In this day and age, when it comes to protecting valuable products, a lock and chain just doesn’t cut it anymore.  Sometimes an upgrade to a more sophisticated perimeter security system is the only way to ward off thieves and other potential intruders.

With millions of dollars worth of goods sitting in trailers overnight, trucking terminals are prime targets for theft.  As a solution, Southwest Microwave offers the ultimate in perimeter protection -- the INTREPIDTM MicroPointTM Cable Perimeter Fence Detection System.

BREAKING AND ENTERING

Peninsula Truck Lines is a regional, Seattle-based LTL carrier providing delivery service to more than 950 cities and towns throughout the United States including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia, and Canada.  Operating since 1951, Peninsula Truck Lines has built a reputation for consistent overnight A.M. delivery service.

”One time, somebody broke in and stole a tractor and trailer full of truck tires,” says Terry Reid, Portland Terminal Manager.  ”So I contacted a security consultant to come in and evaluate our site.”

John Posey of Corporate Security Services, Inc., a Vancouver, Washington-based security consulting firm that provides services for the protection of corporate assets, evaluated the site’s security problems.  He suggested the company consider installing a perimeter security system.

Posey referred Reid to George Nuttle of Security Professionals, a systems integrator in Vancouver, Washington, specializing in security systems installation, monitoring and service.  ”Having worked with George for 16 years, I was very familiar with his work and confident that he could place the right equipment at Peninsula Truck Lines,” says Posey.

George Nuttle’s assessment of the site suggested that the optimal security solution for Peninsula Truck Lines was a unique fence detection sensor he had recently learned about at a Perimeter Security Solutions seminar that Southwest Microwave presented in Seattle, the U.S.A.  The seminar explained how the INTREPID MicroPoint Cable Perimeter Fence Detection System could pinpoint cut and climb attacks to within 10 feet (3 meters) of the occurrence and ignore harmless disturbances such as wind, rain or vehicle traffic.

Nuttle outlined MicroPoint benefits to Reid and presented a detailed video overview of the system to the corporate team in Seattle to help them better understand how it worked.  Peninsula Truck Lines agreed to go ahead with the installation.

After attending a 3-day factory training course that certified Security Professionals in the MicroPoint Cable system hardware, software and installation procedures, Nuttle and two technicians installed the system along the entire perimeter fence of Peninsula’s Portland site.

”Before MicroPoint Cable, we would arrive in the morning and see a hole in the fence or we’d find missing shipments,” says Reid.  ”We chose MicroPoint because it is very specific; it tells you exactly where the intrusion attempt is, so our response can be very quick.  There are a lot of fence sensors out there, but the MicroPoint Cable had the biggest bang for the buck.”

One of the MicroPoint Cable system’s most unique features is its patented Sensitivity LevelingTM capability.  With Sensitivity Leveling, detection sensitivity is calibrated via system software to account for variations in fence fabric or location-specific challenges -- resulting in uniform detection across the coverage area.

”You can adjust the sensitivity in 10-foot increments, so that it adapts to particular sections of fence,” says Nuttle.  ”We’ve had to do that a few times because of cats climbing the fences.  Now, the sensor picks up the fence attacks, but not the cats.”

”In addition, large trucks are driving up and down all the time, creating vibrations that would have caused nuisance alarms with any other fence sensor.  No other perimeter security system would have worked in such a busy area.”

SOFTWARE-BASED ZONING

Nuttle praises both the capabilities and convenience of the MicroPoint Cable software, which runs off of a Windows-based PC and turns a single computer into a set-up and diagnostic tool, graphic map display and alarm monitoring station.  MicroPoint’s software-based assignment of etection zones allows the end-user to achieve zones as short as 10 feet without the high cost of additional processor hardware that would be required with other fence sensors.

Nuttle and his crew have sectioned Peninsula’s facility into zones, each with an assigned number, so that in the event of an alarm, they are able to respond to a specific area rather than searching several miles of fence.  ”You can see on the graphic display where the actual alarm came from,” says Nuttle. 

In fact, Peninsula has been so impressed with the system that it plans to have Security Professionals install MicroPoint Cable at the company’s Seattle site.

”They no longer need a full-time guard on-site and they haven’t had any losses since MicroPoint was installed,” says Nuttle.

”When an alarm is triggered and the horns and whistles sound off and responders show up to a specific zone, I think it scares a lot of people away,” says Reid.  ”It’s telling them not to go to Peninsula Truck Lines because their chances of getting caught are higher.”

”Southwest Microwave has been around for a long time, so you know they deliver reliable systems,” says Posey.  ”INTREPID MicroPoint Cable has given Peninsula Truck Lines the perimeter protection they’ve always needed.”