Report on Cargo Theft Shows Mixed Numbers, Continued High Risk
Last week, FreightWatch International released a new quarterly report on cargo theft rates and details. According to CCJ’s analysis of the report, and the details of the 179 cargo thefts for the 2nd quarter of 2014, there was a 4.9% drop in overall numbers, but a 5.6% increase in the average loss value per incident, to $174,415. The leading states where incidents occurred were Florida (45 incidents), Texas (29 incidents), California (15 incidents), Georgia (15 incidents), and Illinois (15 incidents).
In terms of theft type, the 179 thefts in the report break down as follows: Whole container/trailer theft (76%), theft from a trailer/container (8%), deceptive pickups (6%), driver theft (2%), and hijacking (1%). The most targeted load types were food and drink loads (34 thefts), electronics (32 thefts), and building and industrial loads (19 thefts). The highest value losses per incident belonged easily to loads of medication and pharmaceutical goods (average $2.8 million per load). The average loss per incident for stolen electronics loads was $304,000 and the average loss per incident for stolen personal care products loads was $232,375. The average value for other stolen load types were all under $100,000.
Moving forward, FreightWatch International classifies the risk for cargo theft in the U.S. as “high,” their second highest rating. TIA’s Fraud Task Force is dedicated to sharing best practices to reduce the risks of cargo theft to industry. For additional information, contact Will Sehestedt at sehestedt@tianet.org, 703-399-5700.
