GPS has done a lot for us. It’s made figuring out how to get from point A to point B a good deal easier than gazing blankly at a map or trying to take in the fast-talking directions of a gas-station attendant. And now, it’s even being used to keep tabs on our beer.
Surprisingly, it’s not the beer itself people are interested in protecting. While the foamy barley-and-hops medleys would seem to be the big draw, the stainless steel kegs that house them are actually the real asset to the criminal element. Like copper pipes, beer kegs are becoming more and more commonly nabbed as the material keeps increasing in value. With prices nearly doubling in just the last five years, an 18-pound keg is now worth anywhere from $35 to $40. Not a bad haul for thieves, who can easily find kegs for the taking at college parties, backyard barbecues or even directly from beer distributors. But with keg thefts skyrocketing, beer vendors are starting to fight back. With each keg costing around $175 to make, beverage providers are doing all they can to secure their stock – including using GPS tracking technology.
Recently, liquor stores in Cincinnati, Ohio, began tagging beer kegs with small blue GPS devices. While the mere presence of the devices on kegs (with their visible placement and standout blue coloration) should deter criminals, the GPS, of course, also can be used to track missing kegs. No word yet on who tracks down lost kegs (police? liquor enforcement? beer bounty hunters?), but the GPS trackers can pinpoint near exact locations. It’s an interesting use for what may be one of the most diverse technologies ever developed. And it’s not the only way keg peddlers are working to thwart thefts. One of the more old-fashioned ways distributors are preventing kegs from being stolen is by raising deposit prices. While keg deposits used to be around $10 almost universally, many distributors have upped that amount to $20 or $30 – exponentially increasing the chances a keg will be returned. The new deposit costs roughly equal the profit for selling the steel, causing many would-be thieves to rethink illegal scrapping. Another simple and practical deterrent is to label kegs with a brand or distributor name. Though it may not always be followed by some of the shadier salvagers, scrap yards are not supposed to take branded kegs without sales receipts.
Already, with GPS now fighting on the seller side, the theft of kegs seems to have taken a downturn. Looking back in fifty years, the commercialization of GPS navigation and tracking technology will undoubtedly be seen as one of the most important technological advancements of this decade. In just a short period of time, the technology has made its way into our cars, our cell phones and a thousand other devices - and now it’s even helping to protect our kegs. For that, Professor Bradford Parkinson (the co-inventor of GPS along with the late Ian Getting) certainly deserves a cold one.
