Long weekend? Run this 10-minute checklist before you knock off.

Long weekends are the highest-risk window of the year. Sites sit empty. Trailers sit on kerbs. Toolboxes sit on driveways. Ten minutes of effort on the Friday saves a five-figure replacement bill on the Tuesday.

Print this. Stick it on the office wall or the back of the site shed door. Tick it off as you go.

The ten-minute close-down list

• Photograph every high-value asset before lockdown. Serial numbers visible. Time-stamped. Keep them in a dated folder.
• Move the trailer off the kerb or driveway. Park it up against a building or behind a fence wherever possible.
• Hitch lock and wheel clamp on every trailer that has to stay out. Two locks, two layers.
• Lift any high-value toolbox or kit case into a locked vehicle or building. Empty trays look less interesting.
• Check the sensor lights. Replace the dead ones. A working light is more useful than a fake CCTV sticker.
• Confirm GPS trackers are reporting. Open the dashboard, see every asset on the map, fix anything in low-battery state.
• Geofence the home address, the depot and the active sites. Set after-hours alerts for the long weekend window.
• Set the alarm app to the right person. The owner, not the subbie who knocked off on Thursday.
• Lock the gates. Yes — physically check the padlock.
• Get the crew on the same page. One message in the group chat: "Sites are shut. Nothing is moving. If you see movement, ring me, not the cops first."

On the Tuesday

• Open the dashboard before you leave home. Eyeball the asset map.
• Walk every site before the crew turns up. Eyes-on confirmation of every shed and every locked container.
• Reconcile any tamper alerts that fired over the weekend with what you find on site.
• If anything is gone — ring 000 if you have a live track or 131 444 for non-urgent reports. Get the event number in writing.