What stops people stealing artic trailers?
Discussion
Sister-in-law is in hospital just now (fortunately nothing too serious) and we visited yesterday afternoon.
When we left the motorway on the way to visit her, there were at least 20 artic trailers parked up along the side of the road, with room to reverse the tractor unit in and hitch up.
It made me wonder whether there is any kind of security, or whether any lorry could just hitch up and head off. Or maybe they're not attractive to thieves? (assuming they're empty).
When we left the motorway on the way to visit her, there were at least 20 artic trailers parked up along the side of the road, with room to reverse the tractor unit in and hitch up.
It made me wonder whether there is any kind of security, or whether any lorry could just hitch up and head off. Or maybe they're not attractive to thieves? (assuming they're empty).
The short answer is trailers do get nicked. The slightly longer answer is a knackered old trailer isn't especially valuable, they can be bought for a couple of grand upwards & are obvs difficult things to hide.
You can buy suzie locks that prevent coupling up the lines which stops the brakes & lights from working & king pin locks that stop you hooking onto the fifth wheel. And on top of all that, it's easy to hide trackers in them. In short, there's easier things to steal.
You can buy suzie locks that prevent coupling up the lines which stops the brakes & lights from working & king pin locks that stop you hooking onto the fifth wheel. And on top of all that, it's easy to hide trackers in them. In short, there's easier things to steal.
I have seen/heard locally that one of the latest criminal "initiatives" is to steal a trailer and use it for a supposedly legitimate waste collection business, then just dump the trailer complete with its contents in a layby somewhere and hey presto - it becomes someone else's problem.
I can only think that greater trailer security might help this (a bit).
I can only think that greater trailer security might help this (a bit).
Having to get hold of a tractor unit to move it, know how to drive a full lorry properly (so you're not caught driving away with it) and having to hide it somewhere are all considerations. I guess motorbikes are popular on the nickables list because anyone with access to a house can hide them indefinitely. I can't imagine your average thief would have somewhere to put a colossal trailer for a few weeks until it's flogged. I can't actually think of much reason someone would need to buy a lorry trailer off the top of my head. Not exactly subtle either if it's emblazoned with a brand name.
We had a trailer load of 26 pallets of cider nicked many years ago from the trailer park overnight. Luckily it was passed chugging up over the hill by one of the few night drivers on his return trip with an empty trailer and he knew it wasn’t a tractor unit that was known to the company. He managed to turn around and catch it up and get the police involved and it was stopped and dealt with.
scorcher said:
We had a trailer load of 26 pallets of cider nicked many years ago from the trailer park overnight. Luckily it was passed chugging up over the hill by one of the few night drivers on his return trip with an empty trailer and he knew it wasn’t a tractor unit that was known to the company. He managed to turn around and catch it up and get the police involved and it was stopped and dealt with.
Was the thief an in-cider?My old company had a few trailers stolen. We had a hard just for parking trailers with gate and access code on an industrial estate, not manned.
All you need to do was do a day job on agency to get the code then fly in overnight in a unit hook up and gone. Usually the toilet roll trailers and usually find the trailers empty pallets and all so proper job as it must have been forklifted off. Someone rang the office saying a trailer had been dumped near were I was and strangely enough I found it just round the corner from a warehouse where we used to deliver toilet rolls to regular.
All you need to do was do a day job on agency to get the code then fly in overnight in a unit hook up and gone. Usually the toilet roll trailers and usually find the trailers empty pallets and all so proper job as it must have been forklifted off. Someone rang the office saying a trailer had been dumped near were I was and strangely enough I found it just round the corner from a warehouse where we used to deliver toilet rolls to regular.
Strictly speaking, theres a difference between load theft & trailer theft. The former is way more common than the latter. Personally, I wouldn't offer myself up for five years in nick for a load of toilet roll. A load of gold bars, then maybe.
My firm has been done a few times over the years, mostly opportunists slashing curtains & nicking a few cases of whatever is on the back when trucks are parked up overnight.
The worst one I heard about was a guy I occasionally gve work to whose main gig was subbing for a big outfit on a Microsoft contract shifting amongst other things, X boxe. He had a driver followed & flagged down, They beat lumps out of the guy & took the truck which was found empty a few hours later. So far, so bad but he quickly heard it was a proper bad mob behind it & knew if he went to the police, there would be a decent chance they'd turn up at his house.at 3am, so he kept quiet & let the insurance play out but they had targeted the truck with high value load, so the inescapable conclusion is they were tipped off.
My firm has been done a few times over the years, mostly opportunists slashing curtains & nicking a few cases of whatever is on the back when trucks are parked up overnight.
The worst one I heard about was a guy I occasionally gve work to whose main gig was subbing for a big outfit on a Microsoft contract shifting amongst other things, X boxe. He had a driver followed & flagged down, They beat lumps out of the guy & took the truck which was found empty a few hours later. So far, so bad but he quickly heard it was a proper bad mob behind it & knew if he went to the police, there would be a decent chance they'd turn up at his house.at 3am, so he kept quiet & let the insurance play out but they had targeted the truck with high value load, so the inescapable conclusion is they were tipped off.
SpeckledJim said:
scorcher said:
We had a trailer load of 26 pallets of cider nicked many years ago from the trailer park overnight. Luckily it was passed chugging up over the hill by one of the few night drivers on his return trip with an empty trailer and he knew it wasn’t a tractor unit that was known to the company. He managed to turn around and catch it up and get the police involved and it was stopped and dealt with.
Was the thief an in-cider?
Zarco said:
Was this toilet roll heist during the early days of Covid?
No this was about 7 years ago, and several went missing. Toilet rolls easy to shift and pretty untraceable. 60 pallets on a trailer a decent earner. We did a lot of work for a roofing company as well trailers full of expensive roof felt but they never got nicked, probably to hard to easily shift.
arfur said:
SpeckledJim said:
scorcher said:
We had a trailer load of 26 pallets of cider nicked many years ago from the trailer park overnight. Luckily it was passed chugging up over the hill by one of the few night drivers on his return trip with an empty trailer and he knew it wasn’t a tractor unit that was known to the company. He managed to turn around and catch it up and get the police involved and it was stopped and dealt with.
Was the thief an in-cider?
As someone else said, it's because they're not really worth much in the scheme of things. Reefers, tankers etc are generally a lot more but old box trailers and curtainsiders are worth less than £10k. They have an export value but it's peanuts and not worth the effort to steal for the return
FlyingPanda said:
I have seen/heard locally that one of the latest criminal "initiatives" is to steal a trailer and use it for a supposedly legitimate waste collection business, then just dump the trailer complete with its contents in a layby somewhere and hey presto - it becomes someone else's problem.
I can only think that greater trailer security might help this (a bit).
Not that new, there was a trailer abandoned new Heathrow when I was working there ten years ago, it was stuffed to the brim with bald car tyres.I can only think that greater trailer security might help this (a bit).
30 years ago my mate used to work for a firm that repaired damaged trailers. They scrap ally was kept locked in shipping containers. We used to take it to weigh it in in a Vauxhall Astra van and would get about £700 quid a load. What surprised me was how big and chunky some of the lumps of aluminium were that came off the trailers. Parts of the track mechanism.
I imagine even a knackered trailer has a lot of scrap value.
I imagine even a knackered trailer has a lot of scrap value.
If you go into the traffic office in big companies you may well see a sign on the wall offering a reward for anyone who can spot certain trailers, with a list of trailer numbers.
Companies lose track of trailers and they might be in one of their own yards or parked in a yard at any one of a hundred distribution centres or they’ve forgotten to pick them from a garage or they might have been stolen. They’re not worth a lot of money, unless they’re specialist walking floors or double deckers, so they’re not as carefully watched as tractor units.
Companies lose track of trailers and they might be in one of their own yards or parked in a yard at any one of a hundred distribution centres or they’ve forgotten to pick them from a garage or they might have been stolen. They’re not worth a lot of money, unless they’re specialist walking floors or double deckers, so they’re not as carefully watched as tractor units.
On a similar theme my pal worked in the office of a skip hire company. They recieved a call from a customer wondering where his skip was that he had just got the day before. Police not interested so his boss went to a shop opposite where it had been left and asked if they had cctv. They did and he proceeded to identify the lorry removing his skip at 3am.
After doing Plods job for them he went with evidence and asked them to pull their fingers out and get his skip back. Few days later he got a visit from Plod and told on no circumstance to approach company that nicked skip as they were known to be extremely nasty people! Nothing ever happened so it's good to know we live in a lawless society where nasty people can do what the f**k they want and get away with it!
After doing Plods job for them he went with evidence and asked them to pull their fingers out and get his skip back. Few days later he got a visit from Plod and told on no circumstance to approach company that nicked skip as they were known to be extremely nasty people! Nothing ever happened so it's good to know we live in a lawless society where nasty people can do what the f**k they want and get away with it!
FlyingPanda said:
I have seen/heard locally that one of the latest criminal "initiatives" is to steal a trailer and use it for a supposedly legitimate waste collection business, then just dump the trailer complete with its contents in a layby somewhere and hey presto - it becomes someone else's problem.
I can only think that greater trailer security might help this (a bit).
Been going on for years, especially with waste tyres, very often trailer too knackered to move so adds to removal costs,the real deal was people renting old mill buildings,filling with waste,then the owner struggled to empty them as the first floor was overloaded after ground floor emptied I can only think that greater trailer security might help this (a bit).
Can get a fifth wheel lock but as ever depends how much someone wants it
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