Equipment theft from job sites around the country remains a problem for contractors, according to the latest Equipment Theft Report conducted by the National Equipment Register and released in January.

NER estimates that the total value of equipment stolen annually ranges from $300 million to $1 billion. Those figures do not include losses from business interruption, such as short-term rental costs, project delay penalties and wasted workforce and management time. NER reports that the high levels of equipment theft are due to:

• The high value of heavy equipment
• The ease with which equipment can be stolen due to poor security
• The ease with which stolen equipment can be sold in the used equipment market
• Low risk of detection and arrest for thieves
• Low penalties if prosecuted.

The NER report is based on information from its database of more than 70,000 thefts of construction and farm equipment, and information from the Insurance Services Office. The January report produced the following statistics for 2004:

The top 10 states by frequency of theft are: Texas, North Carolina, California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, South Carolina, and Indiana. The top five states account for 38 percent of all thefts. NER notes that theft levels closely follow the amount of equipment in a particular area—so, the states with the highest volume of construction and agriculture have the highest number of thefts. In addition, areas with high concentrations of equipment also are more likely to attract professional theft rings.

The most commonly stolen types of equipment in 2004 were: skid steers (31 percent); tractors (21 percent); backhoes (16 percent); generators/compressors (5 percent); excavators (4 percent); dozers (3 percent); forklifts (2 percent); loaders (2 percent); trenchers (1 percent); rollers (1 percent) and "other" (14 percent).

Value and mobility are the two key factors in the type of equipment most likely to be stolen. Value is the primary factor until an item becomes too large to move on a small trailer. NER advises equipment owners to look at both mobility and value when deciding where to discuss security efforts.

NER's report also states that as little as 10 percent of stolen equipment is recovered. Reasons for that include:

• The delay in theft discovery and reporting
• Inaccurate or non-existent owner records
• The lack of pre-purchase checks in the sued equipment market
• Limited resources that law enforcement can dedicate to equipment investigations
• The difficulty of equipment investigations due to the complexities in equipment numbering systems
• The lack of information available to law enforcement.

For more information on the report, go to www.nerusa.com.