On New Year’s Day, 2025, a terrorist drove a rented pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street, New Orleans, killing several people and injuring dozens. Multiple similar attacks have taken place worldwide in recent years, often involving perpetrators sympathetic to extremist groups and seeking to cause as much damage as possible. As more of these atrocities grab headlines, rental companies and those reliant on trucks for distribution are increasingly on guard against vehicle theft.
The best strategy is to stay several steps ahead of would-be thieves, regardless of their intentions for your vehicles. In this guide, you’ll learn 12 security tips to protect your trucks in the yard and on the road.
Understanding the Threat
An average of around one million vehicle thefts occurs in the United States annually. Over 12% of these incidents are truck thefts. While most vehicle thefts are not linked to terrorism, half of vehicular terrorist attacks in Western countries involve stolen or rented vehicles, and the attacks with the most fatalities involve trucks.
These statistics show us that truck thefts for terror attacks are rare. Still, they also warn us that many thousands of truck thefts occur annually in the U.S., and the potential costs of one of your trucks being stolen go far beyond financial loss. With this danger in mind, it’s worth investing in a comprehensive security strategy to protect your trucks.
Anti-terrorism security measures are important for commercial and government facilities alike. However, terrorists aiming to attack sites of symbolic value may target government facilities with particular aggression. Threats include weaponizing trucks to assault government property or personnel, stealing government vehicles, or targeting government trucks with explosives. A combination of vigilance and physical barriers is crucial to mitigating these risks.
12 Tips for Protecting Your Trucks from Thieves and Terrorists
A truck security strategy must include precautions against theft while on the lot, as well as measures to protect your vehicles and drivers from carjacking on the road. Implement these 12 truck theft prevention measures to maximize your security.
1. Electric Fences
Nothing protects like an electric fence. If your business drives, rents, or sells trucks, an electric fence is the most effective perimeter security solution to deter and prevent theft while your vehicles are on the lot. A reliable electric fence that delivers a safe but memorable pulsed shock upon contact can prevent 99% of external theft.
2. Video Surveillance
Video surveillance enables remote monitoring of your lot and provides evidence to support an investigation should someone attempt to breach your perimeter. Cameras alone won’t stop determined intruders, but they’re an excellent complement to stronger measures like electric fencing.
3. Access Control
Access control measures shape your lot’s environment to deter, delay, or prevent unauthorized entry. These measures include:
- Door locks requiring PIN codes
- Credential verification using key fobs, QR codes, or badges
- Intercoms and video cameras to control gate access
Consider conducting a threat assessment with an experienced security partner to design the right access control system for your lot.
4. Lighting
Pair ultrabright LED bulbs with automatic sensors for energy-efficient lighting that triggers the moment an attempted breach is detected. Bright lights, especially when combined with an alarm, increase visibility and incentivize any would-be intruders to flee.
5. Employee Background Checks
To reduce the risk of internal theft or staff misappropriating your vehicles, conduct thorough employee background checks. Consider consulting a lawyer to avoid employment discrimination while being alert to dangerous individuals.
6. Employee Vigilance
Train employees on your lot to look out for and report unusual behavior, such as:
- People asking employees questions about security, staffing, and hours.
- Visitors’ cars parked in or near your lot for long periods with someone inside.
- Vehicles circling the property without parking.
- People leaning against, looking inside, or checking the handles of your vehicles.
- After-hours loitering.
7. Driver Awareness Training
With a robust lot security system in place, you still need to protect your trucks while they’re on the road, and driver awareness is the first line of defense. Anti-theft driver awareness training involves teaching drivers to:
- Be alert while leaving and arriving, as most cases of theft in transit occur close to the departure point or destination.
- Monitor vehicles they suspect are tailing them.
- Keep doors locked and windows rolled up when slowing or stopping the truck.
- Identify scams, like faked accidents or other drivers pointing to the truck to encourage pulling over.
- Turn off the engine before exiting the truck.
8. Removing Keys
A truck is highly vulnerable to theft if it has a key in the ignition or elsewhere in the vehicle when the thief enters. Train your drivers to remove the key any time they exit the vehicle, and do not keep spare keys inside your trucks, as seasoned criminals will know where to look.
9. Anti-Theft GPS Tracking
Install anti-theft GPS tracking units in your trucks that alert you when a vehicle departs from its route. Tracking units can deter theft and help police recover stolen rigs.
10. Ignition Cut-Offs
Ignition cut-offs, also called kill switches, are switches that interrupt the power supply from the battery to the ignition. You can install these under a truck’s dashboard, in the glove compartment, or in the key fob.
11. Fuel Cut-Offs
Fuel cut-offs also prevent theft by stopping trucks from operating, but they do so by interrupting the flow of fuel to the engine. Installing a fuel cut-off provides an additional layer of security that can stop a truck theft even if the thief knows how to bypass an ignition cut-off.
12. Customer Screening
If your business rents or sells trucks, or uses trucks to deliver goods directly to buyers, screen your customers for signs of bad intentions. These include unusual payment methods, evasive answers, and suspicious documentation.
Protect Your Trucks from Theft With AMAROK
If your business drives, sells, or rents trucks, protecting them from theft is crucial to your bottom line — and to public safety. While your trucks are on the lot, the best way to stop theft before it happens is to guard them with AMAROK.
The Electric Guard Dog™ Fence by AMAROK delivers a safe but memorable pulsed electric shock every 1.3 seconds and has a proven track record of preventing 99% of external theft after installation. AMAROK customers installing The Electric Guard Dog Fence see a 5x ROI through savings from theft prevention and eliminating the need for on-site security guards. You can also implement a comprehensive security solution to protect your trucks from theft by combining The Electric Guard Dog Fence with AMAROK’s other security technologies, including:
- FORTIFEYE™ integrated video surveillance
- Gate Access Control for your lot entrances and exits
- Alarm-based ultra-bright security lights
Contact us online or call us at (800) 432-6391 to schedule a threat assessment and find the ideal solution to protect your trucks.
