An uncertain economy leaves many dealers trying to avoid unexpected expenses and protect margins. But a line item that too often falls down the list of priorities is physical security, especially when economic pressures force dealers to rethink budgets. The problem is: delaying a security decision isn’t a neutral act. The lack of a decision is a decision in itself, creating exposure at the exact moment when inventory, repair, financing, and replacement costs are hard to absorb.
Recent events have driven up gas prices, and the ongoing conflict in Iran choked one of the world’s crucial shipping lanes. As a result, nearly a fifth of the world’s oil was no longer exiting the Strait of Hormuz, causing a rapid uptick in fuel prices and snarling supply chains. And the lack of clarity around resolution only adds to the uncertainty and volatility. But the economic shock hasn’t stopped there. Prices of metals key to vehicles have risen, such as aluminum, meaning that the inventory sitting unprotected on many dealer lots has gained value…and renewed thieves’ interest.
Choosing to put off a security upgrade or failing to adopt a security strategy in the first place, sets dealers up for a much costlier form of risk.
But the mistake here is treating a delay to act as discipline. When it comes to your dealership’s security, a delay to act is choosing risk.
Putting Off a Security Decision Feels Rational, It’s Not
The global economy is a web of interconnected links that depend on one another. If the pandemic taught us anything, it was just how fast the dominoes fall in crisis.
Now, with a major geopolitical conflict, we’re watching the same pattern affect international prices. All eyes are on gas. Meanwhile, the price of used cars has spiked back to levels not seen since the summer of 2023, with inventory also dropping. At the same time, the average price of new vehicles reached $49,275, up 3.5% since last year.
With the prices of key metals also rising, the pressure is coming from every direction.
These factors feed a state of uncertainty and add to the concern that theft could be around the corner. In moments like this, dealerships can feel especially vulnerable with valuable inventory exposed to the public…and to criminals who would seek to steal vehicles themselves, if not their parts.
In this environment, waiting to see what happens before making a proactive decision is choosing to expose yourself to risk.
The Silent Costs of Theft and Loss
Theft hardly ever ends with the stolen vehicle or part. Dealers have to consider the processes that experience speedbumps as a result.
Staff time may be redirected, cut, added to, etc., as the dealership is forced to figure out what happened and reallocate human resources around solving the issue.
Suddenly, everyday dealership operations are sidelined to handle the loss. Then there’s the time put into dealing with insurance and, at worst, keeping customers waiting while managing an unforeseen headache.
The Proactive Security Imperative
Reacting from behind or delaying a decision until it becomes necessary just adds stress. Especially when it comes to the physical security of your dealership. A proactive and deterrence-focused security strategy is necessary to protect your valuable inventory—which has grown higher in value over the last few months. Not to mention harder to replace.
So, what does proactive security look like for a dealership?
Barriers and perimeter fencing often come to mind when talking about physical security. But for many dealerships, that kind of fencing doesn’t always make sense, as the purpose of dealership lots is to invite customers to come and browse.
So where does proactive security go from there? As always, it’s important to fold strategies into one another: light and sound alarms, camera visibility, and some kind of monitoring.
Now, in today’s digital world, all of these can be aided by the powers of automation and AI. When paired with a remote video monitoring (RVM) system as opposed to simple record-and-store cameras, automation and AI can become crucial time-saves in escalating potential threats to trigger the necessary deterrent (flashing lights, an alarm, a recorded warning).
With RVM, dealers can trust their business’s physical security will be watched by human monitors who verify escalated incidents flagged by AI. In the event it’s necessary, those remote monitors will dispatch the authorities to a dealership.
Still, it’s the combination of these strategies that makes a security system truly proactive.
Proactive Security is a Proactive Decision
If a deferred decision has a cost, then proactive ones have a benefit. And proactive security has the benefit of keeping eyes on your most valuable asset: your inventory. In this volatile moment where a conflict overseas has driven up prices at home, the time to take action is now, not after an incident forces you to.
So be intentional. A security strategy decision is a deeply embedded business decision for your dealership. It’s important to treat it like one.
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