Car dealer safety without barriers

Car dealerships in Germany often display their vehicles in open, outdoor areas and this makes security challenging. By performing necessary research, Securitas defined dealership security needs and developed a flexible security program that saves time and money.

The car sales industry demands security solutions that are designed to protect vehicles, but at the same time allows potential buyers full access. “Fences and other protective barriers are not an option for our business. We want our customers to see and freely interact with all the cars on our lot,” explains dealership President, Timm Moll. “Therefore we needed to develop a solution that would secure the vehicles without hindering access for the potential buyer.”

Intruders had been known to trespass the car lots at night and steal a wide variety of equipment including aluminum hub-caps, exterior mirrors, navigation and stereo systems, tail lamps and even airbags. Because of a car dealership’s vast size, complete external video surveillance had proven to be inefficient and made little financial sense.

An industry survey, conducted by Securitas, revealed that the only kind of solution that could be considered was one that would be adapted to the dealership’s sales process and which could be used in a mobile mode, unlimited by location. To be fully secure, a car dealership required coverage of its entire lot, the showroom, the individual cars and all vehicle keys. As a detailed security solution was developed, it became apparent that the needed technology was not yet available on the market. To solve this, Securitas Mobile cooperated with an electronics manufacturer that offered experience and solutions to these needs.

The technological system is based on a vehicle alarm which is mounted on the window aperture of a vehicle, and then activated. Movements within or surrounding the vehicle trigger a pre-programmed acoustic alarm. Every alarm is transmitted to the Securitas central emergency and service center, and a Securitas security officer intervenes in accordance with the established action plan. 

The other major challenge for car dealers was to keep track of the car keys. This need was solved by a “Key Control” safe. Each key is allocated to an electronic inventory in the safe. Each staff member is recorded via an electronic combination lock on the outer door, and the removal of keys is recorded electronically.

“I can now store vehicle keys safely away and I always know which employee has removed a specific key and when they did so. These are two enormous benefits as the changes will save the dealership a great deal of money. Tedious searching for car keys will be a thing of the past and my staff will pay extra attention to keys in their possession. The costs for changing locks because of missing keys fell to zero over the test period,” says dealership President Timm Moll.

  • Print page

  • Email this page

  • Share this page