All businesses in the US today face threats and challenges that might cost them hundreds of billions of dollars. The risk of crime increases with the size of the business and its increase in revenues. Car dealerships face many threats when it comes to protecting their stocks, assets, staff, and customers. The thing is, automobiles are usually kept outdoors to make it easy for customers to check them and try them out. However, the fact that they’re not always monitored makes them an easy target for criminals. In this article, we’re going to be discussing the security of your car dealership while managing to keep it comfortable for customers to shop and check out the cars.
Develop and Invest in Control Systems
The first thing you have to do is to put together a sign-out system for your cars. This way, if anyone uses the vehicle or allows a customer to take it for a test drive, there will be a system in place to pick up keys and gain access to unlocking cars while ensuring maximum security; otherwise, the alert will go off. You also have to make sure there’s a policy that forces your employees and sales representatives to lock the cars at all times and keep the keys secured inside the dealership and away from the vehicles. You also need to make sure that all cars have the anti-theft system on, brakes on, and the wheels locked to protect your vehicles from being towed by car thieves.
Spy Cameras
Placing cameras might be the only efficient way to protect your car dealership. Installing security and spy cameras everywhere is essential and, believe it or not, it is enough to drive car thieves away from your dealership. There are different options for cameras and other equipment that you can use, and you will find a lot of information on security cameras and the legalities of recording according to your state online. The professionals at Gadget Spy explain how effective security cameras can be as well as how important the strategies that you employ in implementing them can be in order to ensure maximum safety for your inventory. A surveillance system will record live videos of car lots so you can get back to the clips in particular time and dates. It can also detect motion and alert you that there’s an activity in your showroom helping you deal with security challenges proactively. It’s vital for you to make sure you’re following a system while placing your cameras to make sure to cover blind spots and critical areas where thieves can hide. Don’t forget to protect those cameras and monitoring devices from hackers.
Reduce Blind Spots
If you ensure that your lots are well lit to an extent where you don’t have any dark areas on your showrooms or lot, then you will make things easier for you to spot any unusual activities taking place in your shop. Car thieves usually wait somewhere in the shop until it’s safe enough for them to steal the keys or figure out which is the easiest car to turn on without having the keys. You also have to make sure that there’s only one gate that cars can leave from and that there is a whole security system attached to it. Build enough fences and walls to make it hard for car thieves to speed up and run off with the car.
GPS
Make sure that all your cars have an accurate and high-quality GPS system attached to each car. That way, even if a thief succeeds in stealing a car and manages to drive off overcoming the alarms, cameras, employees, and security guards, it would be easier for you and for the police to track it down and bring it back to you, minimizing your losses and reducing the cost of theft. It’s always better to plan for the worst-case scenario instead of having to deal with it, right?
While security guards might seem like a good idea, vehicle thieves are now savvy enough to study the patterns of employees and security guards to determine the best time for them to commit a crime. This solution may have worked in the past. Still, nowadays, you need to make sure that you’re using practical solutions to ensure maximizing profit while reducing risk and adequately protecting your inventory. Remember, theft might take place no matter how careful you are, and therefore, it’s vital for you to use more than one solution to ensure security. If you use the tips above, you will be making sure that you’re not losing money to theft every quarter, and even if you are, it will be much less than expected.
