AMI Group Introduces Drone Technology to Help Make Plant Theft Recoveries Safer and More Efficient

Plant tracking specialist AMI Group has introduced innovative drone technology to help enhance the company’s recovery efforts even further to locate stolen plant machinery. It is believed that AMI Group is one of the first tracking companies in the UK to introduce the concept of drone technology to help aid the safe recovery of stolen assets.

Peter Stockton, Operations Director of AMI Group said: “There has been a spate of thefts recently where our tracking devices have pinpointed stolen plant machinery on dangerous sites. These can potentially be volatile situations and the Police often need additional verification or evidence before they can enter a site to recover the equipment, so the use of drones allows us to take footage of stolen construction equipment hidden in obscure locations and also to survey the surrounding area.

“There are several instances where drones can assist the efforts of the Police or the AMI finder network to not only help identify the location of stolen equipment, but ensure it is safe to enter sites. For instance, drones can be used to carry out long-range reconnaissance or risk assessments before recoveries and they are particularly useful on the periphery of properties or large sites where it is difficult to visibly see the location of equipment that has been hidden,” he continued.

AMI Group has a national network of on-the-ground location finders who have received practical drone flight training and drones are now taken on recoveries in the event that they are required. AMI Group is leading the construction industry against plant theft and innovating the smallest, most covert devices which can be concealed almost anywhere on any piece of plant machinery without being detected by thieves.

The company offers a range of tracking devices which utilise advanced GPS (Global Positioning System), GSM (Global System for Mobile Frequency) and RF (Radio Frequency) technology and the company’s Nexis real-time web-based platform allows customers complete control and visibility of their plant fleets.

AMI tracking devices are allowing plant hire and construction companies UK-wide to protect their plant fleets against theft and saving them tens of thousands of pounds in the process. Industry-wide, just 10% of stolen plant is successfully recovered, but a remarkable 100% of stolen equipment protected with a covertly installed AMI tracking device has been successfully recovered. AMI Group was recently crowned ‘Best Asset Tracking and Fleet Management Solutions Provider – UK’ at the 2017 Technology Innovator Awards held in conjunction with CV magazine.