The Evolving Threat of Cargo Theft: 5 Key Mitigation Strategies

October 23, 2024 8 mins

The Evolving Threat of Cargo Theft: 5 Key Mitigation Strategies

Cargo theft in the transportation industry is escalating, driven by sophisticated criminal tactics that exploit both physical and digital vulnerabilities. Businesses must adopt proactive risk management strategies to counter these evolving threats.

Key Takeaways

Cargo thieves are using advanced strategies like cyber attacks and fraudulent documentation to exploit weaknesses in cargo security.
The rise in cargo theft is driving up insurance premiums, adding pressure to an industry already struggling with thin margins.
Trucking companies should evaluate their risk management strategies through technological solutions and robust vetting.

There’s a rapid increase in cargo crime across multiple regions, and a major driver is the evolving sophistication of cargo theft strategies used by highly organized criminal networks. Strategic methods of fraudulent theft that use social engineering techniques and emerging technologies exploit physical and digital security vulnerabilities, often multiple times before the vulnerability is resolved. This approach can result in manifold losses from a single weakness.

We are seeing a much more sophisticated modus operandi of fraudulent theft.

Tom O'Donnell

Global Practice Leader of Logistics

Cargo theft not only raises insurance premiums for affected trucking companies, but also has broader implications beyond individual claimants. As theft figures continue to rise, so too does the cost of insuring the cargo, as the insurance market manages its exposure to the losses with rate increases and possible sublimits. This chain reaction exacerbates the pressure on an industry already operating on very thin margins that are under threat from other risks.

To counter these growing and evolving threats, the trucking industry must proactively identify and mitigate vulnerabilities. From distribution centers to highways, it’s crucial to assess the overall risk management strategy and ensure it’s both prepared for and robust enough to deal with the level and degree of threat.

46%

The reported increase in cargo thefts in North America in the first quarter of 2024 from the same period in 2023.

Source: CargoNet

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Common and Emerging Tactics Used in Fraudulent Cargo Theft

Cargo theft can be broadly categorized into straight theft, pilferage, cyber theft, and strategic or fraudulent theft. Straight theft involves stealing goods from locations such as truck stops or rest areas, while pilferage is typically small-scale, opportunistic theft. Fraudulent theft, including cyber theft, involves organized and sophisticated methods to deliberately deceive.

While straight theft and pilferage remain concerns, particularly when supply chain vulnerabilities reduce security, fraudulent methods drive the sharp rise in global thefts and subsequent increasing insurance rates. Cyber theft, often combined with fraudulent strategies, plays a growing role in this landscape.

Organized crime groups use a range of tactics to carry out systematic cargo theft across multiple locations and jurisdictions, exploiting vulnerabilities like lax vetting procedures:

£68M

The estimated cost of HGV and cargo crime in the UK in 2023.

Source: The National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service

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Fictitious Pick-Up

This is one of the most common forms of cargo theft. It involves a bad actor posing as a legitimate driver or trucking company to fraudulently take control and possession of cargo. The deception is achieved through forged physical or digital documentation, such as fake licenses.

“Fictitious pick-up used to be about pure faked or physically forged identifications, paperwork, trucking equipment license numbers, DoT numbers, livery and company names,” says Christopher Law, a senior vice president and loss control specialist in Aon’s U.S. Marine practice. “But it is becoming a lot more sophisticated as thieves become more organized in the way they create fake identities that can appear legitimate, for example, infiltration into company sites such as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) database and logistics organizations to generate fake paperwork and assumed identities.”
Company Credential Exploitation

Criminal organizations purchase dormant companies legitimately registered with the Department of Transportation (DoT) and use their motor carrier numbers, operational history, and reputation to fraudulently access and steal cargo.

Bad actors establish fake companies or freight brokers to gain access to cargo and initially appear to operate legitimately before stealing cargo directly or redirecting it to an altered location controlled by the thieves. In the latter case, legitimate drivers and truckers who pick up and deliver cargo at the load facility are unaware the paperwork is fraudulent, which removes the usual fictitious pick-up warning flags.

“The fear is that as AI continues to develop, it’s going to get much easier to commit this kind of fraud,” says Tom O’Donnell, a global practice leader of logistics for Aon.
Double Brokering of Loads

This type of theft involves transferring cargo to another broker without informing or obtaining the shipper’s consent. Though this is often due to criminal intent, it can also occur as a result of weak security protocols. In addition to the financial and liability risks it presents, it also causes significant operational disruption.

In a FreightWaves survey, 85 percent of respondents said they were impacted by double brokering in Q2 2023.¹ However, the FMCSA reported in 2024 that there was insufficient data to verify a safety impact regarding this risk. It would therefore not take measures to further enforce existing broker transparency regulations.
Company Infiltration
With this tactic, cargo thieves plant an “inside” employee within a logistics company or warehouse facility to provide confidential information relating to targeted commodities on route, such as truck identification, location and value.

Developing artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities makes fraud easier to commit at an ever-larger scale. Cyber crime tactics are often used to facilitate company infiltration, such as:
- Phishing emails with slightly altered domain names to receive assigned loads either to legitimate carriers with altered locations, or criminal carriers with assumed identities
- Social engineering targeting personnel, allowing criminals to access entire databases, where they can monitor and manipulate shipments and data
- The hacking of digital platforms like load boards or FMCSA databases

5 Ways to Mitigate Cargo Theft

It is critical to understand specific theft vulnerabilities and mitigate accordingly.

Traditional mitigation methods that may have once focused on physical vulnerabilities, such as documentation, are no longer a match for the sophistication and complexity of the current threat landscape.

Using available technological solutions to detect and prevent fraudulent activity is now essential. If proactive strategies are not financially possible, defensive action gains even greater importance. Robust vetting, verification and cyber resilience must underpin the overall strategy.

Once a logistics profile risk assessment has identified vulnerabilities, the next step is to craft a holistic, layered approach to cargo and supply chain security by treating every component of the profile as interconnected rather than isolated.

Christopher Law

Senior Vice President, Loss Control Specialist, Aon Marine, U.S.

This means understanding both the risk and potential of technology in relation to cargo theft, and then using its capacity to enhance security measures and prevention.

Leverage technological solutions. Implement digital identity verification systems, ensuring they are resilient to cyber attacks with multi-factor authentication, encryption and regular audits. Use blockchain and AI technology to monitor and secure transaction records and verify company legitimacy.
Implement robust vetting and verification. Establish stringent vetting procedures for supply chain partners and ensure compliance with industry standards for coverage and liabilities. Verify carrier legitimacy in real time, including paperwork, driver IDs, company and vehicle equipment during pick-up and delivery.
Use real-time tracking and visibility. Apply advanced security technologies like geo-fenced GPS trackers, alarms and tamper-evident seals on vehicles and cargo. Ensure continuous real-time monitoring with timely response escalations to event triggers by trained personnel.
Coordinate employee training and continuous security updates. Train all staff on technological solutions and maintain awareness of evolving threats through continuous updates and intelligence-sharing forums. Allocate adequate resources and conduct regular inspections and audits for compliance.
Seek tailored insurance coverage. Secure comprehensive insurance that covers not only cargo value, but also other associated costs, such as recovery efforts and business interruption. Ensure policies are aligned with organizational risk profiles and account for cyber threats with no critical exclusions.

Though initial costs may be high, the long-term benefits of enhanced security and improved operational resilience offer a significant return on investment. Proactive measures to mitigate the cargo theft threat also send a positive signal to an insurance market focused on reducing impact costs through commitment to resilience and risk management in a difficult market.

A Proactive Approach for a Resilient Future

Rising cargo theft figures don’t exist in isolation. This is why it’s vital to recognize the limited capacity of the industry — which is fragmented by nature due to the sheer number of trucking companies and brokers within it — to respond collaboratively. Trucking companies, therefore, need to address the problem independently, considering their own specific vulnerabilities, resources, risk transfer strategy, and overall risk management framework.

Extremely thin margins leave little room for expenditure on proactive strategies in addition to reactive ones, with compliance necessarily taking precedence for what little resources remain. As the threat of climate change continues to worsen, environmental regulations aimed at reducing carbon emissions will continue to roll out both in the U.S. and globally. Freight transportation makes up as much as 11 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, of which 65 percent is road freight.² It’s reasonable to anticipate, therefore, that further regulations will exacerbate pressure on the trucking industry.

Investment in mitigation strategies could lead to higher costs for shippers and customers, but cargo theft is a persistent and escalating issue. As technology continues to advance, particularly in the realm of artificial intelligence, so too does the nature of the threat.

Investing in security strategies should be more than a simple protective measure. A proactive approach not only strengthens a company’s resilience against theft, but also demonstrates a commitment to risk management, which is highly valued by insurance carriers.

Aon’s Thought Leaders

Chris Bhatt

Chief Commercial Officer of Transportation and Logistics, Global
Christopher Law

Senior Vice President, Loss Control Specialist, Aon Marine, U.S.
Tom O'Donnell

Global Practice Leader of Logistics

¹ White Paper - Freight's Breaking Point: The Double Brokering Dilemma I FreightWaves
² Freight Transportation | MIT Climate Portal

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