According to eurotransport.de , Andreas Gießler, a student in the Department of Transportation and Logistics at the University of Bremerhaven, had listened to lectures on risk management in logistics. All the speakers mentioned the big theft problem in the industry. The thieves take a rather rustic approach: grab the cutter knife, slit open the tarpaulin, steal the goods. The driver in the cab sometimes doesn't even notice anything.

Gießler subsequently developed a retrofittable alarm system for truck tarpaulins. In this case, cables or wires are welded on in under 90 minutes, according to Gießler. They are connected to a system that triggers a loud alarm when they are cut. The driver can inform the police from the safety of his cab.

The idea impressed Helvetia Venture Fund. The transport insurer is now investing an undisclosed amount in the startup while touting the invention's "effective and low-priced protection". The money is slated for promoting product's marketing and distribution. Helvetia customers receive a 50% discount if they install the alarm tarpaulin. At the end of July, Gießler announced plans to internationalize the brand and a name change from "Alarmplane" (Alarm Tarpaulin) to " Theftex ".

According to the police , about one in six European truckers has been the victim of an attack in recent years. A survey of 2,000 professional drivers revealed that the truck's cargo was the object of the attack in two thirds of such cases.