Many construction companies and private contracts report annual statistics of theft taking place at construction sites, where valuable equipment and assets were stolen and never tracked or found. Investigations into many cases has revealed that construction equipment—being much sought-after valuables in the illegal market—has opened a whole network of illegal trade.

On the other hand, some employees, workers and laborers also steal valuable equipment to engage in moonlighting activities. Ask any construction company about it and they would not stop narrating desperately dark tales of theft activity. The apparent reason is that these workers cannot afford high end, imported and costly equipment on their own, which is why conducting theft activities strategically works for them.

Construction companies have joined hands to introduce different methods of safekeeping their equipment and track its usage per worker in different ways. However, their efforts have been to no avail since theft continues and has become a dire problem. Equipment theft can plummet profit margins, since replacing stolen equipment is a painful cost for the employer. These kind of unfortunate and mischievous activities are rampant on commercial and residential project sites. Items including wood, metal jacks, cranes, fork lifters and chainsaws can become easy targets for thieves and detrimental to a construction company.

It is important for any construction company to employ accountable measures to control theft. Failure to do so would only erupt as a continuous problem and an ultimate service failure. The procedures in tracking stolen items and tracking down culprits can be time-consuming, extremely exhausting and deviate focus from actual work to a complete nuisance. Insurance claims of metal equipment are also declining and it means that whatever a company has to do, it has to do on its own. It’s a lose-lose situation.

So, what can contractors do? The most resourceful and proven solution tends to be installing GPS technology to protect and prevent theft of construction equipment. It's important to integrate technologically advanced, easy-to-install and affordable equipment with minimal adjustments and updates.

Generally, GPS tracking devices are known to establish a virtual perimeter in their surroundings and instantly start buzzing, notifying or reporting every time this boundary is breached. This way they prove to be useful for storage and construction sites.

For tech geeks, geo-fencing is another good way of doing so. What this does is create an electronic fence around a particular area and every time equipment is moved out of this area, the owner gets notified instantly. On the other hand, if a company carries out further investigation in who could possibly be responsible for the stolen equipment, then it can install time tracking software with GPS technology that can record and allow the company to know exactly which employee was on site at a particular time—making identifying internal theft easy.

Construction companies should bid farewell to conventional ways of operating their businesses. Most companies are too cautious about additional costs piling up as overheads and are not able to justify it. However, they take massive risks of keeping their security at lose and a complete invitation for thieves to carry out their activity.

Technology may seem like a foreign language to construction companies, but they may not realize the convenience it can create. Integrating advanced technology needs justification or a proven track record.

Many employers still need to develop a hard grasp of this idea, but in this booming culture of high end, digitally advanced technology, many companies are taking the leap of action in doing what they should have done ages ago.