Most thefts result from employee negligence.
From coast to coast, Sunset Pacific Transportation is always on guard against cargo theft. For the past 15 years, the company has tracked its vehicles with satellite communications, but that didn’t stop a couple of loaded trailers from being stolen.
Taylor Little, president of the 70-truck carrier, realized that loaded trailers left unattended at the company’s Los Angeles headquarters – or anywhere else en route to their destination – were easy targets for thieves. So last year, Sunset Pacific installed a trailer-tracking system from SkyBitz on its 150 trailers.
By using a feature called geofencing, Little and other fleet managers can go online and “lock down” trailers at any location. If a trailer crosses a geofence – a tight, virtual perimeter of coordinates surrounding the trailer – before a specified time, Little receives an instant text alert on his cell phone. He then can go online to receive position updates every three minutes.
“I’m hoping that if we ever do have one stolen, I’ll get it back before the contents are offloaded,” Little says.
Estimates of losses from cargo theft vary, but most agree it is at least $16 billion a year in the United States. For small carriers such as Sunset Pacific, having just one load stolen could be disastrous, as it could ruin its reputation and future business with a customer. It also leads to hefty increases in cargo insurance.
Today, the stakes are higher than ever. For the past six years, the consequences of a stolen truck could have meant much more than a sizeable financial loss. Fortunately, terrorists have not used trucks as weapons of mass destruction in that time, but the worry remains.
