The Total Cost of Equipment Stolen From Vans - Which Includes Power Tools And Heavy Machinery - Is More Than £46 Million Over The Last Three Years! VCL Can Help Protect Your Product With Our OBD Port Protector It Costs Much Less Than You Think!

Tool theft from vans is on the rise - and London is leading the way in this sort of crime

IT’S just one of the most despicable things to happen to any tradesman or tradeswoman. During the night – or sometimes the day – your tools are pinched from inside your van.

It’s massively irritating for so many reasons – not least because you can’t do your job that day. And you then have to invest in more tools. And tell the insurance company. And…

It’s a right proper pain you could do without.

Yet, tool theft from vans is on the rise, up 15% in the last three years.

There have been over 67,000 police recorded cases of tools stolen from vans since 2015 with London, followed by Northumbria and West Yorkshire as the most at-risk areas.

Humberside police recorded the biggest rise over the three years with incidents up by over 1,000%.

The total cost of equipment stolen from vans – which includes power tools and heavy machinery – is more than £46 million over the last three years.

The depressing figures have been obtained by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles via a Freedom of Information request. VW reckons the downtime costs for a business following tool theft is an estimated £550 a day per van.

So, what can you do to help protect the tools in your van?

The OBD Port Protector from VCL is an innovative hardware solution which permanently integrates into the vehicle without the need to cut into the wiring and designed specifically to protect a vehicles OBD port.

It works by stopping the information travelling to the OBD port and therefore prevents a thief from accessing it, effectively closing the OBD port whilst the Protector is armed.

The Protector provides the owner with the authorisation as to whom gets access to the vehicle’s information with ‘OBD Port Authorisation Cards’.

These cards are required to temporarily switch off the Protector and allows full access to the vehicle. It does not prevent any regular servicing/maintenance or other work being carried out on the vehicle providing the owner authorises such work by presenting their card.

Electronic theft of vehicles is on the increase & can now take less than a minute to steal a vehicle by plugging into the OBD port. Protect your vehicle with our Thatcham Rated OBD Port Protector, prices start from as little as £299.00 + VAT supplied & fitted.