The National Equipment Register (NER) has formed an alliance with CNA insurance companies to help their clients combat equipment theft.

CNA says it will waive up to USD10,000 of excess if a piece of construction equipment registered with NER is stolen. CNA policy holders will receive a 20% discount on NER's theft prevention and equipment recovery services.

NER provides a national 24-hour hotline to assist law enforcement officers identify construction equipment ownership.

By registering a piece of equipment on NER's database, an equipment owner can ensure a police officer can identify the equipment owner, even if the theft was not reported.

Machines registered with NER have warning decals on them to caution thieves that their chances of being detected while moving, storing or selling stolen equipment are greatly increased.

NER president David Shillingford says the company's services have been adopted by insurers, equipment owners and law enforcement.

"NER is already making life riskier for equipment thieves. This alliance will serve to further shift the advantage away from criminals as more CNA clients join the program."

CNA is the US's seventh-largest commercial insurance writer. Its products include standard commercial lines, specialty lines, surety, marine, and other property and casualty coverage.

NER publishes a monthly newsletter containing a "hot list" of stolen equipment reported to the company. In its September newsletter, a Terex TX 5519 telehandler with PIN TX551911789 was reported stolen in Texas while a Toyota 7 FGU15 warehouse forklift with PIN 62504 was stolen in Florida.