Balfour Beatty Gets Protective

Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions, one of the UK's leading utility solutions providers, is the latest company to turn to Pirtek to help protect its equipment fleet from theft. An approved technician from Pirtek Derby fitted the CESAR system to a fleet of 30 John Deere tractors at Balfour Beatty’s Raynesway plant facility. The newly-protected machines will work on electricity distribution projects in remote locations.

Available through Pirtek’s national network of dedicated Hose Centres, CESAR is the only official security and registration scheme for construction and agricultural equipment. It has wide industry support from official bodies including the Home Office the Construction Equipment Association the Agricultural Engineers Association and the police, leading equipment manufacturers, the insurance and finance industries, utilities and local authorities.

CESAR registered machines are fitted with a sophisticated and multi-layered security system that gives each machine its own unique ‘fingerprint’, that is impossible for thieves to remove. CESAR is made up of 4 elements. Firstly, the machine is fitted with 4 tamper proof triangular registration plates, which are securely fitted to the machine; with the machines own unique identification number. Secondly, a number of RFID transponders, each the size of a grain of rice, are hidden in the machinery each with its own unique programmed code. Thirdly, the machine has patches of forensic liquid DNA painted on to it in a number of locations. The liquid DNA has microscopic Datatdots suspended in it which are invisible to the eye. Fourthly, lifetime machine registration on Datatag’s secure database gives the police and other official agencies 24/7 access to the registration information, an important aid in identification and recovery.

Official statistics issued by the Plant and Agricultural National Intelligence Unit, based within Scotland Yard, show that a machine without CESAR is 4 times more likely to be stolen than a CESAR registered machine. Plus the recovery rate for unregistered plant is as low as five percent but the recovery rate for stolen CESAR registered machines has increased to nearly 30 percent in 2009.