The Rental Guard Database and Notification Module allows anyone to report stolen equipment and receive notifications of recent thefts at no charge. Companies or individuals buying, selling or servicing equipment can quickly check serial numbers to determine if equipment has been reported missing or stolen.
New customer Inquiries allow PLASA members to solicit information about potential customers from PLASA's international membership to help determine credit worthiness or legitimacy. The Questionable Customer Alert notifies recipients when a PLASA member suspects that a potential customer may not be a legitimate renter. Use of the New Customer Inquiry and the Questionable Customer Alert has already prevented hundreds of thousands of dollars of fraud. Visit www.missingequipment.org to learn more.
Rental Guard represents a major update to exiting tools that have already proven effective in preventing theft and locating stolen equipment. The system enables an international network of professional rental companies, service centres, equipment brokers, law enforcement and other interested parties to share critical information about thefts, obtain references about potential new customers, and report and receive information to prevent fraud (theft by rental). Rental Guard generates immediate alerts of missing/stolen equipment, proven the single best strategy for recovering gear. In addition, Rental Guard generates valuable data about the evolving strategies taken by thieves.
The Rental Guard network reaches all major production cities by virtue of PLASA's member companies. To broaden this network, PLASA encourages rental companies and service centres to join PLASA, use Rental Guard and be part of this industry-wide effort to curb equipment theft.
The system was developed as a joint effort of PLASA's Production Equipment Rental Group (PERG) in North America and the Association of Studio and Production Equipment Companies (ASPEC) in the UK. Both groups are made up of the premier rental companies serving the motion picture, television and commercial production markets. Rental Guard is sponsored by a cooperative effort of major insurance carriers: Chubb Custom Market, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, Hiscox, OneBeacon Entertainment, and ProSight Specialty Insurance.
(Jim Evans)
