Construction sites are easily a hotbed for theft. They’re situated in populated areas, left unguarded for sometimes days at a time, and contain hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of valuable tools, materials, and supplies.
Planning your deliveries well helps keep your project flowing smoothly, and is a critical step to take in preventing construction site theft.
How Proper Delivery Planning Can Prevent Theft at Your Construction Site
Good construction project management is vital to a successful construction project. While construction project management is a big job covering a wide range of responsibilities, we’re going to focus on just one aspect of that: Delivery planning.
Delivering planning must be done thoughtfully and with a keen sense of cooperation. The order, the timing, and the personnel must all be taken into close consideration to keep your site safe and running smoothly.
The Order:
Order Materials Only As-Needed
What does the order itself have to do with preventing theft? A surplus of materials laying out in the open is a construction site thief’s greatest prize. Try not to have more than just what you need sitting around on-site.
The best practice is to make sure you’re planning deliveries properly to have the materials you need scheduled to arrive in the correct sequence for your build. Communicate well with your crew to make sure that you’re ordering exactly what you need, timed for when you need it. No more, no less. If your timeline changes, make sure scheduled deliveries change along with it!
Speaking of having what you need when you need it, that brings us to the timing of your order.
The Timing:
Schedule Just-in-Time Delivery
While you may want to stay on top of things by preparing ahead of time, that’s not always the best practice, even if it’s common practice. Even if you only order what you need, having it delivered to your job site in advance can be a huge misstep.
Just-in-time delivery prevents theft by keeping your site free of materials or supplies that aren’t in use. The longer your materials or tools sit unused, the better a target they are for thieves and vandals.
Avoid After-Hours Delivery
Ordering things just as you will need them is really the way to go. Best case scenario, you use your materials the day they’re delivered. And while that’s not always possible, you can do your best to avoid weekend deliveries. Many job site equipment thefts happen between Friday evening and Monday morning.
If you must leave materials or supplies out overnight or for a few days, try to secure them or employ the use of professional security services, whether armed security guards or video surveillance.
The Personnel:
Oversee All Deliveries
Communication with your crew members is not only necessary for making sure you plan your order carefully. It’s also a crucial component to making sure things are received safely and secured properly.
When valuable goods are being delivered to your site, there should always be authorized personnel there to
- Receive, check and record the delivery
- Monitor unloading
- Secure on-site inventory
- Unlock/Lock access points
Prevent Opportunity for Employee Theft
But, did you know? up to 85% of construction site theft occurs thanks to employees and subcontractors. It’s unfortunate, but you can’t always trust your own team. Unsecured deliveries make it easy for subcontractors or employees to steal and make some fast side cash.
It’s the general contractor’s responsibility to make sure that whoever is responsible for accepting deliveries is someone you can really trust. Prevent employee theft by vetting your subcontractors and crew members carefully, and don’t be shy if you have any suspicions.
Background checks should be mandatory. Creating and enforcing standard procedures and security routines can help establish a sense of order and watchfulness on site to deter any shady goings-on by your subcontractors or crew.
Develop a Construction Site Security Plan for Secure Deliveries
The construction industry is an easy target for theft, whether from the inside or outside. You need a site security plan to protect your equipment and materials. And when you’re developing that plan, don’t forget to include delivery planning.
Construction site security requires many moving parts to work together with alertness, consideration, and carefulness. By implementing a strong construction site security plan, you can not only prevent theft related to poor delivery planning but also:
- stay safe on the job
- deter every type of theft
- protect against vandalism
- Prevent loss and delay
- and keep your job site secure and pleasant for your crew
Considerations for your site security plan should include establishing a secure perimeter with clearly designated active-hours and after-hours access points for construction personnel, other site personnel, and delivery and removal of materials.
Keeping your access points monitored and maintaining an accurate delivery log will go a long way in protecting your site.
Need Help? Call the theft prevention professionals at Mobile Video Guard.
If you need help with construction site delivery planning, contact the professionals at Mobile Video Guard. Serving Maryland, D.C., and Virginia with exceptional mobile security solutions, our high-tech surveillance options make securing your site simple and affordable.
We specialize in construction site security, and our unique approach combines modern video surveillance technology with the strength of law enforcement experienced surveillance agents to deliver advanced security at a fraction of traditional guard costs.
You can call us today at 844-732-3582 to schedule a free site design. Or just call to learn about how we’re securing even the toughest job sites with proven, proactive crime-deterrent technology.
Don’t wait until it’s too late – worksite theft is time theft, and nobody has time for that!
