When one of my colleagues spoke recently to the proprietor of a motor dealership - who also happens to have a key role in the Retail Motor Industry Federation - the message that came across loud and clear was the need for dealerships to take an active role in controlling risk, especially given the number of high value vehicles and parts on site.
The good news in all of this, from a CCTV perspective, is how the latest event-driven solutions are proving invaluable in the drive to keep insurers happy and premiums at a manageable level.
The owner cited two examples of incidents which had occurred when the only infrastructure was conventional continuously recorded CCTV; the first where a customer had been locked in by mistake and scaled a perimeter fence breaking a leg, leading to costly litigation, and the second involving a gang of criminals on-site overnight for four hours, making off with a substantial haul of car wheels and radios. With both events, as images could only be reviewed later, there was no opportunity for intervention, as a result the owner moved quickly to address this gap in his security provision by adopting remotely monitored CCTV.
Happily when there was a repeat of the first incident, detectors were activated and the control centre was able to inform a keyholder who released the two individuals in a matter of minutes, before things got out of control.
The proprietor is now confident with event-driven CCTV that there is no way that any gang could have the run of the dealership for four hours without action being taken. This ability to learn from adverse experiences and work with insurers has meant the dealership's premiums have only risen by 10 per cent in the past decade - I wonder how many other businesses could claim that in the tougher insurance environment!
