Every 12 minutes.
It is estimated that tools worth £98 million were stolen from tradespeople in 2023 (Direct Line business insurance analysis). In total, 44,514 incidents of tool theft were reported to UK police forces in 2023, a 5% increase from 2022, which equates to a tool theft being reported every 12 minutes.
Over half of all tool thefts from a vehicle occur at night, with thefts most commonly occurring while the vehicle is parked overnight at the tradesperson’s home or in a car park. But thieves are taking more risks, and day-time break-ins are on the rise.
Tool theft has a massive financial impact on tradespeople:
- The cost of replacing tools
- Lost business
- Stunted business growth
- Mental stresses
For the everyday tradesperson (and commercial vehicles), ASL GRP offer the convenient flexible anti-cut panels. At approximately 1.5kg per m2, the make up of the panels are constructed from a woven ballistic material used in our lower level protective armour products. With our panels installed behind the vehicle skin, any hand-held cutting power blade will snag, rendering the tool useless in cutting further through the protected vehicle/compound skin.This new system significantly increases protection time against theft.
Each flexible panel is manufactured to bespoke sizes – taken from templates of your required vehicle or wall. The panels sits inside the skin of a vehicle wall, and can be hidden behind interior lining.
We are also able to offer panelling with an internal alarm system, which alerts a monitored app, when the flexible panels are attacked.
