FROM
CUBA
Cuban government trucking concern takes
measures to prevent theft
HAVANA, January 5 (www.cubanet.org) -
The government trucking company in the central
Cuban province of Villa Clara has been training
its drivers to spot attempts at pilferage
and other illegal diversions of their loads.
The measures implemented by the company
go so far as to require documentation of
routes, itineraries, average speeds of travel
and fuel consumption in the log books.
Drivers have also been asked to identify
areas where holdups are more likely to occur,
and details on the assailants methods.
"What has been happening is really
unheard of and alarming. The company decided
that we would only drive at night when the
trips were extremely urgent, in order to
avoid holdups, and whenever possible other
drivers ride shotgun on the load,"
said a driver who asked that his identity
be withheld.
Back in November, a number of the company's
managers and workers discussed the likelihood
that some of the crimes were inside jobs.
At the same meeting, the information came
out that there had been five armed robberies
during the year of trucks underway, most
in the National Highway. The Ministry of
the Interior has offered protection in some
stretches of the road considered most at
risk, but it's been hard to tell.
Lately, a new type of assailant has surfaced:
the "ninjas," so called for their
similarity to the Japanese ninjas in the
movies. These reportedly ride up to the
moving trucks in motorcycles, jump onto
the trucks and unload merchandise from the
trucks, sometimes even managing to avoid
attracting the driver's notice.
Versión
original en español
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