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AMERICAS INCIDENT DATA


CARGO THEFTS RECORDED BY TAPA’S IIS IN THE UNITED STATES RISE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN EIGHT YEARS AS THIEVES BECOME MORE ORGANIZED AND SOPHISTICATED


The volume of cargo thefts recorded by TAPA’s Incident Information Service in the United States last year rose for the first time since 2011, driven by the growing levels of organization and sophistication of criminal groups focused on supply chains, and the relatively minor penalties often association with cargo crime.


Based only on incidents stating the mode, product category, city and state, TAPA Americas’ Annual Cargo Theft Report for 2019, produced in association with Sensitech, includes a total of 703 cargo thefts in the United States over the course of the year, with an average value of €118,396 – a 17% increase in volume over 2018 but a 22% fall in average value year-on-year.


Despite the lower value, the number of recorded incidents grew at a rate not seen for several years, the report states, with organized cargo thieves in the United States once again diversifying into advanced cargo theft techniques to hone their processes in pursuit of highly targeted shipments.


With an average of 59 reported incidents per month, the United States sustained cargo thefts at a rate of 1.93 per day in 2019.


Major cargo theft trends


Recent pursuits into atypical and advanced cargo theft types have led to the increase of cargo theft volume in the United States for the first time in eight years, fuelled primarily by the rise in cases of Pilferage.


Large scale Pilferage events continued to break records throughout 2019, accounting for 38% of the annual total and showing a 115% increase over 2018’s previous record. Additionally, the average value of Pilferage has been steadily rising every year since 2016, reaching $112,227 in the last calendar year.


Organized thieves in the U.S. have long utilized a “risk vs reward” calculation when targeting cargo. As such, Pilferage is being increasingly utilized as a method to reduce risk for subsequent, larger, full truckload thefts. This allows thieves to target products or specific shipments that provide a lesser chance of capture or disruption. This can be seen in the continued increase of reported mixed retail loads, or less than truckload (LTL) thefts. These


shipments are typically a mix of products destined for a ‘bricks and mortar’ retail store.


Diligent and organized thieves are known to utilize their criminal network to identify the contents of these loads and have developed an understanding that mixed retail loads typically have less security measures in place than a dedicated trailer of one high value/targeted product. Often, the loss to any single owner of these loads may be too low to trigger a police report or insurance claim, which can hinder awareness of the issue.


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