CCTV Surveillance in the Motor Trade: A Rough Road Indeed!

Vehicle theft is a growing menace and something that cannot be ignored anymore. The Association of British Insurers puts the costs of vehicle thefts and thefts from vehicles at a mammoth £376 million per year and reportedly, £3,000,000 worth of motorbikes are stolen in the UK every single month. [source: Motorcycle Theft Statistics – Will It Soar Again In 2022? (motorbikesecure.com)]. While the raging pandemic had brought down these numbers greatly, there are growing concerns amongst law enforcement agencies that offenses involving a motor vehicle and bicycle theft are starting to return to levels seen before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. [source: Crime in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)]

If you are in the Motor Trade, it is high time you took a closer look at your car dealership security system. Thieves look for easy targets, and it is common knowledge that the quality of car dealership security is very poor. While choosing a video surveillance solution, the decision-making reflects a penny-wise, pound-foolish trend. The focus remains solely on cost savings during the purchase of CCTV equipment, and consequently, dealerships run the risk of higher financial losses resulting from theft, increased costs, and reduced margins.

“We have deployed CCTV and that should help prevent theft” is a misnomer for a variety of reasons. Warning signs about CCTV Surveillance serve as a deterrent for bad actors, but even such signs are missing in most dealerships. Outdated cameras offer very poor-quality footage, making it difficult to identify registration numbers as cars enter or leave the parking lot. 

The records kept of servicing are poor and look very inadequate and customers regularly blame the dealership for vehicle damage that was originally caused themselves. Incidents of cash missing from the safe, fuel theft, and parts theft are on the rise.

Finally, even if the data was available, the task of locating the relevant footage turns out to be quite a nightmare – missing or irrelevant batch numbers from cameras, lack of staff with the required expertise and awareness on how to retrieve footage, and insufficient maintenance by 3rd party security companies are all making a bad problem worse for motor dealerships.

Cloudview cloud video management system offers a cost-effective surveillance upgrade that enables new outcomes from existing infrastructure and creates value for security teams, owners, and members of the public. Contact Cloudview today and discover how you can modernize your CCTV Surveillance.