Bakers Basco has rolled out new technology to help prevent the theft and misuse of bread baskets and dollies.

The business, which was set up by five plant bakeries in 2006 to buy and manage the use of bread baskets, said it was increasing the number of GPS tracking devices across its bakery equipment pool by 300%.

Introduced in 2015, GPS technology has been used to track equipment and has gone through a number of upgrades and enhancements that have reduced losses and improved recovery levels, according to Bakers Basco.

New features have been added to the custom branded trackers, including improved battery life and Bluetooth search technology to further improve location accuracy.

Evidence gathered through the use of GPS-equipped products has already helped the business in court cases, and the company is set to remind past offenders that it is committed to monitoring and tracking potential abuse of baskets and dollies.

“As part of our efforts to reduce potential equipment abuse, we will shortly be contacting past offenders individually to remind them of our expectations with regards to Basco equipment,” said Bakers Basco general manager Richard Mew.

“This approach is part of a broader drive on tackling offenders and we hope it will act as a gentle reminder that we will always follow-up on any reports of misuse or abuse. With the added benefit of GPS tracking as part of our ever-growing technical capabilities, we expect to be more successful with the monitoring of offenders than ever before.”

Bakers Basco currently manages a pool of around four million baskets and dollies used by bakers, including Allied Bakeries, Fine Lady Bakeries, Roberts, Hovis and Warburtons, to deliver bread to their customers.