FLEET managers should be increasingly concerned about the individual security features fitted as standard on company cars, according to Mike Wear, chairman of the Vehicle Crime Reduction Action Team and Ford's fleet operations director. He has called on fleet managers to continue the fight to combat car crime by ensuring company car drivers take adequate security measures when parking vehicles.

While manufacturers can continue to improve security features on vehicles, they will only be effective if they are correctly used by drivers, he said. That means company car drivers ensuring valuables are not visible to opportunist thieves and radio panels are removed from vehicles. Wear added: 'Fleet managers should be concerned about looking at the individual cars on sale to assess whether they have adequate levels of security.

'They should also ensure that opportunist thieves are not tempted to steal from vehicles by continuing to distribute advice to company car drivers about hiding valuables and parking in security and well-lit places. A stolen car is 200 times more likely to be involved in an accident, so there is a social and environmental cost to car crime as well as a financial cost.'