CargoNet launches tool to protect cargo and drivers

Keith Lewis, vice president of operations for Verisk CargoNet, is a fan of the University of Georgia football team, and right before the UGA vs. Florida game, there’s a rash of high-end alcoholic beverages stolen off the I-95 corridor.

“We seem to have a lot of thefts around certain types of sporting events,” Lewis said. “That's creating the pull for the for the bad guy because they know they can steal that commodity because of this event coming up, and they can make some big money.”

When a carrier ships a load of paper products from Chicago to Los Angeles, the trailer being broken into when parked in a high-risk area is likely, but a thief probably won’t steal anything. If it’s a load of electronics, energy drinks or alcohol, however, the risk of theft is much greater.

That’s why Verisk, a global data analytics and technology provider, recently rolled out a new tool called CargoNet RouteScore API, which aims to significantly minimize the risk of cargo theft.

The United States and Canada saw record-breaking cargo theft numbers in 2024, up 27% from 2023, with an all-time high of 3,625 reported incidents. The average value per theft rose to $202,364 in 2024 from $187,895 in 2023, according to CargoNet’s annual analysis.

Lewis said RouteScore is a product of CargoNet’s 14 to 15 years of historical data of supply chain thefts, right down to the GPS coordinates of where those thefts occurred.

The tool uses a proprietary algorithm to generate a cargo theft route risk score that provides a relative measure of probability that crime and loss will occur along any route in the U.S. and Canada. The tool measures the probability of loss based on factors like cargo type, value, length of haul, origin, destination, day of the week and the theft history of truck stops and assigns a score of 1 to 100 with 1 representing the lowest likelihood. In addition to generating a score, the model also observes the key variables that most influenced the score.

Verisk Cargo Net Route Score Ui Image 2

“We’re taking that information and putting it into a process where someone can use an API to connect to us, and they can actually get a risk assessment done … on their shipping lanes,” Lewis said. “The lower the score, the safer the route. The higher the score, the less safe the route.”

Partner Insights
Information to advance your business from industry suppliers

CargoNet’s data – verified via police reports – comes from multiple sources, including manufacturers, shippers, brokers and asset-based carriers.

“We're taking in data from those different funnels into one silo and aggregating that data and putting it in a format that we can distribute it out through the API to the supply chain industry to better protect itself,” Lewis said.

Anyone in the supply chain can connect and run their routes directly through the RouteScore system, and based on the score, it will provide actionable intelligence, up to the minute, on how to safely protect a load. CCJ recently discussed these cargo theft prevention strategies.

If a route receives a high score, Lewis said the main method of prevention is to keep the load moving through those high-risk areas. RouteScore may suggest things like using team drivers or relays, a security escort, a better-quality lock on the trailer, etc.

“Everything can be defeated. Security is a multiple layer approach,” he said. “You could put telematics on a trailer, and it can get broken into; it's going to tell you when and where and what time it was broken into. Or you can put a locking device on a trailer, and somebody can break into it, but you won't know when, where, why or how. So multiple layers of security have to be overlaid on the supply chain.”

The tool also offers a list of the riskiest truck stops along a route.

Truck parking has long been an industry challenge, so to prevent a driver from having to stop at a high-risk truck stop, CargoNet suggests drivers with valuable loads stop at safe locations ahead of a risky truck stop if their hours of service or fuel is expected to run out or inclement weather is expected at a risky spot on the map.

Lewis said there are two assets to worry about: the product on the trailer and the driver in the tractor. He said this is also a driver safety tool in that regard.

“Think of an offender registry list. If I'm buying a house in a subdivision and my child has to walk to school, wouldn't I want to know what the risks are for my child … whose house are they going to have to walk by,” Lewis said. “This is going to take the supply chain to that level of protection.” 

Angel Coker Jones is a senior editor of Commercial Carrier Journal, covering the technology, safety and business segments. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and kayaking, horseback riding, foraging for medicinal plants and napping. She also enjoys traveling to new places to try local food, beer and wine. Reach her at [email protected].

Looking for your next job?
Careersingear.com is the go-to platform for the Trucking industry. Don’t just find the job you need; find the job you want with the company that wants you!