Vans are valuable – how to keep hold of yours!

ACCORDING to statistics, each year 47,000 commercial vehicles are stolen in the UK, costing owners and insurers a total of around £152 million.

Your van and the tools inside, are key to you being able to do your jobs and any downtime spent off the road, plus the potential replacement cost of your van and tools could hit you or your business’ productivity hard.

So how can you make sure your van doesn’t become one of the 185,000 vehicle statistics? We’ve asked the experts and have come up with five key things to help keep your vans and its contents safe from thieves.

Is it correctly locked?

Is your van correctly locked? It might sound obvious, but it really is worth checking twice when leaving your vehicle. In fact, it could be the difference between receiving an insurance pay out – or not – should your van be stolen.

It is also worth breaking bad habits like leaving your van visibly open and unattended whilst unloading, or similarly leaving your vehicle running while you make a quick delivery, or leaving the keys in at a petrol station.

Do the double?

Many modern vans are fitted with a double lock or deadlocking system. If you’ve got such a feature on your van, make sure it’s activated as this will prevent thieves breaking in through a window and opening the door from the inside.

It is also worth looking at using a secure van toolbox to keep your tools safe. This is because, if a thief does manage to bypass your double locks, they’ll also need to break into the secure box to get your tools – which will take some time…