Arval has announced that they are releasing new advice for fleet operators after reports that van thefts are rapidly increasing. The company have released a five-point guide that it is thought will help to make vans more secure after new figures showed a van is broken in to on average every 23 minutes.

Figures have been released by the BBC, causing Arval to issue these guidelines that show in 2014/15 the number of van thefts sat at 14,063 however over the course of last year, the 2016/17 period, the number of van thefts surged to 22,749. Arval have suggested that this significant jump in figures is reflective of the opinions from fleets. It is thought that van crime is cyclical and that currently we are in the upswing section of that cycle.

The pattern in this type of crime is that thieves think of a new way to break in to a vehicle, which leads to an increase of crime, then the operators work out and adopt a way of preventing this technique which leads to a decrease in the crime statistics. The newest methods of theft include using a tools to break through the structure of the vehicle and obtaining transponder keys that are commercially available to open vehicles. Because manufacturers are trying to make vans lighter in order to increase the payloads of the vehicles it is easier to use tools in order to cut through the fabric of the van or bend the door frames to gain access. The other problem is the transponder keys, which manufacturers have worked hard to combat on the newer fleet vehicles but on older vehicles that are still a part of fleets around the company, the transponders can still be effective.

The five-point guide from Arval includes fitting the right security equipment, protecting the van keys, minimizing the branding on a vehicle to remove the indication of what’s inside, parking the van in a sensible place and getting the right professional advice for your business.