Mitigating Danger within the Rising Battle In opposition to Cargo Theft

This put up is a part of a sequence sponsored by IAT Insurance coverage Group.

Cargo theft stays a distinguished risk to the transportation trade. In a single high-profile case in 2022, three Florida males stole roughly $9 million value of beef and pork from refrigerated vans that had left meatpacking crops within the Midwest and Nice Plains over the course of a yr.

Within the second half of 2022, stories of cargo theft and fraud rose 27% year-over-year.[1] Parking tons and truck stops are the commonest location for cargo theft incidents however secured yards should not immune from cargo theft.¹ Though family items and meals merchandise stay frequent targets, higher-value items, equivalent to automobiles, electronics and prescription drugs are also ceaselessly focused.[2]

The 4 commonest cargo theft eventualities embrace:

• Purple zones: Areas with ports and main interstate junctions proceed to be hotspots for criminals, together with California, Texas, Georgia, Florida and Illinois.¹
• Hijacking: Criminals are getting bolder, taking alternatives to steal cargo and even hijacking tools at truck stops, relaxation areas and gas islands when drivers are refueling, utilizing the amenities and whereas taking an hours of service (HOS) break.
• Inside jobs: An worker with detailed data of the cargo together with the origin and vacation spot factors is aware of when and the place a high-value cargo could also be weak and have tipped off an outsider on these particulars as a way to facilitate a theft.
• Organized crime: Organized teams of criminals have subtle methods in place to perform cargo heists, as demonstrated within the beef and pork heists talked about above.

7 greatest practices to guard your hundreds

As cargo theft continues to develop and evolve, corporations can implement defensive measures to mitigate losses, together with the next:

1. Use GPS monitoring for energy items and trailers. Moveable monitoring gadgets may also help find a stolen automobile or lacking trailer. Nevertheless, this isn’t an all-encompassing resolution, as they are often disabled in varied methods or the sign could be blocked
2. Implement cargo monitoring. Devoted cargo trackers could be included with load contents, providing an opportunity to trace stolen merchandise wherever they go. Shipments of high-value attire or pharmaceutical objects, for instance, might use these, that are extra dependable than their GPS cousins as a result of they use cellular phone know-how. They’re additionally extra pricey. Prices could be minimized by including trackers to a choose variety of merchandise (not all of them), as criminals sometimes steal in batches. Use sufficient trackers in merchandise that no less than one tracker will probably be taken in a batch of stolen product.
3. Put skilled drivers in your higher-value hundreds. Use trusted drivers, those that have hauled quite a lot of hundreds together with excessive worth hundreds, and people who perceive the procedures taken to maintain their cargo, tools and most significantly, themselves away from hurt. Work as a group with the driving force previous to loading, reminding them of the additional procedures that needs to be taken on a majority of these hundreds.
4. Plan your routes. Remind drivers to keep away from purple zones and excessive crime-rate areas, notably when stopping or parking. Drivers ought to have a minimal of 200 miles value of gas and sufficient hours of service to journey that distance earlier than selecting up a load. This may also help to scale back stops and thieves might turn out to be disenchanted with the cargo because it will get previous their goal zone.
5. Practice your drivers. Guarantee drivers know that vans and trailers needs to be locked and sealed, and that they need to establish protected, well-lit parking areas earlier than leaving the automobile. Extra measures embrace positioning the trailer to a construction to stop the doorways from being opened. Look ahead to automobiles following the truck and don’t focus on the cargo with others both — on the telephone or over the CB radio.
6. Make use of good hiring practices and leverage background checks. Good hiring practices ought to prolong to dispatchers, hundreds planners, warehouse and dock employees, not simply drivers. Notice that warehouse employees don’t must know the routes drivers take to achieve their vacation spot, which may additional defend a load from potential theft.
7. Buy sufficient cargo protection. Firms ought to decide if they’ve the correct quantity of cargo insurance coverage, particularly as the price of items rise. Work along with your insurance coverage agent to treatment gaps, and think about using a cargo rider for particular, high-value hundreds. Modify your protection as enterprise scales up or winds down, or your product combine adjustments.

Solely a small proportion of cargo thieves are caught and prosecuted. And solely a small proportion of stolen cargo is ever recovered. Many regulation enforcement groups wouldn’t have the manpower to commit to a majority of these circumstances over higher-profile crimes. Taking steps to make hundreds much less engaging and tougher to steal, may also help to scale back cargo theft.

For extra info on defending towards the specter of cargo theft, contact IAT.

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[1] Verisk “Winter Holiday Cargo Theft Trends and Security Best Practices 2022,” December 16, 2022.

[2] Enterprise Insurance coverage “Cargo losses escalate as thieves target cars, electronics,” Might 31, 2022.

Subjects
Fraud
Trucking