The Official CESAR (Construction Equipment Security and Registration) Scheme has reached a major milestone in its rollout across the construction plant and agricultural machinery industry. In November this year, the 500,000th machine fitted with the security marking system rolled off the production line.
CESAR scheme, powered by Datatag and owned by the CEA (Construction Equipment Association) and the AEA (Agricultural Engineers Association), was launched in 2007 to combat machinery theft across the industry.
Today over 85% of new construction and agricultural machinery in the UK is now fitted with the system as standard. The scheme has gone from strength to strength thanks to the introduction of the new Emissions Compliance Verification (ECV) product. The scheme can now be used for security and emissions identification and also asset management. It’s this evolution of the original scheme that has enabled CESAR to reach this half-million milestone.
Team members from the CEA, AEA, and Datatag met at one of the Midlands CESAR dealers, Sharmans Of Stamford, to celebrate the achievement. Stephen Howarth, AEA’s agricultural economist, attended the event and commented, “It’s great to reach such a great milestone for the Scheme and to celebrate it with a successful agricultural dealer.”
Dave Luscombe, CEA’s head of special projects, was also delighted to be able to celebrate this landmark achievement, “The idea that we would one day achieve half a million pieces of construction plant and agricultural machinery, that would be protected with CESAR, when the Scheme was launched back in 2007, was just a dream for everyone involved. Today we can all celebrate that dream becoming a reality and I would like to thank every one of our manufacturer members for the support that they have shown for CESAR over the years. Today we celebrate what has been achieved and look forward to achieving further success in the future with both CESAR and the ECV (Emissions Compliance Verification) Scheme.”
Managing director of Datatag, Kevin Howells added “Our technology has been supporting the Scheme for nearly 15 years and has helped to create a proven deterrent for theft of construction and agricultural machinery. This milestone is an outstanding achievement and we look forward to celebrating the 1,000,000th machine in the not too distant future!”
The official CESAR scheme’s success in deterring theft comes from the multi-layered technologies supplied by security specialists Datatag. These include the now-iconic and uniquely numbered tamper-evident triangular ID plates, hidden RFID transponders, microscopic Datadots, and a unique forensic DNA solution. Once fitted these technologies are almost impossible to remove successfully and when recorded on Datatag’s secure database, are accessible to the police 24/7enabling them to identify any machine at the roadside night or day.
A further benefit to customers of brands fitting CESAR to their machines is that many leading insurers provide insurance premium discounts of up to 20% off for all protected and registered equipment.
