One million auto thefts is hardly a milestone to celebrate, but the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council is looking on the bright side as it marks 10 years of operation.

The council, a joint initiative of the insurance industry and the federal and state governments, says the figure would have been much closer to 1.5 million if the upward trend of the late 1990s had continued.

Council Executive Director Ray Carroll says thefts per year have dropped 56% from their peak of 140,000 in 2000/01 to 62,000 in the last financial year. The figures include passenger cars, light commercials, motorcycles and heavy vehicles.

He says 500,000 vehicle thefts translates to $2-3 billion of extra cost to the Australian community in the form of insurance claims, out-of-pocket costs for uninsured motorists, other property loss, damage and personal injury.

But he concedes that the drop in short-term theft contrasts with a jump in the proportion of profit-motivated offences during the period. In 1999/2000 the rate of unrecovered stolen vehicles was 1 in 7, compared 1 in 3.5 in 2007/08.

Mr Carroll says a dramatic improvement of this statistic will be the next milestone.

“We will be getting a much better understanding of the stolen parts industry – where disassembled stolen cars are going,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “Included in that will be improvements in the management of written-off vehicles.”

He says this will be achieved through an expert group made up of representatives from transport agencies, police, the insurance industry, auction houses and the motor trades.