20/03/2018

BVRLA and members fight terrorism

The BVRLA and its members are supporting the new national ACT campaign (Action Counters Terrorism), which aims to raise awareness of the different methods of attack planning and encourage the reporting of suspicious behaviour.

Reinforcing the message that 'communities defeat terrorism', the head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing has used the launch of the ACT campaign today to reveal that more than a fifth of reports from the public produce intelligence which is helpful to police.

Last year saw a spate of terrorist attacks where rental vehicles were used as ramming weapons to cause death and destruction in the UK and around the world. Since then, the BVRLA and its members have been working closely and more frequently with law enforcement organisations and government to identify and agree tactics to counter the terrorist risk.

The vehicle rental sector can help to deter terrorists by increasing visibility of, and demonstrating increased collaboration with, counter-terrorism organisations. The BVRLA is encouraging all those operating in the sector to support the ACT campaign to help increase awareness and vigilance amongst employees and customers of the vehicle rental sector.

BVRLA director of member services Nora Leggett said, 'We hope that members will join us in promoting the ACT logo on their websites and displaying the posters in their workplaces as we present a united front in the fight against terrorism. All the campaign materials are available via the BVRLA website.

'Having recently been accredited by the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO), the BVRLA is now delivering 'Project Griffin', specialist counter-terrorism awareness training, free of charge to both members and non-members operating in our sector.

'Designed for businesses, this training has been developed to increase vigilance and provide guidance as to how to better protect their community, customers and staff.

'We delivered the first in a series of planned workshops in Amersham on 15 March and feedback has been very positive. Training workshops will also take place across the regions, including in the North and Scotland.

'Next month, we will be hosting a webinar, tailored specifically for the daily rental and commercial vehicle sectors.

'This all forms part of a wider programme of work that we are undertaking to further mitigate the risk from terrorism and we continue to work with government to see what more we can do together to help protect our sector and our communities.'

The vehicle rental sector has always taken security very seriously and the BVRLA continues to be at the forefront of leadership in this area, having well-established processes in place to share information on the latest security threats and best practice to help protect members' assets.