The threat to a dealership splits into a few clear targets. Bollards form part of the answer to each one.
Most dealerships have at least two of these exposures. Many have all five.
Three site features carry most of the risk on a typical Melbourne dealership: the showroom front, the corner entry, and the service-side perimeter.
A bollard line across the showroom front is the primary defence against ram-raid vehicle entry through glass. This is the single most important install on most sites.
Corner entries are the usual failure point. They give an attacking vehicle a clean approach angle, and the sight line to the interior stock is at its longest. A run of bollards across the open corner removes both advantages. On sites where the showroom wraps around a street corner, two bollard runs at 90 degrees often work better than a single straight line.
The service-side perimeter matters less for showroom theft and more for opportunistic stock and tool theft after hours. Bollards across roller doors, gas storage areas, and trade-vehicle parking close off the common back-of-house access routes.
A walk-through with a manufacturer-installer is the fastest way to identify a site’s specific failure points. Building age, street geometry, and lot layout all change the answer.
Three diameter classes cover most commercial bollard work at a dealership.
| Diameter | Typical application at a dealership | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 90mm | Internal lot management, decorative perimeter, pedestrian protection | Below the threshold for reliable ram-raid resistance against passenger vehicles |
| 114mm | Forecourt protection, light vehicle separation, secondary perimeter | Useful for low-speed impacts and internal site management |
| 140mm+ | Showroom front, primary perimeter, ram-raid defence | The standard specification for vehicle-borne attack resistance at a dealership |
Beyond diameter, four other specifications shape how a bollard performs at a dealership.
Concrete fill inside the steel pipe lifts energy absorption further. On a primary perimeter line, the standard install is concrete-filled in-ground at 140mm or larger.
Vehicle theft in Victoria is at its highest level in more than two decades. The Crime Statistics Agency recorded 32,013 motor vehicle theft offences in the year ending December 2025, up 10.7% on 2024. The 2024 figure was itself a 41% jump on 2023. Theft from motor vehicles, including key theft from aggravated burglaries, ran to 82,947 offences across the same period. These figures cover the whole state and all categories, not dealership ram raids specifically. They establish the trend.
The threat to a dealership is not uniform. Some sites see repeated key-theft attempts via aggravated burglary of staff homes. Others lose high-resale models from the front row at night through vehicle-borne theft. Others again see opportunistic smash-and-grab incidents where a vehicle is used to break the front. The mix depends on site location, stock profile, and after-hours staffing arrangements.
A bollard line addresses vehicle-borne attack on the dealership itself. Keyless theft from the home and OBD-port cloning of a key sit outside its scope. That distinction matters when scoping a security upgrade. The bollard spend goes where a vehicle can be driven at the building or into the lot.
Installing security bollards at a working dealership carries one constraint that residential and warehouse installs do not. The showroom has to keep operating. Customers, trade-ins, and deliveries do not stop for the install.
First Choice handles commercial bollard installation in one of two patterns. The first is an out-of-hours run, with core drilling and concrete pours scheduled after close and finished before the next opening. The second is a staged install, where sections of the bollard line are completed in sequence while the rest of the forecourt stays operational.
Site assessment starts the process. A manufacturer-installer walks the site, identifies the perimeter runs that carry the highest risk, and produces a specification that matches the threat to the budget. The installation itself uses core drilling for in-ground posts, with reinstatement of the surrounding surface (asphalt, concrete, paver, or decorative finish) included in the scope. Powder coating in the dealership’s brand colour or a neutral commercial finish is included on the same install.
Lead time from quote to install on a standard commercial run is typically two to four weeks, depending on bollard quantity, finish, and access constraints. Sunshine North and North Geelong both run as installation hubs, so sites across Melbourne and Geelong sit inside normal service coverage.
A bollard line is a physical deterrent against vehicle-borne attack. It does not replace the rest of the security picture.
Bollards do one thing well. They stop a vehicle. The rest of the dealership security stack still needs to do its own work.
Specifying the right perimeter line for a dealership is a site-specific exercise. The showroom front, the corner entries, the service-side perimeter, and the display yard each carry their own risk. Diameter, spacing, footing depth, and surface reinstatement all sit on the same drawing.
First Choice Bollards manufactures the commercial range in Melbourne from Australian steel and installs across Melbourne and Geelong from the Sunshine North and North Geelong sites. The next step on a dealership project is a site walk, where the perimeter runs, corner exposures, and any internal lot lines can be set down on a single specification. Contact First Choice through the website to book one.
