Last November, two trailer loads of Santo Tequila, a brand founded by Food Network host Guy Fieri and rocker Sammy Hagar, disappeared – cargo valued at more than $1 million.
That single incident of cargo theft made headlines this week with Fieri's appearance on CBS's 60 Minutes, but cargo theft has been a growing burden on motor carriers long before it hit the pockets of Fieri and his former Van Halen frontman business partner.
"Unfortunately, we've reached a point where cargo theft has become a standard cost of doing business for trucking companies, with consumers ultimately footing the bill for many billions of dollars in losses. Something must be done to stop these costly crimes," said Ben Banks, president of Nashville, Tennessee-based TCW, a provider of intermodal drayage, truckload, dedicated fleet services, transloading, warehousing, and yard management.
Billion-dollar Black Market
Research conducted by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) and released Wednesday found that motor carriers average more than $520,000 in annual theft losses and Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) average more than $1.84 million.
The annualized cargo theft cost to the industry is as high as $6.6 billion, ATRI found – more than $18 million per day.
The majority of motor carrier cargo thefts (69.9%) are below $50,000, ATRI found, while the majority of LSP cargo thefts (59.7%) are above $100,000.
For motor carriers, a total of $16,155,207 in cargo value was stolen in 555 separate incidents during 2023, and ATRI estimates that indirect costs (like downtime from theft of a truck or trailer and time spent finding or replacing it) are 3 to 6 times the value of the stolen cargo.
The ATRI survey data collected from motor carriers and LSPs focuses on cargo losses for the 2023 calendar year. In that same year, CargoNet received reports on 2,852 incidents from participating carriers, which amounted to $332 million worth of stolen cargo, with an average loss of $116,397 per incident.
Not all theft Is reported, few loads are recovered
Not all motor carriers involve police over every incident of theft. Just over 80% (82.2%) report all cargo theft. Almost 9% reported never reporting it to law enforcement.
In its report, ATRI noted that while 87.5% of carrier respondents indicated they did not have a policy for letting the value of the theft dictate reporting cases to law enforcement, carriers with a policy generally responded that thefts valued at less than $500 went unreported.
"Carriers who had chosen not to report a theft in the past indicated that the low financial impact of the cargo theft and the cost-benefit of the reporting and investigation effort was not worth it as the cases were rarely resolved," according to the report.
Nearly three-quarters (73.5%) of all stolen loads are not recovered, according to motor carriers responding to ATRI's query. Only 2% are fully recovered, with the balance being partially recovered.
The respondent companies that experienced theft in 2023 represented 42,115 registered trucks, ATRI noted. The per-truck incident rate was approximately one incident per 75.8 registered trucks. The average annual loss per carrier was approximately $521,000, according to ATRI, with the average loss per incident reaching $29,108 and a loss per registered truck of $383.60.
Pilferage was the most common issue for motor carriers (39.9%), while strategic theft is most common for LSPs (62.5%). Motor carriers are most likely to see theft from their own terminal (24.3%), an overnight parking location (19.4%), or a rest stop/truck stop (16.9%), the report found. For LSPs, theft is most likely to occur at customer pickup locations (50.5%).
Where it's happening and what is taken
California is the top state for theft for both motor carriers and LSPs among ATRI survey respondents. The rest of the top five, in mixed order, are Illinois, Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee, which tied for fifth with Florida for theft from LSPs.
ATRI asked motor carrier respondents to identify the most frequently stolen cargo, and food was number one by a wide margin. Electronics followed, and auto parts/vehicles and beverages rounded out the top three.
"Two of the top items on the list, food and beverages, may typically be low value but can be readily sold and quickly consumed," the report noted. "Electronics, auto parts and retail, on the other hand, are often higher value items but are often not as easy to sell in the marketplace."
