Open wide: it's time for a cargo security check-up

February 5, 2024

You wake up one morning and discover you’ve got a toothache, and one trip to the dentist shows you’ve got a cavity. Now, you’re brushing and flossing madly to make up for lost time. But in the back of your mind, you know that if you did all those things regularly throughout the year, you’d probably have fewer problems.

Cargo security is a lot like that: every year around the holidays from Thanksgiving to Christmas, thieves and bad actors ramp up their efforts to find a weak spot in your business (kind of like a cavity). And every year around the same time lots of publications talk about the need to protect yourself, like here and here. But instead of just thinking about it at that point, looking at your security vulnerabilities year-round will actually put you in a better position when thieves come knocking. Think of it like brushing after every meal.

In a recent webinar, CarriersEdge hosts Rick Duchalski and Mark Murrell were joined by Joe Palmer, Senior Vice President and National Practice Leader, Transportation at Gallagher—an insurance and risk management company—to talk about how preventable cargo theft problems are, as long as you’re managing your vulnerabilities.

The holidays are getting hotter

While the holiday season is generally a time when we see more cargo theft, Palmer points out that theft rates were even higher than normal in 2023, in large part because of the economic conditions. Not only that, the types of items being targeted were not always what you’d expect. “People often think of electronics being targeted, but the increase in food prices has pushed food and beverage theft to the top spot,” Palmer notes. One of the other problems, Palmer says, is that drivers and carriers let their guard down when they’re hauling things that aren’t as sexy—pistachio nuts and chicken don’t seem like high-value targets, but they’re absolutely on the minds of thieves because they’re going to take whatever they can sell later on.

To complicate things even further, it isn’t just physical theft that people need to worry about—carrier identity theft can be just as big a problem. While some cases of double brokering involve the creation of a fake company under a fake name, in other cases fraudsters are passing themselves off as legitimate carriers, spoofing insurance certificates and other identifiers. Whether you’re facing a fraud threat or a physical one though, preventability comes down to being aware of your vulnerabilities and making sure you’ve got the right processes in place. So let’s look at them one at a time.

Physical theft

One of the best ways to protect yourself from this kind of theft is through managing your exposures. On the carrier side, there are some basic best practices like having strong controls over the traffic coming in and out of the yard as well as not leaving trailers unattended. “A lot of it comes down to having the right protocols and procedures in place,” Palmer says, whether that’s using GPS tracking, geofencing and of course physical locking devices. But the most important part has to do with the driver.

Training drivers on how to stay safe while on the road should include proper route planning—especially figuring out which truck stops and rest areas are trustworthy and which aren’t. And while a driver’s situational awareness can help in all sorts of situations, there’s one place that they often overlook. “Don’t post every move you are making on social media,” Palmer says. Drivers will sometimes lay out all the info thieves need in terms of what cargo was just picked up, where it’s going and what route they’re taking, all in the name of staying in the social media conversation. What’s more, those drivers are also telling people that they’re not home, and may not be home for several weeks until the trip is over! In the wrong hands, that information could end up causing more pain than a root canal.

So what’s the takeaway? Make sure your drivers are well-trained in what to watch out for, and have them keep these three keys in mind:

1. Routes
   Drivers should choose their routes carefully. If they’re going to the same locations frequently, they should make sure to vary the routes they take when possible. Using the same route and stopping in the same locations can make them an easier target for thieves.
2. Loose lips
   Whether they’re at the truck stop, on the radio or anywhere else, drivers should not talk about the contents of their load with others. And watch what is said on social media. Facebook and other platforms can be useful to all companies, but loose lips sink shipments – don’t discuss your cargo.
3. Who needs to know?
   Drivers should stay in regular contact with the dispatcher and tell them when each stop is reached, when they are stopping for breaks, when the load is dropped and when they are leaving again. Keep in mind that cargo theft can sometimes be an inside job, so only key company personnel need to know the route and the cargo.

Identity theft

It’s late in the afternoon on a Friday and you need to broker a load that one of your normal carrier subcontractors can’t cover. So, you end up dealing with a company you are less familiar with. On paper though, they look legit—they’ve sent you their authority information and insurance certificate, and it all seems to look good.

Unfortunately, though, it’s actually someone passing themselves off as the legit company—they end up getting the load and then the load ‘disappears’.

This problem, as Palmer says, is becoming more common and fleets need to watch for the signs of trouble. One main cause is that newer, smaller fleets are sometimes eager to show the world that they’re legit, so they post all of their credentials on their website: exactly what identity thieves are looking for.

But for the company that was duped by the fake credentials, was it preventable? Palmer says yes, “as long as you are willing to look a little closer to make sure they are who they say they are.” Here are some things to think about:

1. Official documents
   Did the insurance certificate come from the insurance broker directly, or is it the person you’re talking to on the phone who’s giving you that information?
2. Are they who they say they are?
   Did you call the carrier’s main line phone number and ask for the individual, or did they just give you a cell number that you called directly?
3. Suspicious contact info
   Are they using a real corporate email address or is it a generic Gmail address? As for the physical address, use Google Maps to confirm that it is in fact a trucking company or yard, and not just a PO box in a store somewhere.

Simple questions like these can help you get a clearer picture of who you are dealing with and can expose a bad actor pretty quickly. Even better, you can put questions like these into a ‘new broker checklist’ (talk to your insurance partner for something like this) that you can run through with every new contact—a little like a pre-trip inspection. It’s not a lot of extra work once it’s part of your regular procedures, and it can save you a lot of pain when someone is trying to take advantage of you.

Like preventing cavities, preventing cargo theft means making it part of your regular routine, rather than reacting after you’ve already got a problem. Training your drivers in what to do and what to look for, using fleet management technology (like GPS tracking and geofencing) to your advantage, and being diligent about taking on new brokers (or any new business relationship) will help you avoid pain not just around the busy holiday season but all through the year.