Around seven heavy vehicles are stolen on Italian roads every day. Only 4 of these stolen vehicles out of 10 are found and returned to their legitimate owners, of the others being lost. Puglia, Lombardy, Campania and Lazio are the “hunting areas” preferred by thieves. Since 2011, the recovery rate has dropped by 25 points, from 64% to 39%. These are the main evidences that emerge from the “Report on theft of heavy vehicles”, prepared by LoJack Italia, a company of the CalAmp Group, engaged in telematic solutions for mobility and in the recovery of stolen vehicles, which collected and analyzed the data provided by Ministry of the Interior integrating them with its own reports and analyzes. The category identified by the Ministry includes heavy vehicles, trailers, buses, special vehicles, caravans. In 2020, 2,435 heavy goods vehicles were stolen, 6.7 per day. The trend shows a decrease of 22% compared to 2019, which is also evidently affected by the lockdown phases that have reduced mobility on the road and in fact also complicated the life of this criminal business. What is worrying is the more than significant decline in recoveries, which fell by 28% last year. Of the 2,435 vehicles stolen only 954 were found (39% of the total), 6 out of 10 therefore disappeared into thin air.
Puglia, Lombardy, and Campania at the center of the heavy vehicle theft business
The data on the thefts of these vehicles show numbers that are not comparable with those of four wheels (2,435 vs 75 thousand cars), but often produce substantial inconvenience and losses for the companies owning the vehicle, which see the transported load disappear and with it the instrumental good. These episodes risk causing dramatic repercussions especially when they affect small and very small businesses that see their ability to stay on the market compromised. Not to mention that in several cases the theft of the vehicle is carried out with armed robbery which also poses serious problems for the physical safety of the driver of the vehicle. “Our analysis shows – comments Massimo Braga, General Manager of LoJack Italia – how the phenomenon today follows three dynamics: thefts on commission, scams and the embezzlement of leased vehicles. Very often then the objective of criminal organizations, rather than the theft of the vehicle itself, is the subtraction of the transported load, of significant economic value and easily relocated on the market. For this reason, even more than in the stolen car business, it is necessary that the detection and recovery phases of the asset are carried out extremely quickly, before the stolen goods are lost track “. The areas most affected by the thefts of these vehicles are confirmed as those with a more lively entrepreneurial fabric, of agricultural activities and in which the presence of the criminal business is more oppressive. Puglia is the region in which the most criminal episodes occur, 541, equal to 22% of the total. Followed by Lombardy (331), Campania (282), Lazio (272), Sicily (188). Two thirds of the total thefts of these vehicles in Italy occur in these areas of the country.
In 9 years the recovery rate has dropped from 64% to 39%
Recent years have seen a greater complexity of the recovery and recovery activities. The problematic nature of the discovery of these vehicles appears more evident in the regions of Central-Southern Italy where the recovery rate falls well below the national average: Campania is still at 32%, Lazio even at 27%. The overall decline in recovery rates recorded in recent years (from 64% in 2011 to 62% in 2013, up to 39% last year) is explained by the continuous refinement of theft techniques that make the work of recovery of vehicles without ‘intelligent’ anti-theft systems and sale of stolen vehicles in international traffic managed by organized crime. Another phenomenon that continues to affect is that of the arrears of those who lease these vehicles and the consequent embezzlement, which has caused an exponential increase in disputes between leasing companies and companies and professional customers who stop paying the fees due and not. they return the vehicle.
“Lightning recovery”, the only barrier against robberies and theft of heavy vehicles
Often the theft of a heavy vehicle and its load also puts the safety of the owner or driver at risk. The rapid detection and recovery of the stolen vehicle are confirmed as the only barrier against this plague. To counter the phenomenon of robberies, in fact, the owners of the vehicles have equipped themselves with increasingly intelligent and difficult to force locking systems. For this reason, in some cases, for criminals interested in stolen goods only, it becomes necessary to steal the vehicle and then take it to an area where they can operate undisturbed. Thanks to radio frequency technology (difficult to screen and trackable on board the vehicle) and to the support of the team of Law Enforcement specialists, LoJack facilitates the work of the police in the rapid recovery of stolen heavy vehicles and the precious goods contained within them. . Telematic solutions can also be combined with this service to simplify the management of the vehicle by the driver who can thus choose to be notified with an alert when the vehicle, without the owner on board, passes a certain protection area or enters an area. at risk or in the event that your precious equipment or the goods transported are no longer on board.
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