How to stop theft of construction materials at a site?.
How to stop theft of construction materials at a site?
Today, the situation in the construction industry is very deplorable. Construction has been one of the most tasty morsels for corporate fraud since Soviet times. No one will take into account exactly how much concrete is poured into the pit, how expensive construction equipment is used, how conscientiously the construction teams and their managers perform their tasks?
If the estimates are huge, it is much easier to steal.
Theft at construction sites in Russia flourished and reached its peak just after the 2008 crisis. Even «ordinary» builders of various types can steal almost anything: cable, tools, boards, bricks, concrete, sand, crushed stone… There are cases when even large construction equipment was stolen. For example, in December 2010, five KAMAZ trucks, two truck cranes and three dump trucks were stolen in Moscow. At the same time, three KAMAZ concrete mixers were stolen from one of the construction sites. Their total value is about ten million rubles (400 thousand dollars).
The reason for this is poor control over the construction site, storage areas for material assets and the vehicle fleet. Often, the perpetrators of theft are not the builders themselves, but their accomplices, with whom they enter into a criminal conspiracy to get easy money. But theft can be avoided altogether. How?
We nip it in the bud!
Construction should not be left to chance. It is necessary to protect yourself from fraudsters and dishonest employees. It is important to track attempts at theft at the site at an early stage. And that is why video surveillance systems should not be underestimated. As practice shows, construction organizations have reduced thefts by 78% by installing video surveillance at construction sites. It was also found that ordinary builders performed their tasks by only 23% (smoke breaks, failure to complete assigned tasks, drinking alcohol, etc.).
Security is not asleep.
How to combat such thefts? There are many options for monitoring a construction site, but we will consider one of them. Let's take, for example, the construction of a 16-story residential complex. Here are the areas that should be secured:
Entrance to the site.
We install 1 camera with a resolution of 2 megapixels.
It allows you to distinguish the registration number of a truck and control what material is brought to the site. The cost of the camera varies from 11,000 rubles to 14,500 rubles.
Storage location of the material.
Here you can install the same video camera. It will allow you to see what material and in what quantities is stored and taken for construction needs.
Movement of material.
The same camera will help control what material, how much and where is transferred (transported).
Control over the work process itself.
Here one rotating camera is enough. With its help you can observe who and how performs their assigned tasks. The cost of the camera, from 30,000 rubles to 78,000 rubles.
In order to connect all the equipment into a single system and record the information received from video cameras, a video server is required. The cost of a video server is from $663 to $3,500.
Let's summarize. In order to create a controlled environment at the facility, four high-resolution cameras and a recording system are required. All this equipment will cost the customer from 81,564 rubles to 219,500 rubles.
The best thing is that you can always dismantle the video surveillance system after construction is completed and install it at the next site that is being built.
There is another big plus: if desired, the customer can monitor the construction process. And the construction company can position itself as conscientious and responsible and use this «trick» in advertising campaigns.
Regarding the equipment. Now there are many options for its acquisition. One of the most convenient for large facilities is leasing. Leasing is a long-term lease of property for business purposes with the subsequent right of redemption. The «plus» of leasing is tax preferences, you can read about this in detail at the link: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CB%E8%E7%E8%ED%E3
P.S. In conclusion, I want to say that people have stolen and will continue to steal, and we cannot get away from this. But it is possible to protect yourself and your business from this scourge.
Author: Denis Bogdanov-Gaidukov, specialist at Security and Comfort.
More articles by this author: (http://seccom.ru/blog/user/14.php)