NAEDA "Equipment Dealer"
By Lynn Grooms, NAEDA "Equipment Dealer"
November 2004

The Institute for Highway Safety recently reported that the Cadillac Escalade EXT is the vehicle most targeted by thieves in the U.S. In British Columbia’s equipment industry, thieves favor the Bobcat loader, says Phil Holmberg, parts and rental manager, Bobcat Country, Abbotsford, B.C. With help from ATS Asset Tracking Services and its vShepherd (www.longviewadvantage.com), however, this Canadian dealership recently recovered two stolen Bobcat loaders. Had the police not already recovered another two, the vShepherd would have helped in the return of those as well.

Theft recovery has been the primary use for the vShepherd. Introduced in 2001, the vShepherd combines GPS (Global Positioning System) technology, the Internet, cellular phone communications and a 24/7 alarm and recovery center. But, the dealers featured here are now using the technology for tracking rental equipment usage (using a built-in hour meter) and for scheduling oil changes and service checks as well.

Skyrider Equipment, Mississauga, Ontario, has used the vShepherd since last January. Founded in 2000, Skyrider Equipment rents and sells aerial work platforms for construction equipment. From a single location, it serves Ontario’s “Golden Horseshoe.” It actually began using the device because its insurance company, ING, mandated the use of theft recovery equipment.

Graham Macleod, president, Skyrider Equipment, explains that his company and other members of the Rental Association of Canada were essentially told they would have to purchase theft recovery devices or not be insured. The insurance company mandated that devices be installed on equipment valued at more than $60,000 per unit, Macleod explains. “We had some 30-odd pieces of equipment to put the devices on. It’s a big capital expenditure.”

Getting more value
“When this mandate was thrust upon us, a lot of members looked for the cheapest tracking devices they could find,” Macleod  continues. “But, we considered how we could use the device in other ways. The vShepherd’s most valuable additional feature is time tracking. We can track equipment usage with the hour meter. For example, it notifies us when equipment has had 100 hours put on it so we can go in and service it.”

Prior to this, the dealership may have sent out a service person to the client’s and found that the equipment may only have had 45 hours on it. The vShepherd now helps Skyrider Equipment more accurately schedule service work. “It has saved us money in the service department,” says Macleod.

Another instance where the vShepherd has proven valuable is when a customer called Skyrider Equipment, asking where his equipment was. Macleod explains that a driver with a common carrier was on his way to delivering the equipment to the customer when his truck broke down. When Skyrider Equipment contacted the carrier to find out where the truck was, that carrier did not know. Macleod then logged on to the Internet and learned (from the vShepherd’s GPS information) that the equipment was at a truck stop where the truck driver was waiting to have his vehicle repaired.

Interestingly, Skyrider Equipment has never had a piece of equipment stolen. “Aerial work platforms are not as prone to theft as a front-end loader, for example,” says Macleod. The company’s facility, however, is fenced and has an alarm system. When equipment is on-site elsewhere, it is up to the company renting the equipment to secure it, says Macleod.

Straight forward installation
From both device installation and computerization standpoints, the vShepherd system is easy to set up, says Macleod. Bobcat Country’s Holmberg says it takes about one hour to install the palm-sized GPS device in an unobtrusive spot on a piece of equipment. Both the cellular antenna and the GPS antenna must be well hidden. Holmberg adds that ATS has a customer service center for technical assistance.

Bobcat Country sells a full line of Bobcat equipment as well as Vermeer agricultural equipment. From one location in Abbotsford, it serves all of British Columbia with Vermeer equipment and the province’s lower mainland with Bobcat products.

After representatives from both ATS and the Canada West Equipment Dealers Association (CWEDA) visited Bobcat Country, Holmberg decided to try the vShepherd system (which is marketed and distributed through CWEDA, as well as the North American Equipment Dealers Association and several other affiliated dealer associations). Bobcat Country has used vShepherd for about 1 1/2 years and has installed devices on some 80 pieces of equipment, mostly in its rental fleet.

As noted, theft of Bobcat loaders in particular is a problem in the dealership’s area, and several of these machines were disappearing off worksites. So, the dealership put devices on all of its rental machines. It also sells the vShepherd to customers, such as professional landscapers, who often leave their equipment on worksites.

Holmberg tells of how one customer had just purchased a 5600 Toolcat (a rarer piece of equipment), and it was stolen within just three weeks. The thieves transported it far north, but the vShepherd system maintained good cellular coverage. “When our customer called to tell me he had lost the machine, I was happy to tell him we knew where it was.”

Dealers who are interested in tracking devices should ask suppliers what kind of communication system they use, says Holmberg. “Make sure that you’ll have good cell coverage. A device won’t work in areas that don’t.” He recommends asking whether the company uses a satellite or a cellular triangular system, for example. With the latter, you must be in an area with a lot of cell towers, says Holmberg.

The other up side to the stolen Toolcat story was that once the police got the warrant for it, they found a lot of other stolen goods, including SUVs, boats and campers. “These were professional thieves. The police like this kind of recovery device,” says Holmberg.

Insurance discounts
As far as payback, Holmberg rates “piece of mind” as the best reward. But, a new program from CWEDA and Federated Insurance of Canada also is making the vShepherd increasingly attractive in another way. Last February, the organizations announced that the insurance company would provide a substantial discount off the premium for open lot inventory if dealers met security requirements using the ATS vShepherd device.

The discount is based on a minimum number of vShepherds, calculated on each location’s annual receipts, says Gary Borodenko, association services coordinator, Federated Insurance Company of Canada. What’s more, if the dealer’s equipment is stolen and recovered using the vShepherd, the insurance company will waive the deductible, he says.

In addition to the vShepherd, Bobcat Country works to protect its assets by installing hidden kill switches on equipment and keyless ignitions where one must punch in a code to start the machine. It also has an alarm system at its facility.