Peterbilts are hot items in British Columbia these days, and not just among workaday truckers with a penchant for a long nose and chrome. “Thieves love ’em,” says Dan Dudgeon of the auto crime strategies unit at the Insurance Corp. of British Columbia. Unlike car thieves, who rob for kicks, guys who steal trucks think of themselves as equipment brokers, supplying product to meet a market demand. They can chop a truck in half and stuff it into a shipping container for parts unknown before the owner realizes it’s gone. “Today, Petes sell,” says Dudgeon in a matter-of-fact tone. “Tomorrow, maybe it’s Freightliners or Western Stars.”

Unfortunately, he says, successful truck thieves are adept at keeping their customers satisfied: ICBC processed claims on 295 stolen heavy vehicles in British Columbia last year, up nearly 50% from 1996.

At the same time equipment theft is on the upswing, freight theft is garnering more attention from shippers and police. Last month, corporate security, logistics, and loss prevention officials from some of North America’s biggest retailers met to organize a cargo-theft prevention task force, aimed at developing best practices for stemming freight losses and prosecuting thieves.

The group, the Retail Industry Cargo Security Committee, is modeled on the Technology Asset Protection Association, formed three years ago by computer manufacturers and technology-equipment shippers frustrated by losses ranging from pilferage at cargo terminals to stolen trailers and gunpoint hijackings.

Claiming that 85% of all business security losses are attributed to the theft or loss of product in transit, TAPA audits the security practices of trucking companies and other supply-chain vendors and recommends withholding shipments to anyone who takes a padlock-and-a-prayer approach to preventing cargo theft.

One way to prevent the freight from leaving the supply chain is to stop the truck or trailer from being stolen in the first place. Anti-theft hardware-and managers who are committed to using it-can go a long way toward keeping tractors out of chop shops and loads from being fenced. Sure, a bolt-cutter can make quick work of a padlock, a well-placed metal salad bowl can render tracking hardware useless, and a kingpin lock is only as effective as the guy who has to crawl under the bolster plate to fasten it. You can even argue that the sight of a theft-prevention device is little more than a sign that says, “Steal me.”

But the fact is, say Dudgeon and other theft investigators, for robbers, windows of opportunity are measured in seconds. Thieves tend to target trucks that are easy to steal, and a vehicle with an anti-theft device is more of a hassle than one without. A security camera perched in the line of sight of your loading docks may not stop a seasoned crook from entering your lot, but it may cause him to consider the elevated level of risk involved.

“Effective anti-theft measures work on three levels: they can make vehicles difficult to get into, make them difficult to remove, and make vehicles easy to recover after they’ve been stolen,” Dudgeon says. And there are lots of ways to make the first two tasks as difficult as possible, and if that fails, the third as simple as possible.

STOPPING THE VEHICLE

Systems that immobilize a truck or trailer fall into two categories: “active,” meaning the driver has to activate the device, and “passive,” where the device activates automatically. The most common models tap into the starter, steering system, or brakes.

Among the electronic immobilizers on the market, the more effective systems incorporate a starter-circuit interrupt. You can buy a kit and install it yourself, but any competent auto electrical shop could do the job. Indeed, Dudgeon recommends that all electrical devices be professionally installed, and that your protection be layered-use two or more kinds of devices. “A qualified installer or dealer will know how to disguise his work,” he says, “using wires that are all black and intertwined with regular electronics, for example.”

ICBC, incidentally, rates the best immobilizers on the market. For a list, visit www.icbc.com/crime, or call 604/661-2800.

Western Star Trucks has taken a different approach, offering the PASS-Tag anti-theft system. Using radio-frequency identification technology, PASS-Tag provides a unique electronic signature for each truck through a specially coded ignition key. In order to start the engine, the vehicle’s on-board computer must first recognize that the right key is in the ignition. Otherwise, the engine won’t turn over.

Other products lock the steering wheel (the widely publicized Club, a steering wheel clamp, is one). A less obvious alternative is the steering column lock, which fits through the column universal joints and secures with a padlock. If the clamps are applied with the steering cranked over to full lock, the truck cannot even be lift-towed away.

You can easily use the brake system to immobilize the vehicle-the simplest device is a blocking yoke that slips over the dashboard brake valves to prevent them from being pushed in. It’s inexpensive, but requires the driver to remember to set the device in the locked position.

Some systems lock the truck’s spring brakes automatically, and several are further protected by integrated alarms. You can buy modules to operate on the steer axle brakes, so that even if a thief cages the spring brakes, the truck still can’t be driven. Remote transmitters similar to car alarm units are also available so the system can be de-armed from a keypad or even remotely armed or disarmed through a satellite link. Thus, a hijacked truck could theoretically be stopped remotely.

The brake system is also used by the trailer modules of the tractor immobilizing systems. Trailers can be moved if the brakes are backed off, but any application of the service brakes either sounds an alarm or builds pressure in the chambers to progressively apply as the trailer is hauled down the road, eventually dragging the combination to a halt.

A gladhand lock provides a simple trailer braking immobilizer. One is a U-shaped device that just slips over the trailer gladhands, with a pin that screws into the gladhand and a padlock that clamps the pin in place. It’s inexpensive, but a thief can release the trailer brakes and haul off the trailer, albeit without functioning brakes.

Of course, one of the oldest trailer protection devices is the kingpin lock. It’s inexpensive, but requires the driver to scoot under the extremely dirty bolster plate to lock it on the pin. Pin locks unfortunately make trailers difficult to move around big terminals. Also, if they are only used on trailers sitting with high-value cargo and not on empties, they act as a flag for a rip-off.

SOUNDING TH E ALARM

With a tractor and trailer coupled, preventing entry to the tractor goes a long way toward securing the combination. Fortunately, one of the major growth industries in mobile electronics is the security alarm, which has become very sophisticated with the availability of inexpensive microprocessors.

All systems offer security by drawing attention to a vehicle that is threatened-a person standing close by, a sudden jolt to the vehicle, battery current interruption, an opened hood, or a hot-wired starter.

This full spectrum of features can be incorporated into a heavy-duty truck in much the same way as it can in a car, and indications are they function as well even in the harsher truck environment. But the more complex the system, the longer the installation time and, as with any heavy-duty electrical application, the greater the potential for electrical malfunction and downtime.

Simpler, self-contained break-in alarms are available that plug into the cigarette lighter. They are armed through a key and disarmed using a remote transmitter (usually on the key ring) or by using the key again.

Keychain remotes are universal and are fine so long as they are kept with the driver. But if the truck keys are mislaid or, for example, stolen while the driver is in the shower, the remote unit can be used to find out which vehicle fits the keys. Pressing the buttons on the remote will eventually get a chirp from the truck as the alarm disengages. Keys in hand, the truck is ready to roll. Numeric keypads potentially eliminate this possibility.

A Calgary firm, Secured Cargo Ltd., has an anti-theft alarm for a trailer. The system’s control box is powered by a self-contained battery that recharges when the trailer is connected to the tractor (the battery lasts for as many as six weeks on its own, without recharging). The box mounts to the vehicle’s cargo box or trailer and is activated or deactivated by a code punched into an electronic keypad.

Security-conscious fleets could, for example, activate the system and then give the driver half the code sequence and the receiver the other half, meaning the full code could only be entered-and the alarm system turned off-by the two of them at trip’s end, assuring security en route. Actuation by an ordinary key is available, but not advised.

The basic system uses a door-contact sensor that, when tripped, sets off a strobe light and/or siren. Other sensors, such as smoke or temperature, and a wireless “panic” input for the driver (like the one on your car’s key ring) are also options.

The alarm not only creates attention around the trailer, the signal can be relayed to commercially available local-area paging services with a range of up to five miles. The alarm signal can be sent virtually anywhere if the tractor has a satellite- or cellular-based vehicle tracking system. In lieu of a dedicated trailer alarm, if power is available to the trailer-for instance, through an anti-lock braking connection-you can wire or radio-link motion or door-open sensors to the main tractor alarm. The coupling of tractor and trailer systems is greatly simplified through radio contact between sensors and the alarm central processor.

WATCHING FROM ABOVE

The ability to monitor vehicles through communication links was initially designed to improve vehicle and driver productivity, but it’s increasingly seen as a security tool Cellular and satellite-based tracking systems provide protection in a number of ways. The obvious benefit is knowing where your truck is located. But there may be features you don’t know about or never considered as security measures. For instance, Qualcomm Inc.’s OmniTRACS satellite-based tracking system offers a panic button a driver can use in an emergency to send a report giving the truck’s location and sound an alarm at the Qualcomm hub. The OmniTRACS unit can then be polled remotely for more frequent location checks, providing a visual trail of the truck’s movements.

Pickering, Ont.-based AirIQ, affiliated with Bell Mobility, uses a cellular-based mobile communications network and a detailed GPS (Global Positioning System)-based mapping system. Its trailer-tracing product can be programmed to send a message automatically when the vehicle passes outside certain boundaries or strays from a predetermined route. Also, if a driver fails to arrive with the trailer at a certain place and time, or the trailer’s doors are opened prematurely, the system can send a message. These parameters and others can be set at the customer’s option.

Of course, most thieves are aware of mobile communications, which can be disabled. Satellite-based units, for instance, need line-of-sight to the satellite in order to send a clear signal. If the trailer is parked underground, or the antenna is obstructed (a piece of metal flashing would do the trick), the trailer would in all likelihood “disappear” from view. Even inside-mounted trailer tracking devices could be detectable to thieves due to the roof-mounted antenna.

Cargo thieves find new ways to confound even the best security systems. But with mobile communications evolving so quickly, stealing trucks and freight isn’t going to get easier. And that’s good news for trucking companies, shippers, and Peterbilt owners everywhere.