By following all the industry guidelines, nationwide survey company Survey Solutions is sending out a strong message to equipment thieves: ‘If you steal from us, we will pursue every angle to reclaim that instrument.’ The result is a Trimble S5 Total Station tracked and recovered from Poland.
Whilst survey equipment theft remains rife as recently reported by The Survey Association in one of its regular updates, on a more encouraging front, an instrument stolen from Survey Solutions has been reclaimed from Warsaw in Poland.
For Survey Solutions’ Survey Manager, Reece Maycey, the tracking and recovery of this instrument has proved to be a satisfying experience and one that throws some light on what happens when a piece of equipment is stolen:
“Our company has experienced instrument theft in the past and we have several cases currently under investigation. However, this time, our efforts have led to a successful outcome and the experience of dealing with the relevant parties in the recovery of the instrument have been extremely positive starting with a receptive response from the local police through to the help we’ve received from TSA, DeterTech and the UK Police Task Force that deals with construction and agricultural equipment theft.”
Whilst Survey Solutions protects its equipment in a number of ways (including the use of Trimble’s Sentinel real-time device tracking solution and padlocks and cables) and ensures that all its surveyors are aware that remaining safe during a theft is the number one priority, inevitably incidents still occur. In this case, the KOREC supplied Trimble S5 Total Station was stolen from the roadside in a quiet dead-end street in East London whilst the surveyors were 50-60m away.
The local police were immediately alerted and at the same time, Reece used the Trimble Sentinel app to track the instrument’s movement in real-time. The tracking positions led to a nearby block of flats and although the police were on the scene promptly, it was impossible to pinpoint which flat the instrument was stored in.
Significant progress
However, three weeks later, the signal became active again allowing Reece to track its movement around the Warsaw area and at this stage significant progress was made. Through TSA, Survey Solutions were put in touch with the intelligence-led security solutions company DeterTech (formerly SmartWater), who work in alliance with TSA to coordinate a response to thieves who persistently target surveyors.
Reece was able to provide DeterTech with full details on the instrument, its serial number, type etc to identify it along with real-time positions in Warsaw where its frequent movement indicated it was being used on regular surveys in the area. DeterTech worked in conjunction with a police officer on the UK task force specialising in organised crime of the theft of construction and agricultural equipment who liaised with police in Poland.
The instrument was recovered by Polish police and is now in the possession of Survey Solutions’ insurance company.
For Reece Maycey, the success of this recovery underlines how important it is to collaborate with industry partners to provide the information that enables not just the recovery of instruments but the avoidance of theft in the first place. This can be assisted through the sharing of information and vigilant business practices that include being alert to unusual vehicle behaviour around a site and being prepared to bring in security in ‘hot spot’ theft areas that can be identified with TSA information.
TSA advice on keeping your equipment safe
About Sentinel: Protect your Trimble Total Stations in the field:
- Trimble Sentinel is app based. If your instrument is stolen, it can be tracked immediately from the field.
- Trimble Sentinel uses the 4G network and locations can be pinged via any available mobile network
- Trimble Sentinel is retro fitted inside the Trimble Total Station and cannot ‘just be taken off’. It also has its own internal battery – charged during general instrument use, it will continue to ping signals for a period of time. In the event of a theft, call KOREC and we will talk you through best practice to ensure you can track this signal for as long as possible.
Sentinel is available as an after-market add-on for Trimble S Series and C5 instruments. Its usefulness goes far beyond retrieving missing instruments. It can help you find teams in the field at any given time. It also contains a G-force sensor that sends alerts to users to check instruments for calibration errors or damage when they’ve been dropped or have endured a rough ride…And remember, the Sentinel tracking module is installed inside the total station by KOREC, an authorised Trimble Service Provider.
Download the Sentinel PDF here
For more information on Sentinel, please call your regional KOREC consultant or contact us here.
There are seven days in a week, seven colours of the rainbow, seven seas, seven continents and now Survey Solutions has seven Trimble X7’s!
Following Survey Solutions’ recent acquisition of three further survey companies, Survey Systems, Locate Surveys and Kempston Surveys, it is now the UK’s largest engineering survey company and one that prides itself on offering ‘more than a survey’. Survey Solutions sees investment in the latest technology as an integral part of that process and has an extensive survey fleet that reflects this forward thinking approach. Most recently this has included expanding and updating its range of 3D Laser Scanners.
With nine offices – from Scotland to Somerset – company CEO James Cooper was particularly keen to ensure that his regional teams had access to a 3D Laser Scanner that would meet their demands for high quality data, ease of use and excellent productivity in the field. In upgrading the fleet’s older laser scanners, he was also keen to replace them with an instrument that all the surveyors and engineers would engage with. Their choice was the Trimble X7.
Seven scanners later, we caught up with Survey Solutions South East Director, Dave Bredin, who kindly shared his views on why the X7 has been such a popular addition to their survey fleet.
Top of Dave’s list was onsite registration. With seven X7’s in constant use, the increased efficiency on site and time saved in the office is considerable and a vital part in helping their clients meet important project deadlines. Dave estimates that on every job, office time is reduced by at least one third with the registered point cloud going straight in to drawing up.
The onsite registration also ensures that the Survey Solutions surveyors have total confidence in the data they have captured with the ability to check there and then that there are no gaps or missed areas. This reduces rework as well as time spent travelling back to a site if additional information is required. Tellingly, Dave says that it would be counter-productive to highlight a specific example of this function earning its keep because ‘… it’s every time on every job’!
Second on the list as a requirement for any laser scanner to be used nationwide was ease of use. With a large number of surveyors having access to the instruments it was vital that they could pick up the workflow quickly, with minimal training and have total confidence in their ability to collect high quality data from the off.
Dave reports that aside from the sensible pricing of the X7, there are many features that make it a perfect fit for the Survey Solutions’ fleet. These include it being easily carried in a backpack (many jobs in his SE area are undertaken in central London), the auto-calibration and self-levelling functions that ensure greater productivity on site and the Trimble RealWorks processing and analysis software that handles and combines data from different sensors. However, the real proof of an instrument’s contribution to a fleet is how it’s perceived by those who use it every day. Dave concludes, “The mark of a good piece of kit is the feedback from the surveyors who actually use it and every one of our surveyors loves it! Clearly the advancements in the Trimble X7 represent the next step in laser scanning technology and the X7’s easy to use and productive workflow is highly beneficial to both ourselves and our clients. It certainly ticks all the boxes for Survey Solutions.”
