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Inside the criminal mind

Stolen vehicle recovery (SVR) teams, apart from busting criminals and returning assets to their rightful owners also gather intelligence on how criminals operate, which is used by the developers of FM/tracking units to make their products as 'foolproof' as possible. Rentrack is one such SVR operation, with a number of clients, the biggest being Matrix. According to Rentrack's MD, Dave Renton, "things have been quiet on the truck hijacking side of things. We attribute this to the fact that fleet managers are using FM/tracking systems more effectively and therefore are managing their drivers more effectively. Also, more and more trucks are being driven by their owners."

This is pleasing news but caution is still the watchword. "Criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated, learning exactly how various units work, where they're hidden and how to disable them in a matter of seconds. This means our response times have to be constantly improved, as does the technology," says Renton. "What we are finding is the use of GSM/GPS scramblers by criminals. Essentially, this device is plugged into the truck's cigarette lighter and plays havoc with the 'black box's' signal rendering it unable to transmit. Because of this, operators are installing back-up units that use radio frequencies to determine the vehicle's location." In the transport game, one can never be too careful.