No single measure stops theft on a construction site — an escalation chain does: deter, detect automatically, react immediately. A fence and a lock alone do not stop offenders.
It's usually a Monday discovery: the diesel tank drained, the copper coils gone, the compact excavator on a trailer somewhere across the border. Swiss sites lose millions every year — and the loss is never just the equipment. It's the standing crew, the blown schedule, the insurance excess and the weekend calls.
Why fences and signs don't work
Professional site thieves aren't deterred by a padlock and a warning sign; they're deterred by time pressure and identification risk. A fence adds thirty seconds. What changes their calculation is knowing that someone is watching right now, that their face and plate are already recorded, and that a response is on its way.
The escalation chain that works
Minute zero: detection
AI motion detection with infrared night vision separates a fox from a person from a vehicle — and only escalates what matters. Thermal stations detect intruders in total darkness, and spot smouldering fires as a bonus.
Minute one: the announcement
A live loudspeaker announcement is the single most effective deterrent we've deployed: "You are on camera. Police have been alerted." Spoken by a human, from a phone, from anywhere. Nine out of ten intrusions end within a minute of the announcement.
Minute two: professional response
Alarms route to Certas, a Swiss 24/7 alarm centre (Switzerland only; elsewhere to your own security provider) — verified by an operator, escalated to patrol or police when real. No 02:00 calls to your foreman; the event report and video evidence are waiting in the archive the next morning.
The gate is half the battle
Most machine theft leaves through the front gate on a trailer. ANPR access control logs every plate in and out — whitelisted suppliers pass, unknown vehicles raise a flag, and after any incident you have a complete vehicle audit trail for police and insurers.
What it means for your premiums
Documented 24/7 monitoring with professional alarm response changes your risk profile. Several insurers recognise monitored sites in their terms — ask yours; the camera often partially pays for itself before it prevents a single theft.
About the figures: they are experience values and estimates from Arclap projects, not an official statistic.
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