Survey: Concerns Over Cargo Theft Continue to Escalate

Nearly 80% of leaders in the organized retail crime prevention sector say that they are more concerned cargo theft than they've ever been.

According to a SmartSense survey of 150 U.S. loss prevention professionals, 63% of respondents said that cargo theft incidents have increased compared to last year, while 81% said that they believe cargo thefts have become more organized and sophisticated.

“Cargo thieves have continued to escalate their tactics and expand their use of technology,” said SmartSense president Guy Yehiav, with 78% of respondents flagging fraudulent pickups and carrier impersonation as their top concerns. Another 71% cited GPS jamming and spoofing, 66% pointed to trailer theft, and 64% identifying double brokering as their biggest risk.

Yehiav went on to note that cargo theft has also increasingly become a cybersecurity issue as much as a physical security problem, with thieves now able to gain access to digital systems to identify what's being shipped, where the cargo is going, and when it will arrive. To fight back against this trend, 48% of businesses that have reported seeing fewer thefts have turned to GPS tracking, geofencing or cargo-level sensors, 45% have prioritized better real-time shipment visibility, are 38% are using faster alert systems.

Cargo theft has proven to be a costly problem too, with 40% of respondents reporting annual losses of at least $1 million from stolen cargo, while 28% are losing $2 million or more each year. Around 80% attribute those losses directly to lost sales, followed by customer churn and delayed deliveries at 73%, lost employee productivity at 68%, damaged brand reputation at 67%, and operational disruption at 66%.

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