Holiday weekend brings added opportunities for cargo thieves

The Thanksgiving holiday is a time to pause and reflect on what you’re thankful for. If you’re a cargo thief, that’s likely the long holiday weekend itself – a time when some truckers let their guard down and increase their chances of becoming a target.

It doesn’t take long in the trucking industry to realize a spike in cargo theft around holidays is a noted occurrence. Limited hours at warehouses and distribution centers, coupled with long weekends, are a recipe for disaster when it comes to exposing yourself to crooks.

Additionally, the extended break can provide a longer lead time before a theft is discovered, giving thieves an added incentive to strike over the holidays.

Overhaul is an Austin, Texas-based company providing “supply chain visibility and risk monitoring solutions for in-transit shipments.” The company regularly alerts carriers to the increased risk of theft around the holidays due to “limited if not zero operations and less security staff” and encourages carriers to verify hours of operation at receiving facilities prior to arriving for delivery.

According to data from Overhaul, there were a total of 1,090 cargo thefts in 2022, with an average loss of around $360,000. The final three months of the year saw a noted increase in reported thefts, with 331 incidents, accounting for just over 30% of the yearly total.

Danny Ramon leads Overhaul’s intelligence and response team. He cautions drivers not to park near distribution centers and warehouses, as these areas are common targets for thieves.

“Criminals know that a lot of these places have long lines and they’re typically operating behind schedule, and that’s going to be even more so during the holidays,” Ramon told Land Line. “So they know that there’s going to be a lot of ripe targets waiting near those distribution centers – usually outside of the fences – because they either missed their appointment or the facility is running behind and they just don’t have the capacity to take them in.”

Ramon added that while these cargo criminals are “very agile,” adapting and targeting loads depending on the current market, they target some commodities more than others, including:

• High-end clothing and footwear
• Consumer electronics
• Alcohol
• Cost-dense food items

When it comes to keeping your load safe while on the move over the holiday, Overhaul recommends that all stops be made at “well lit, secured areas with trailer doors backed to a solid surface, if possible.”

In its third-quarter update, Overhaul describes a trend over the past year of both the “prevalence and spread” of strategic cargo theft incidents – a type of theft in which criminals posing as legitimate businesses use fraudulent and deceptive methods to obtain freight.

“A lot of these folks who practice theft by deception and fraudulent thefts … they’re already involved in the supply chain,” Ramon said. “They know how it works, and that aids them in their operations.”

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association recently warned truckers about one such scheme after being contacted by members who’d had their USDOT numbers “hijacked” by scammers.

Ramon said that owner-operators and small carriers pose a “low risk” for cargo thieves, making them ideal targets for strategic theft.

“A lot of times, if you don’t have visibility into exactly what’s going on in your supply chain in real time, you can’t tell that your load has been misdirected. You can’t tell that your load is acting in a way that it shouldn’t be acting,” he added. “Unfortunately, the thing about these fraudulent or deceptive thefts is if you don’t have that visibility, you don’t realize that you’re a victim until it’s far too late.”

Staying ahead of trouble by doing your due diligence is critical when it comes to dealing with brokers. To assist owner-operators and small-business truckers, the OOIDA Foundation has put together a series of short instructional videos on the topic. LL