British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVLA), has this week announced that they will be backing the ACT campaign (Action Counters Terrorism). In a mission to fight the threat of terrorism, the BVLA are going to great lengths to spread awareness, working in coalition with a range of law enforcement organisations and government officials. The aim here is for the car rental industry to work in a preventative fashion rather than a reactive one.
This comes following a collection of terrorist attacks that were executed through the use rental vehicles. By hiring rental cars and vans, terrorists are able to mask their identity, sourcing the vehicles they need to cause terror. By gaining the support of the BVLA, the ACT campaign gains further credibility, seeing the BVLA urge all of its members to be more stringent with regards to due diligence; raising further awareness consequently.
One of the other major focuses for the campaign is to get people to report suspicious behaviour, involving both the public and the rental sector.
BVRLA’s Director of Member Services, Nora Leggett, says:
“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.”
“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.
Free training
As part of their involvement, the organisation will now offer counter terrorism training to the vehicle rental businesses signed up to them. Offering these free of charge, this move signals the association’s passion to address this national agenda topic.
“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 March 15 and feedback has been very positive” Leggett continues.
Let us know your thoughts on this campaign by leaving your comments below.
