Battle to reduce tractor theft led by new technology
Equipment theft here in Ireland is thought be at least as bad as in Britain – where 10 to 12 construction, plant and agricultural machines are stolen, on average, each day, worth £1 to £1.5m per week.
The average recovery rate in Britain was only 5% – but that has increased dramatically to almost 30%, since the CESAR (Construction and Agricultural Equipment Security and Registration) scheme, operated by Datatag ID Limited, came on the scene.
This involves unique, tamper-proof registration plates being prominently fitted to equipment to deter theft or vandalism, accompanied by state-of-the-art ID technology.
CESAR is widely supported by the agricultural and construction industries, and the British police.
Discussions are ongoing on the launch and use of a similar system in the Republic of Ireland, including retrofitting to existing machines.
In Britain, owners are four times less likely to have a CESAR-registered machine stolen, and six times more likely to have a CESAR-registered machine recovered.
Among the manufacturers using the scheme are Bomag, Bobcat, Landini, McCormick, Kubota, and Caterpillar.
New John Deere tractors, the top seller in Ireland, will be fitted with the official CESAR scheme Datatag security system as standard, starting later this year.
John Deere dealers will also be trained to install Datatag on other product lines, in due course.
John Deere dealers will keep individual records of Data-tagged machines, and details of any stolen machine can be circulated by Datatag, worldwide, to 187 countries via Europol and Interpol.
In Britain, leading insurance companies make discounts available for covering Data-tagged equipment.
