If you own a car rental or automotive dealership, are you doing enough to ensure that your business (and its assets) are properly secured from crimes such as theft and vandalism? 

• Rosetown, Saskatchewan – 6 New Vehicles Stolen From Dealership. 
• Langley, BC - Auto Dealer Suffers ‘Gut-Wrenching’ Theft Of Cars. 
• Edmonton, Alberta - Vehicle Thefts On The Rise. 
• Calgary, Alberta - Stolen Vehicles Seized By Alberta RCMP.

These are just some of the many car theft headlines hitting the internet this year in Western Canada. 

Why securing car keys is critical

In the vast majority of cases, vehicle thefts from dealerships and rental car companies occur when criminals break-in and steal key fobs. They then find a fob that matches their target cars and take off, oftentimes with the extra key fobs.

Businesses don’t only have to file claims for the stolen cars, but they also must purchase and reprogram fobs for cars that are simply missing keys. All this costs the dealership/car rental company greatly. Not only financially, but also in lost opportunities as they aren’t able to sell/rent cars while they wait to get the vehicles replaced and fobs reprogrammed.

If you do a quick Google search, most of the advice will tell you to lock the keys in metal cabinets. This is meant to keep the keys safe and interrupts the radio signal to prevent bounce and rolls - which is when criminals use technology to intercept the key fob’s signal and unlock the car without the fob.

The problem is these metal cabinets are not always difficult to get into. 

Why your business needs a combination of managed access control and verified security

Instead, your business should be using a combination of both managed access control and a verified security solution to prevent the theft of car keys.

Managed access control is a type of keyless entry that uses badges, key cards, fobs or other technology to secure your valuable assets. While many companies are familiar with using managed access control to keep people from getting into their main building, not everyone knows it can also be used to protect specific areas of your business, such as storerooms with valuable inventory, key storage rooms, and server rooms.

To prevent car key theft, you can use managed access control to secure the door leading to the room where keys are stored. During the workday, you can leave this room unlocked for staff or keep it locked all the time and provide access to those who are allowed to grab keys.

If there’s an issue and a key fob goes missing, you can easily see who has recently accessed the key storage. If an access card goes missing or an employee leaves the company without returning theirs, you can quickly remove access and/or give your employee a new card.

More importantly, with Sonitrol, if a thief breaks into the room after hours, an alert will be sent to a central monitoring station. Security professionals will then dispatch the authorities. All without alerting the criminal.

When managed access is combined with verified surveillance, security professionals will be able to provide real-time information about the theft. This not only increases response times but also increases the rate of apprehension and minimizes losses and damage. Verified security is the perfect way to stop criminals before they can make it off of your premises with your valuable assets.

For more information on how you can protect car keys from theft at your dealership or car rental company, contact us today for a free security audit.