Inbound Logistics | January 2022

ow’s this for scary? In the second quarter of 2021, cargo theft experienced a 253% increase by value, according to Sensitech’s quarterly Cargo Theft Intelligence Report. The average

at BlueGrace Logistics. “Shippers can see where a product is in transit, whether it’s on the right track, and whether it’s being moved properly.” SLOWDOWNS MAKE FREIGHT A TARGET Ongoing bottlenecks have made freight more vulnerable to attacks in transit. But numerous stops have always been an inevitable part of surface transportation, whether that’s a driver stopping to take a shower or containers waiting at an intermodal yard. Unfortunately, that can make freight a prime target for thieves. The problem worsened in 2020. In its annual Supply Chain Security Risk Report, CargoNet, a freight security consultancy in Jersey City, New Jersey, reported the rst increase in cargo theft in years. Thanks to a combination of increased consumer demand and pandemic protocols, break-ins spiked from 1,104 instances in 2019 to 1,427 in 2020. “Cargo thieves have never had a more favorable environment,” the report notes. “What jammed up the supply chain was the unprecedented pull of goods to the end user,” says Keith Lewis, vice president of operations at CargoNet, a Verisk business. “We ended up with a shortage of truck drivers, a shortage

loss per incident was $365,459.

Full truckload theft accounted for more than half of freight-related crime, in spite of its decrease from the rst quarter of 2021, Sensitech’s report nds. Pilfering—the practice of stealing select items out of a trailer—accounted for 44% of thefts and rose 10% during that period. Electronics were the item du jour for thieves. Theft of computers, televisions, gaming consoles, and similar items rose 60% from the rst quarter of 2021, and a distressing 92% since the second quarter of 2020. One incident alone involved an electronics load valued at $1.2 million. RISKY BUSINESS Moving freight in 2022 can be a tricky business. Not only are ongoing supply chain slowdowns generating opportunities for cargo thieves, but today’s increased reliance on technology brings a whole new set of vulnerabilities with it.

It isn’t just cargo theft that can keep U.S.-based shippers up at night, either. Instead, companies have to account for data breaches and malware. “If your supply chain is reliant on technology, your data has to be that much more protected,” explains Azad Ratzki, chief technology ofcer at BlueGrace Logistics, a third-party logistics provider in Riverview, Florida. “You get the benets of efciency, but if it goes down because of ransomware, what was once a purely physical process is now both physical and virtual.” The good news is that shippers can deploy strategies and technologies to ward off crime. “With the enhancements that have been developed, such as geofencing, RFID, or electronic logging devices monitoring truck routes, there’s better visibility than there ever has been before,” says Eddie Leshin, senior advisor

Top 5, Q3 2021

Cargo Only

Trailer

Trailer/Cargo Tractor/Trailer/Cargo

Tractor

34.34%

31.92%

29.93%

16.21% 17.01%

19.23%

15.77%

14.01%

12.36% 12.59%

12.24%

10.54%

9.34%

8.85%

8.08%

2019 2020 2021

Source: Cargo Theft Trends Review, CargoNet, a Verisk business

200 Inbound Logistics • January 2022