Guard Service Stuttgart: Industrial Sites Secured on Numbers

Plant managers in the greater Stuttgart area decide in 2026 under three constraints: collective-bargaining wages, staff shortage and audit obligation. This text delivers the numbers, the legal frame and a rollout plan that lets a site in Feuerbach, Zuffenhausen or Untertürkheim be patrolled without gaps.

Guard service Stuttgart: site reality for industrial premises

Industrial sites in the greater Stuttgart area typically measure 80,000 to 250,000 square metres. Between 22:00 and 05:00 they are mostly unstaffed, the gatehouse is at minimum crew, the halls are locked. Most loss events occur in exactly this window.

The BDSW documents a nationwide shortage of around 14,000 security staff for 2024 (BDSW structural data 2024). Baden-Württemberg carries about 18 percent of that gap. The structural data of the security industry show that the gap cannot be closed by recruitment alone.

The collective wage for guard and security services in Baden-Württemberg stands at 20.50 euros gross per hour from 2025 (collective agreement BW 2025), plus night, Sunday and holiday premiums. A 24/7 post with three shifts therefore costs 15,000 to 25,000 euros per month. Backup for sickness, holiday coverage and escalation reserve are not included.

Automotive suppliers and machinery builders around Stuttgart fall under TISAX and ISO 27001. Both standards require gapless evidence of perimeter monitoring. A handwritten patrol sheet will not pass an audit in 2026.

For the cost side see guard service cost in detail.

Threat picture on Stuttgart industrial sites

Metal theft remains the most frequent offence. The LKA annual report 2024 for Baden-Württemberg records an increase of 11 percent year on year (LKA BW annual report 2024). Copper and aluminium from storage areas, cable drums from construction phases, swarf from open containers.

Drone overflights of industrial sites were registered in 27 documented cases around Stuttgart in 2024 (LKA BW drone situation report 2024). The dark figure is higher because only a portion of operators have detection installed.

Sabotage risk at medium-voltage feed-in points has been named explicitly as KRITIS-relevant in the BSI situation report since Q4 2023. The BBK and BSI situation report no longer classifies these risks as hypothetical.

Social-engineering attempts at plant entrances typically occur between 22:00 and 04:00. Alleged hauliers, alleged technicians, alleged emergencies. The reduced night gatehouse is the primary attack vector.

Insurers now require gapless patrol evidence with timestamp and geocoordinate for loss events above 500,000 euros. Failure to deliver this risks reduction or denial of the claim.

What autonomous guard service delivers on an industrial site

The QR-2 patrols 24/7 outdoors, in a temperature range from minus 20 to plus 50 degrees. Thermal person detection identifies persons up to 80 metres distance, also in darkness and fog. Platform details: QR-2 for 24/7 outdoor patrol.

The QR-3 adds LiDAR and drone detection. It is deployed when the site exceeds 100,000 square metres or carries a KRITIS classification. Specification: QR-3 with LiDAR and drone detection.

Incident documentation is automatic. Every trigger generates a GPS stamp and a video sequence of 30 seconds before and after the event. Escalation to the control room runs automatically within 8 seconds. This is the audit trail TISAX and insurers require.

Connection to existing access-control systems (Interflex, Dormakaba, Bosch) runs via OPC UA and REST. A change of the access-control infrastructure is not required.

Patrol routes are randomised daily. Pattern recognition by perpetrators (the classic observation of round times over several nights) is rendered useless.

More on the concept: perimeter security for industrial sites.

Cost comparison: post versus robot

The numbers can be checked without rhetoric.

Classic 24/7 post Stuttgart, median: 18,500 euros per month. This figure includes collective wage, night premiums, Sunday premiums, holiday share, sickness buffer, dispatching. It does not include training costs beyond the legal minimum.

QR-2 under the RaaS model: 3,500 euros per month. Included are hardware, maintenance, software updates, insurance and control-room connection. CapEx, depreciation schedule and spare-parts stock fall away for the operator. The Robotics-as-a-Service model shifts the failure risk fully to the provider.

Hybrid model, two posts plus two QR-2: around 44,000 euros per month. Comparison: four posts alone cost around 74,000 euros per month. Delta: 30,000 euros per month, 360,000 euros per year, at equal or better coverage.

Under the RaaS model the classic amortisation calculation does not apply. There is no investment amount that needs to amortise. Monthly OpEx, minimum term 24 months, then terminable quarterly.

Insurer data from 2023 and 2024 indicate: incident costs (theft, vandalism, production loss) drop by 60 to 80 percent under documented autonomous patrol. [insert source or remove claim] The premium negotiation with the property insurer therefore becomes the second lever of the business case.

A worked example for a comparable site: hybrid TCO in an industrial park.

Legal frame for guard service in Stuttgart

§34a Gewerbeordnung applies to human security personnel. The Sachkundeprüfung remains mandatory for gatehouse staff and accompanying patrols. Robots themselves are not subject to §34a, because they exercise no sovereign powers.

EU Machinery Regulation 2023/1230 governs the placing on the market of autonomous systems. From January 2027 it applies bindingly to all patrol robots placed on the EU market (EU 2023/1230, Art. 52 para. 2). Full text: Regulation (EU) 2023/1230.

EN ISO 13482 defines safety requirements for personal-care robots. It is applied by analogy to mobile patrol robots because a dedicated patrol norm does not yet exist. Reference: ISO 13482.

GDPR Article 6 paragraph 1 lit. f justifies video recording on industrial premises where domiciliary right exists and signage meets the requirements. A data-protection impact assessment is to be conducted for systematic monitoring.

The works council must be consulted under BetrVG §87 para. 1 no. 6 before deployment of technical monitoring systems. This submission belongs in week 2 of the rollout, not in week 4. A co-determination procedure refused after the fact can throw the rollout back.

Rollout plan for a Stuttgart industrial site

The plan is set for 4 weeks, with full operation from week 5.

Week 1: on-site perimeter survey. Radio audit for LTE and 5G (Telefónica, Vodafone), because sites in Feuerbach and Untertürkheim show radio shadows between halls and warehouses. Identification of dead zones and definition of redundant connectivity.

Week 2: works-council submission, data-protection impact assessment, signage per GDPR. These tasks run in parallel to hardware configuration and cannot be shortened.

Week 3: hardware delivery within 48 hours of release. Commissioning by Quarero technicians on site, route training, connection to the control room, test of the escalation chain.

Week 4: pilot operation with human accompanying patrol. Route optimisation based on real incident data from the first nights. Escalation test with the control room, including simulated detection.

From week 5: full 24/7 operation. Monthly incident report to security management, quarterly review with plant management and insurer.

Selection criteria: separating serious providers from marketing facades

Five criteria separate serious providers from marketing facades.

First: evidence of outdoor deployment over at least 12 months on comparable sites in DACH. Indoor pilot videos are no reference for an industrial site with snow, rain and heat.

Second: on-site service level. Response time below 4 hours in the greater Stuttgart area must be contractually guaranteed, not described as best-effort.

Third: data residency exclusively in German or Swiss data centres. No US-cloud transfer, because that draws objections in the TISAX audit along the automotive chain.

Fourth: insurance cover of the provider. At least 10 million euros operating liability including cyber. Anyone with less cannot settle a claim.

Fifth: references from automotive, machinery or logistics with demonstrable incident reduction. Concrete numbers, not logos on a website.

From baseline to decision paper

Five steps lead from the status quo to a decision paper.

First: request a perimeter audit. Free on-site survey by a Quarero technician within 10 working days, including radio and sightline analysis.

Second: build the business case on current guard service cost and documented incident history of the last 24 months. Without these two datasets no TCO comparison holds.

Third: pilot agreement over 90 days with defined KPIs. Patrol coverage in percent, detection rate, incident count versus prior period.

Fourth: alignment with the property insurer on premium reduction under documented autonomous patrol. This negotiation belongs before the board paper, not after.

Fifth: board paper with TCO comparison over 24 months and risk matrix per ISO 31000. Both are quantifiable and relieve the security lead in front of management.

Anyone wanting to schedule a walkthrough in Feuerbach, Zuffenhausen or Untertürkheim can directly submit a pilot enquiry for industrial sites Stuttgart. Response within one working day, appointment within ten.