normally used where containers are left for a long time; such seals are usually of the bolt design with unique markings and would take substantial tools. Class two have a lower tensile strength and still require some tools to remove. Class three probably do not require tools and may be made of plastic, or metal strip or a mix of both. ‘Apportioning of blame on to the security seal is often blatantly unfair. The manufacturer takes great care to ensure that everything relating to the production and supply of a security seal is treated seriously. Procedures are laid down, beginning with the audit trail.’ Seals when delivered should be stored in a secure area, and when in use should be checked at each checkpoint on the route, and before unloading. If the user does not know the type of seal and how it is applied correctly, how can the user tell if a copycat seal is in place’ ‘Security seals are treated as ‘things’ that few people want and even fewer understand. They are expected to work on their own as a security solution and are often left lying around under a bench somewhere. Anyone who wants one can get one.’
<br><br>
The best and worst in UK lorry parking security were outlined by two speakers at the RHA conference. Some drivers choose to use unsecured lay-bys rather than pay for parking, admitted Tony Allen, Security Manager, Securicor Distribution. The large, open spaces of motorway service stations afford limited security; loads are especially vulnerable when the driver leaves the vehicle or is asleep in the cab. However, such places do provide a ‘wagon train’ safety in numbers, he added. As for truck stops, ‘the best offer all the necessary facilities and security to enable confidence for parking on site – the worst (and sometimes the most popular with drivers) offer no security’. Tony Allen defined good security for parked vehicles as a secure perimeter (whether physical or electronic), adequate site lighting (for CCTV cameras, colour in the day, to revert to black and white at night), controlled access and leaving, and a detection system that identifies problems and induces a response. He gave the example of one site Securicor use at Worksop, where there is no physical perimeter, but a very effective electronic one. ‘You can’t really beat having a guard on a site. There’s so much going on, because it’s a fast and furious business, especially on motorways, and truck stops. It’s almost imperative you have a good guard on site. I am not a fan of CCTV per se, because most of them aren’t monitored and if you see the quality of most of them and see what evidential value you can recover, they are absolutely rubbish. I wouldn’t recommend any CCTV system that doesn’t have it recorded to a hard disk. I think the day of the VCR for recording has finished.’ Tony Allen praised remote CCTV monitoring with passive infra-red detection and an audio response back to the site to deter intruders, that can reduce guarding costs. He singled out the truck stop at junction 42 of the M6 south of Carlisle, where an upgrade two years ago saw the installation of fibre-optic cable that alarmed the perimeter fencing, and 24-hour guarding. The cost was shared between the truck stop owner and a Scottish manufacturer of high-tech products – because drivers of lorries containing the products often chose to break their journey into England at that point. ‘There’s been no incidence of theft at that site in the last two years – I think that’s a really good example,’ Tony Allen said. He concluded: ‘Drivers until now have effectively decided their own parking arrangements. I would say the time has come to for the operators to seek to change. We are paying the bills for the parking.’ He called for dialogue with truck stops towards change – the cue for the next speaker, Ian Malloch, Business Development Manager of Welcome Break. He said that the service station chain was committed to installing a central CCTV site surveillance system this year, and a full overhaul of lighting by 2002. The firm is looking into how to track vehicles on site by using a wireless LAN (local area network). With others, the firm is considering secure loading areas, and the logging of vehicles that enter and leave sites by automatic number plate recognition. Ian Malloch admitted a current security problem is the so-called ‘white van’ parking between HGVs, and criminals slashing lorry sides, and making off with lorries’ contents inside their van. He agreed that there was a need for fenced parking for trucks, with access through a barrier, to eliminate ‘white vans’. Parking tickets might be on security paper, in books of ten, invididual to a vehicle or its depot. Thus control of lorry parking would switch to the operator.
<br><br>
The transport industry has to make sure that suspicions about lorry crime are investigated to a start position for police to follow up, according to a police speaker at the RHA conference. Intelligence leads are rare, admitted DCI David Ryan, since last year head of the Metropolitan Police Stolen Vehicle Unit. The NCIS has a desk devoted to vehicle crime, but not HGVs, meaning that the NCIS is not really taking the lead on lorry crime, he said. Yet analysis of crime trends has to be regional and national. He called on the transport industry to specify options at purchase for immobilisation and better locking systems; staff training; start Truck Watch schemes; and use secure parking, whether in a compound overnight or at a motorway service station for an hour. In the compound, a haulage firm has to make the keys and lorries accessible to authorised personnel: ‘Staff have to be vigilant and should be rewarded for making a difference.’ He ended by explaining JAGOLT, where he is the deputy chair, which since 1994 has made ‘slow but major progress’. The body has for example sub-groups working on the better exchange of data, and secure parking. Next, members of the audience voiced their frustrations. First, a Reading-based international carrier spoke of how he had installed panic buttons and satellite tracking on vehicles, only to ask – who to ring if the panic button is pushed, at home or abroad’ After days of ringing around, he was eventually diverted to his local police station sergeant who suggested the Essex desk and 999. Bernard Howard, of PC Howard, described his Peterborough as a victim of crime and called the treatment by West Midlands police ‘diabolical’. DCI Ryan replied: ‘We all understand criminals don’t operate by police boundaries, they work along corridors of opportunity’ and repeated that police worked to priorities and that co-operation between forces was needed. Mike Foden of Stafford Miller too deplored the lack of help from police after theft of cargo.<br><br>
Transport crime is a Europe-wide problem, the Road Haulage Association conference Beating Transport Crime was told. As reported last month, some 250 hauliers, security managers and police officers packed the RHA event at Aston Villa FC in September, a sign that theft of and from lorries is hitting the haulage industry. From the floor came bitter stories of haulage firms suffering from crime yet getting little help from UK police forces. Ppolice speakers could only reply that resources were limited and transport crime was one among many priorities. Frank Heinrich-Jones, Director Transport Security for consultants PLC, outlined the crime figures Europe-wide, while admitting that there were no consistent statistics, and that data on lorry loads is rarely collected. Every year, 0.8 per cent of UK heavy goods vehicles are stolen – or eight out of every 1,000 HGVs on the road, and only one in every 1,000 is recovered. Europe-wide, the loss rate is even higher – one per cent. More than one in four of UK victims lose business as a result. More than half of all trucks stolen are taken from operator’s own premises. A national database maintained by Essex Police, the National Stolen Lorry Load Desk, indicates that lorry load theft is running at more than 3,500 incidents a year, with the annual known costs exceeding £100m and growing. However fewer than half – 47 per cent – of the crime reports copied to the Essex desk in the first half of 2001 include a value of the stolen loads. Frank Heinrich-Jones said: ‘We recommend all crime reports should in future include the retail value of items stolen plus follow-up details of arrests and recoveries. This will then provide a clearer picture of what is actually happening.’ He suggested that the actual lorry crime losses could run to £400m a year, and that transport companies face losing the goodwill of their major customers, because of losses to crime. He gave the latest Essex figures for the second quarter of 2001: a total of 855 incidents from 41 police force areas, mainly ‘jump-ups’ and attempts (477 – opportunists slashing the sides of trailers, taking what’s inside, and leaving the trailer) and theft (303), followed by warehouse incidents (27). That is, more than nine out of ten recorded incidents are of theft from or of the vehicle – while the vehicle is parked, whether in the owner’s depot, a lay-by, truck parking areas, motorway service areas or an industrial estate or outside the driver’s house. Hi-jacks, while on the increase, are fairly rare – 51 in 1999, 79 in 2000, 24 in the first half of 2001. There criminals are using more violence against drivers, even gratitious violence, which could be partly due to more anti-theft devices on lorries.
<br><br>
The force areas with most reported incidents were: West Midlands (118), West Yorkshire (96), Staffordshire (77), North Yorkshire (66), and Thames Valley (63). That is, most lorry crime happened around the densest motorway networks, and roads to ports. The value of loads stolen (£22m) was far larger than value of vehicle lost (£2.8m). Frank Heinrich-Jones is a founder member of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport steering group, Crime in Transport (ECMT). This 43-nation body under the auspices of the OECD (Organisation for European Co-operation and Development) has met several times over the last few years and earlier this year concluded that Europe lacks common definitions to even put together what data there is on lorry crime. Frank Heinrich-Jones said: ‘What we do know from the ECMT studies is that crime in transport is a Europe wide problem and it is increasing. Criminals recognise the easy pickings to be had from stealing lorry loads. Currently there is a low risk of being caught and only light sentences if they are found guilty, verses high rewards which are frequently used to fund other crime such as drugs.’ He quoted from the August comments of the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) Director John Abbott on organised crime: ‘Just like legitimate business, organised crime is motivated by profit. It exploits opportunity and manages risk. OCGs need to raise capital to recruit, pay and maintain the loyalty of its members, and make arrangements for the movement, storage, distribution, marketing and sale of their (stolen) goods.’ Recorded thefts of and from lorries are roughly double in the fourth quarter to the first quarter – suggesting that criminals steal to sell as Christmas presents, in outlets from corner shops to nightclubs. Yet the UK has a culture of gladly buying cheap goods that ‘fell off the back of a lorry’, Frank Heinrich-Jones pointed out. ‘The public regard it as a victimless crime – but we all pay. There is a strong need for better and more public awareness of the true cost of this type of crime and its links with other criminal activity. Anything is stolen – don’t go away with the idea that it is only high value goods. Thieves like goods which are easily disposed of and are not readily traceable, such as disposable nappies, washing power, sweets and foodstuffs.’ He illustrated this by listing some recent recorded losses: a trailer slashed and £2,500 in cosmetics taken, a trailer stolen with a load of computer parts – estimated loss £50,000. Is the battle lost’ Frank Heinrich-Jones asked. Quoting John Abbott again, he answered that better collection and use of intelligence is the key: ‘Without the detail we can’t properly analyse the problems and give guidance on how best to tackle the threat. We require better communication between the police and industry, between individual police forces and between industry players – insurers, transport companies and shippers.’ Such a partnership would involve raised awareness (Frank Heinrich-Jones praised a JAGOLT leaflet, Steer Claer of Truck Theft, pictured), anti-theft devices and tracking systems, safe truck parking areas, and tighter procedures and vetting. A sign of how much has to change for a police-industry partnership to happen came in a question from the floor, from consultant Elaine Hardy, who has analysed the 1999 Essex Desk data. Her point: police get the same Brownie points for reporting and solving a case of a child stealing a chocolate bar as a gang stealing a HGV. The opening speaker Dorset Assistant Chief Constable George Pothecary, repeated what other police officers said at the seminar: namely that there are competing demands on police, and forces will look at their priorities.
<br><br>
Early notification of crimes is essential, DC Iain McKinnon of the Essex Police National Stolen Lorry Load Desk told the RHA conference. The desk keeps two databases – one for intelligence, one listing stolen property and details of the offence the property came from. A website is planned. The desk can spot trends, identify offenders and recovery stolen goods, acting as an international focal point for all enforcement agencies against what is a cross-border problem. To contact the desk, fax 01245 4552255 or e-mail [email protected].
<br><br>
The RHA conference had an insight into how police operations to bring lorry thieves to court take far longer than some of the prison sentences given to the offenders. Essex DCI Mark Shields talked the audience through an 18-month operation to catch a group of thieves in the south-east. In March 1998, clothing worth £102,000 and the lorry were stolen in Surrey. The driver’s story sounded plausible: while he was parked having a cup of tea, a white van pulled up and he was bundled in, his load stolen, and his ankles and hands bound. Surrey police however realised that the alibi did not stand up; the ‘hi-jacked’ driver changed his story several times; and the lorry’s tachograph had been smashed. DCI Shields put together a surveillance team because of a Metropolitan Police informant’s lead about a link between the driver and Essex and Surrey stolen loads. He was caught starting to load boxes from an industrial unit into the back of a white truck; and most of the consignment of clothing was found inside a lock-up garage. DCI Shields linked the group behind this theft to a 1997 case of theft by seal substitution at Thamesport container terminal. One of the group was once found at Felixstowe port near a lorry of pizzas, ‘looking for his cat’. He was seen there a second time, charged with interfering with a vehicle, and fined. After 18 months of work, the cases came to Chelmsford and Basildon Crown Courts; the group denied the charges and were found guilty, and got prison terms of between nine months and three years. DCI Shields added that such an investigation was unlikely to be repeated, because he began it as a newcomer to the force and was persistent. He admitted that police, including himself, have other priorities. He concluded: ‘It’s far easier to prevent a crime than to investigate one.’
<br><br>
The next speaker, David Ransom, detailed TruckWatch in South Yorkshire, formed in 1997 between the People United Against Crime initiative, the police, RHA, and local transport firms. It has worked: in 1996, 144 trucks were stolen, compared with 46 in 1998-9 and 435 in 1999-2000. From the time a crimre report reaches TruckWatch, it takes 14 minutes for faxes to go to watch members, whose drivers then are eyes on the roads looking for the reported stolen lorry (though the scheme relies on the depot manager passing on the fax details). South Yorkshire has a HGV enforcement officer for each local authority in the force area, so a lorry crime victim will get two police visits. TruckWatch is looking at more direct ways of getting messages to drivers, while making sure that they keep their eyes on driving. David Ransom, who has a non-police background, defended the police: ‘Most companies’ attitude to crime is ‘it won’t happen to me, so why should I be involved in crime reduction measurws” When it does happen to them, they want to know how the police aren’t on their doorstep in 90 seconds.’ He has sought for a year to market TruckWatch to neighbouring areas.
