From Kerry to Kings Lynn, and Truro to Thurso, the theft of recovery vehicles has, for decades, given recovery truck operator’s sleepless nights. A truck could be stolen, stripped, re-sprayed and remounted within a matter of days, never to be seen again.

This leaves owners compromised due to being a lorry down and they often have to spend weeks and months jostling with the insurance man to try and get a fair price.

Due to the expense of bodies, with recovery systems costing in access of £20,000 often being put onto chassis of half the price, it’s not hard to see why would-be thieves would look to our industry. To them it can seem to be a no brainer to strip a £30,000 lorry of its bed and remount it onto a chassis to make a quick £10,000.

Although technology has improved and vehicle trackers are becoming more reliable and affordable, the main tool in the fight against crime is communication. If you can get the information out within hours, there is more chance of someone coming across your truck before it has been stripped, and this is where UsedRecoveryTruck.com comes in.

In conjunction with its sister site NewRecoveryTruck.com, UsedRecoveryTruck.com is rolling out a Stolen Recovery Truck Alert System for the UK and Ireland. Operators are encouraged to sign up for the alert through the ‘contact form’ on UsedRecoveryTruck, and asked to urge fellow operators to do the same and in return the alert will go to the largest possible audience.

General Manager Anton Grimes said, “Through my work with the Irish Recovery Network, I became aware of the amount of business’s who were affected by equipment theft, and I knew I could provide a valuable service within the websites. The Recovery Truck Using Industry is quite close, and people talk to each other. If we can get information to the road quickly, we can help protect ourselves.”

Visit www.UsedRecoveryTruck.com and sign up to the ‘mailing list’ to do your bit to help the fight against Recovery Truck theft.