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Freight crime: an analysis of the alarming rising trends in 2020


Despite lockdowns across Europe, the Transported Asset Protection Association has reported the second highest rate of recorded incidents in its 24-year history


Concerned at the level of goods-related cargo crime and the need to disseminate information to Members, BIFA became one of the sponsors of the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS), making its reports and guidance available to our Members. In addition, the Association monitors reports from organisations such as the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA), which cover a broader range of crime. When the UK first went into lockdown in


March 2020, NaVCIS reported a sharp decrease in cargo thefts from vehicles, but subsequently as trade and transport recovered so crime followed in its wake. The latest TAPA report makes interesting and concerning reading.


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Based only on data reported to the Association’s Incident Information Service (IIS), in a year when governments were advising their populations to “stay at home and work from home”, TAPA EMEA still recorded 6,463 new cargo thefts across a record number of 56 countries in the region, and an average loss for every day in 2020 of €471,432. This was the second highest rate of incidents that TAPA has recorded in its 24-year history; if the same level of data reporting had been maintained as in 2019, it is likely that 2020 would have set a new record for cargo crimes in the EMEA region, according to TAPA.


The average loss for major cargo crimes, with individual losses exceeding €100,000, was


€529,348. The high figures, however, remain only a fraction of the likely total losses. Many individuals believe that most cargo thefts during road, ocean, airfreight, and rail transportation are still not being reported to the incident database.


Country discrepancies It should be noted that there are wide discrepancies in reporting between individual countries. In 2020, 74.6% of all incidents recorded by TAPA EMEA involved cargo thefts in the UK and Germany, with 3,100 and 1,727 crimes respectively over the 12-month period. These figures reinforced two key points: firstly, both countries’ reputations as cargo crime hotspots in EMEA and secondly that they more accurately reflect the level of crime in those countries. In descending order, the crime statistics reported by the next six countries were: • Russia – 307 incidents • Netherlands – 199


June 2021


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