Trade association PLASA–and two of its organizations, the Production Equipment Rental Group (PERG) in North America, and the Association of Studio and Production Equipment Companies (ASPEC) in the U.K.–have launched under the RENTAL GUARD banner a website which will serve as a hub to share information about stolen equipment, the intent being to recover that equipment or better yet to help prevent or at least curb such thefts by also providing intelligence about alleged active perpetrators, their fraudulent practices and modus operandi. The RENTAL GUARD site and its web-based tools have been in extensive test mode and this week are now being rolled out wide. The website can be accessed here.
Harry Box, manager of PERG, said that PLASA has maintained a list of missing/stolen equipment for the past decade-plus, but much more was needed to combat what has become a growing industry problem–for equipment rental companies and producers, among others. “We walked around some ideas of what more we could do at NAB in 2014,” recalled Box, who at that time came to the convention armed with results of a survey of PERG members in 2013. Fifty-two companies responded, with 48 percent reporting at least one theft in the last two years. Total losses reported for 2011-’12 amounted to some $3.6 million, according to that survey. Box said that a current insurance industry estimate has annual losses pegged in excess of $4 million. These losses ultimately translate, said Box, into higher insurance rates and in turn increased rental fees, having a negative ripple effect throughout the film, TV and commercialmaking community at large.
Theft occurs primarily on two fronts: Criminals posing as producers–with detailed paperwork and verification of what are in fact bogus projects–who defraud rental houses of valuable hardware; and production trucks carrying rental equipment being stolen and/or hijacked.
The RENTAL GUARD website is designed as a clearinghouse for valuable information relative to equipment theft–ranging from serial numbers of stolen equipment to the stories told by criminals pretending to be producers. Gaining this intelligence about questionable customers can prove invaluable. Sharing info can help to recover stolen equipment or help to prevent loss altogether. On the latter score, Box cited as an example an incident over the last year in which a rental company in Atlanta posted a query if anyone had worked with a particular production company that claimed to be making a documentary about the Holocaust. An equipment rental house in South Africa responded that the same supposed production company came to them and rented assorted equipment for the same project–the rental house never saw the equipment again. So authorities were notified in Atlanta–and they arrested the people when they came to pick up the equipment.
Box said that having a global trade association behind the initiative can prove to be a powerful force in the marketplace. The worldwide network of professional rental companies is not only being brought to bear on the missing/stolen equipment problem but is also reaching out to other sectors to address theft and fraud. The RENTAL GUARD initiative calls for sending out theft alerts to rental companies, equipment service operations and equipment brokers worldwide. “Stolen equipment like camera bodies and lenses always need service,” said Box. “Thus service companies are in a good position to identify stolen goods if we make them aware of equipment thefts, with serial numbers and other information.”
Law enforcement personnel will also be kept in the RENTAL GUARD loop, with PLASA, PERG AND ASPEC members providing police and other authorities with tangible information to act on in order to recover stolen equipment and arrest those responsible.
PLASA provides free access for anyone to report stolen equipment, receive notifications of recent thefts, or to check serial numbers in the RENTAL GUARD database, a valuable service for anyone buying, selling or servicing equipment. PLASA members may initiate new customer inquiries to gain info from other members to use in their credit review process and they may issue or receive “questionable customer alerts” to notify other members when a potential customer has raised red flags. According to PLASA, these tools have already resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraud being prevented.
Financial support for the RENTAL GUARD site and tools has been supplied by insurance company sponsors Chubb, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, Hiscox, OneBeacon Entertainment, and ProSight Specialty Insurance.
