Construction sites are the ideal target for thieves. There is so much material there that can be easily taken and sold as well as equipment. Unfortunately, many construction companies don’t do enough to secure their sites and business. They usually have insurance, but it is much better to protect their assets instead of relying on an insurance claim.
Fortunately, there are many ways to protect your business from thieves looking for your physical goods and even hackers looking to break into your construction document management software. In this article, we will go over several ways that you can protect your business and rest easy.
1 – Have a good inventory system
Unfortunately, a leading cause of theft in construction sites is equipment and material walking off the site. This means that very often the thefts happen on the inside. The people that have access to the site are usually the ones that end up stealing the goods. It could either be the workers taking things or even anybody else who has access such as delivery drivers or other contractors.
This means that you have to have a very accurate accounting system that can allow you to see when things are disappearing. Putting up a fence and directing cameras to the outside of the gate doesn’t do much if your inventory is disappearing and you don’t realize it.
The best way to go is to use the Internet of Things and RFID to be able to scan items quickly and track their movement as well. With a click, you can check inventory and immediately see when there is a discrepancy.
2 – Proper lighting
One of the least expensive deterrents is good lighting on the worksite. Make sure that you don’t allow thieves to work in the shadows. They will be leary of entering if it is very well lit as they won’t be able to work secretly. Some may be brazen enough to take a chance when they are likely to be illuminated.
These lights can be fixed anywhere and with LED they are not even expensive to run. If this is the only thing that your company can afford at the moment then it’s a good start.
3 – On site security guards
An expensive but highly effective solution is to hire security guards to patrol the site when it is closed. They should work in a pair so one is guarding the gate with a video camera system they are monitoring while the other makes rounds throughout the facility.
When the site is operating there should be a gate where everybody coming and going is checked in and out. Theft can happen even when the site is operating if there are no controls since there is usually a lot of confusion on the site.
Although it is expensive to have guards and a check-in system, this system will pay for itself in savings from theft prevention.