A new report from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) details the cost of cargo theft in the transportation industry.
According to ATRI research looking at cargo theft data, motor carriers average more than $520,000 in annual theft losses, while logistics service providers average more than $1.8 million in annual losses. The annualized impact of cargo theft on the industry is as high as $6.6 billion, the report found, an average of $18 million per day.
“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 TCW Inc. “ATRI’s new research on cargo theft puts real-world numbers to the issue and will hopefully motivate stakeholders to act quickly on solutions.”
The report looked at not only where and how cargo theft occurs, but also prevention strategies, and the role insurance plays in shaping cargo theft risk management. In addition to providing case studies documenting the real-world cargo theft experiences of shippers and motor carriers, it provides counter strategies that include developing a security culture within motor carriers and across the supply chain, enacting model state legislations with specific cargo theft penalties, and developing a federal-level centralized cargo theft reporting agency.