Facts About Armored Trucks

1- Armored truck officers have the second-highest death rate in security

The first thing you didn't know about armored trucks is that serving as an officer on one of them -- whether behind the wheel or in the back as the hopper -- is not the most dangerous job you can find in the field of security.

According to PrivateOfficer.com, armored truck officers have the second-highest death rate in the field -- a distant second, in fact, to the position of nightclub security guard.

2- Armored trucks can function on deflated tires

Armored trucks, like armored vehicles, aren't designed to go on the offensive, at least not if they don't have to. While it's rumored that President Barrack Obama's Cadillac One has offensive measures built-in, this is only speculation and the same has been said about Air Force One.

Most armored trucks and similar vehicles aren't equipped to fight back, they're equipped to flee the scene, and in a hurry. Much of their exterior, plated deep in steel, is also highly angulated to deflect high-powered rifle bullets (windshields are often tilted at a 45 degree angle for this same reason), and a few tire blowouts can't slow down a good armored truck since plastic liners hug the inside of the tire and provide stability for several miles, until the truck can reach a safe location.

3- When full, some armored trucks weigh over 55,000 pounds

Another thing you didn't know about armored trucks is just how much some of them can weigh when filled with the right kind of money: coins. In some cases, the gross vehicle weight of an armored truck tops an astonishing 55,000 pounds, over 27 tons, about the same weight as a full-grown-if-slightly-smaller-than-average humpback whale or the U.S. military's massive CH-47D Chinook cargo helicopter.

4 -The first armored trucks were converted school buses

Brinks is most closely associated with armored, cash-in-transit vehicles, so it's not surprising to learn that they were first to develop and launch armored trucks, doing so in the early 1920s when they were a Chicago delivery company.

As the city's mobsters began armor-plating their own cars against both one another and the police, Brinks bought a set of retired school buses and began to convert them into armored trucks by applying steel plates to the vehicle's lower panels and putting bars over the windows. To further enhance security measures, Brinks would put a tail on the truck in the form of a Ford Model T armed to the teeth with machine-gun wielding guards.

5- 9/11 influenced armored truck design

The horrific terrorist attacks of 9/11impacted the entire nation, and the armored truck industry was no different. In fact, the attacks inspired a number of new additions to the armored truck because those events convinced many in the field that their armored trucks now faced a comparable catastrophe in terms of bombs and fuel tanks. Thus, a pair of features being added to many armored trucks include bomb detectors and the ability to kill the fuel tank remotely.