Dealing With Cargo Theft

It is estimated that American businesses lose around $173 million per year to various types of cargo theft. As business risk professionals, we make sure that all of our customers understand the importance of insuring against cargo theft and having risk protection in place to keep financial losses down. But as any trucking company owner knows, the financial losses due to cargo theft are only part of the problem.

Every customer believes that their shipment is critical and should be handled as such. When cargo theft occurs, customers automatically question why the shipping company did not do more to prevent it from happening. The shipping company owner has to withstand a barrage of angry tirades from customers who ordered overnight shipping, but wound up getting nothing. Along with putting the proper financial protections in place, we recommend taking additional steps to try and stem the tide of damage done by cargo theft.

Get Good At Keeping Secrets

Your shipping manifests and trucking routes should be two of your company’s best kept secrets. You should try to change up your shipping routes every day, and monitor who has access to that critical information. Some companies get sloppy with guarding their manifests and shipping routes, and that only helps to entice criminals to try out the security of your vehicles.

Start Using Technology

Paper shipping information is easy to lose, easy to leave behind at previous deliveries, and easy to steal. You need to switch your entire shipping system over to a digital system with the latest in Internet security measures. Technology can also be used to track stolen trucks, and even disable trucks before they can get very far. Look into technological solutions that will cut down on your cargo theft problems and save your company plenty of money.

Get Smarter About Cargo Theft

You can blindly throw more money and resources at stopping cargo theft, but the end result could be that you still lose money to stolen shipments. You need to do comprehensive research on which shipping routes in your area are most likely to result in theft, and what items are most popular with criminals. When you have a better idea as to where the criminals will be and what they will want, you can take extra measures to defend your business.

Get Better At Screening Employees

It can be difficult to find qualified drivers these days, but that does not mean that employers should take chances by not doing thorough background checks on every employee. It is in your company’s best interests to screen every employee and be prepared to not hire people who have a criminal past that includes activities that could point directly at cargo theft.

Companies lose millions of dollars every year to cargo theft, but they also lose a level of trust with customers as well. Instead of allowing your business’ reputation to take a hit because of cargo theft, you should be proactive about taking steps that will prevent theft from happening in the first place. It is important to have insurance in place to protect against the financial damage caused by cargo theft, but it is important to realize that financial loss is not the only damage your company could sustain.