NER's warning decal.

Equipment rental company Sunbelt Rentals has registered its entire equipment fleet with the National Equipment Register (NER) to help its branches and customers deter equipment theft.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of Ashstead Group plc, which rents forklifts and other equipment, has also placed warning decals on its mobile equipment.

NER operations manager Glen Sider told Forkliftaction.com News it was hard to know the number of forklift companies that had registered their fleets with NER.

"Many of our clients are rental companies and I am sure some of them have a significant forklift inventory and some don't," he said.

According to NER, complete, accurate national statistics for equipment theft do not exist but existing figures show a huge problem that is worsening.

Reports to Insurance Services Office Inc (ISO) show the value of equipment theft has increased 20 per cent annually since 1996 and theft is the cause of more than 50 per cent of losses for heavy equipment.

Some national surveys suggest the total figure could be as much as USD1 billion each year in losses and indirect costs like rentals, downtime, wasted management time and project overrun penalties.

Companies that register with NER have their details listed in a database searchable 24/7 by police officers. NER also deters theft by providing warning decals to mark equipment.