AUTO LOCKSMITHS
Working from home by Vic Southern
“ Working from home ”, buzz-phrase in these Covid days for a phenomenon that is millennia old . There have always been home workers and not just at housekeeping . Many industries such as hatmaking in Luton or Bethnal Green or lace-making in Nottingham were cottage industries . Even shoemaking , spinning and weaving happened there before the Industrial Revolution and a great many locksmiths these days also work from home ; that is without formal business premises . YOUR “ SHOP ” IS YOUR VAN . A word on that – let your customers see a clean , well-organised van .
» BUT , BACK TO BUSINESS , more and more people will be working from home , some full-time employees , some paid by hours worked , then there ’ s you working all hours to get paid . There is another whole class of home-workers , your spouses , partners , sisters , some partially disabled or with only a few idle hours but all plenty smart and capable of all sorts of profitable activities . From cup-cake making to chutneys and sauces , and fashion ; we read of amazing successes by young people who started off in their kitchen or garage . I think
‘ you should be looking out for all of those avenues where you can increase your income with small investment ’
Jeff Bezos of Amazon started in his garage and he is said to be the world ’ s richest person .
Ours is a family business so we can emphasise with all those aspiring moguls and we have seen lots of evidence of the trend since our sales of Magic engraving machines have taken off like a rocket with all manner of people making jewellery and other sorts of keepsakes working from home – a couple of spectacular successes there . This caused us to take a serious look at 3D printing and its thousands of uses so we have entered that market as well .
Locksmiths are usually pretty handy folks with all sorts of machinery and tools so you should be looking out for all of those avenues where you can increase your income with small investment and still – Working from Home .
LOGISTICS UK LAUNCHES REPORT INTO VAN CRIME
» MORE THAN ONE THIRD of businesses have had a van stolen in the last 12 months , according to Logistics UK ’ s Van Security Report , launched this week . To understand the nature and scale of van crime , the business group collated data from police forces across the UK and sought real-life examples and insights from van users through a Van Security Survey .
Denise Beedell , Policy Manager for Vans and Urban at Logistics UK , comments : “ Van content theft has , on average , cost businesses £ 4,250 in the last 12 months . In addition to initial cost implications , logistics businesses also face increased operational costs and potential staff and customer retention difficulties as a result of these thefts . Currently , it is up to individual police forces to decide how to record commercial van crime , resulting in an incomplete picture of the extent of this type of crime . To better highlight the impact of these crimes on van operating businesses , to policy makers at all level of Government , Logistics UK is calling for a UK-wide standard reporting mechanism among all police force areas .”
Ms Beedell continues : “ Logistics UK is also calling for the Home Office to allocate a national crime reporting code to allow better understanding of the scale and reach of this crime and to support better allocation of police resources . It must be recognised that this type of crime is not victimless and its impacts are felt keenly by operators and their employees . We will also be looking to work with manufacturers of vehicle and security equipment to explore what features can be developed for commercial vans to minimise van related crimes .”
For more information , and to view the full report , please visit logistics . org . uk / campaigns / forms / van-security-reportdownload-form . Logistics UK ( formerly FTA ) supports , shapes and stands up for safe and efficient logistics , and is the only business group which represents the whole industry , with members from the road , rail , sea and air industries , as well as the buyers of freight services such as retailers and manufacturers whose businesses depend on the efficient movement of goods . For more information about the organisation and its work , including its ground-breaking research into the impacts of COVID-19 on the whole supply chain , please visit logistics . org . uk
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NOV / DEC 2020
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