A storage unit gives your tools a proper home for the night, and that’s exactly what police crime prevention advice asks for: the National Business Crime Centre’s tool theft guidance says not to store tools in your vehicle overnight. With a unit, the van goes home empty and your kit sits in its own alarmed unit, ready from 6am.
What protects your tools with us
Every unit has its own alarm, which sets and unsets as you lock and unlock with smart entry (or with your PIN at Chipping Norton). If it goes off while you’re not there, our security team investigates. Our sites have a secure perimeter and access control on the outside doors, and they’re watched by CCTV, monitored around the clock by a professional monitoring company. Only you, and the people you choose to give access to, can get into your unit.
Fitting it around your working day
Access is normally 6am to 10pm, seven days a week, so you can drop the kit off after the last job and collect it before an early start. Keep tomorrow’s tools near the door and the rest on freestanding shelving behind them. At Chipping Norton, Shipston-on-Stour and Warminster, drive-up units and containers let you load straight from the van. Our business storage page explains how units work for trade kit.
If a colleague or apprentice collects kit for you, you can share access with them through smart entry, for a set period or with no end date.
A few things to leave out
To keep everyone’s belongings safe from fire, fuel cans, gas bottles and aerosols can’t be stored. Petrol tools are welcome once they’ve been run completely dry. Removable lithium-ion batteries are fine up to 160Wh, but power banks stay at home, and as our units have no power sockets, charging happens at home too. Our list of items we can’t store has the rest.
Getting your cover right
Everything you store needs cover, through our contents protection or your own policy. Our contents protection includes theft involving forcible entry, and you declare what it would cost to replace your tools as new. If you’d rather use your own tools policy, check that it covers kit kept in a storage unit, and it’s worth reading what it says about tools left in a van overnight while you’re there.
Two more good habits
The same police guidance suggests marking your tools with a property marking kit and registering them on a property database, which helps the police return anything that’s recovered. It’s quick to do while you’re setting up your shelves.
To find the right size for your kit, get a price online, or call us on 0800 2545585.
Related questions
- Does every Wigwam unit have its own alarm?
- Do I need insurance for my unit?
- Can I share access to my storage unit with a family member or colleague?
- How should I store tools in a storage unit?
- What does self storage insurance cover?
Further reading
- National Business Crime Centre: Tool theft crime prevention