Securing Construction Sites - Are Guards Enough?

As a project manager getting your construction site secured is critical to meeting your deadlines and staying under budget. Indeed, according to insurance experts, construction companies and contractors lose more than a billion dollars a year to theft and vandalism. As such, when securing commercial construction sites, you need to know whether having a guard or CCTV cameras are enough.

Several factors account for these risks:

  • “One key fits all” equipment

  • Open truck/equipment cabs make for easy access

  • Unsecured jobsite on evenings, holidays, and weekends.

  • Difficulty in tracking stolen materials.

  • Remote and isolated locations

  • Large and multiple warehouses

Leveraging these security weaknesses, thieves are stealing more than the Bobcat and forklift on your unsecured commercial construction site. According to National Insurance Crime Burearu, an estimated $1 billion worth of construction equipment is stolen every year in the U.S. with only about 30 percent ever recovered.

Securing Commercial Construction Sites

When it comes to securing commercial construction sites, more is always better when installing your security precautions, so simply having an onsite guard or periodic mobile patrols simply will not work. As such, the key to securing commercial construction sites demands a layered approach to security. Towards that end, two broad areas, physical security and inventory procedural modifications, will go a long way to minimize site losses.

Physical Security

As mentioned, a thief will inevitably go after easy targets more often than not, so the security precautions you need to implement are designed to entice them to keep on walking to that next target. While security guards provide a modicum of support to your anti-theft measures, backing up their efforts with security lighting, fence perimeters, and active monitored CCTV coverage provides a full panoply of security measures.

Inventory & GPS Tracking Security

While physical security measures will go a long way towards discouraging thieves from preying on your construction site, better management of your materials and building supplies will further remove any temptation. Scheduling supplies only as needed will keep them off the site and out of sight of “would be” thieves. Installing GPS trackers on equipment also adds another barrier of protection. Beyond that, putting an effective inventory management system in place, along with strong inventory records, using our YardGuard system will let employees and subcontractors know that you are paying attention. They will also know that you place security as a top priority for your commercial construction site.