9 Tips for Keeping Thieves’ Hands off Your Freight

By Deborah Lockridge and Peter Carter

In early August, an all-star team from across the ranks of Canadian trucking—fleet owners, drivers and representatives from the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA)—met face to face with Vic Toews, the federal Minister for Public Safety.
On the menu: Issues affecting trucking.
The main course: Cargo crime.

That law enforcement officials take cargo crime more seriously is the Canadian Trucking Alliance’s (CTA) mantra these days. And, as you might have read in Today’s Trucking last month, the bureaucrats have apparently been paying attention.

Recently, the RCMP launched Project Stall, a cargo-crime-prevention ­program about which the Mounties remain mum. The visitation with Minister Toews is another good sign.

But while you’re waiting for the cops to crack down, here are nine ways you can take matters into your own hands so thieves don’t take your freight into theirs.

1. Check footprints and follicles

Conduct background checks of drivers, warehouse employees, and anyone with access to shipment information and other logistics details. Many cargo thefts are “inside jobs.”
Schneider National’s Director of Enterprise Security Walt Fountain does criminal and background checks on drivers and other employees. “It’s not going to catch everyone, but it gives you an indication of the professionalism and character,” he says. “Many of the issues we have is that they lack discipline.” Unsafe drivers, he says, “are probably not your conscientious, disciplined professional drivers” and are more likely to slip up on security protocols. Schneider also does hair-follicle testing for drugs. “We’ve found that to be very valuable for keeping habitual drug users out of our driver pool,” Fountain says. “Certainly anecdotally, those who use drugs are more likely to break other laws.”

2. Get front row seats

Provide security training for all employees, and educate truck drivers on how to prevent cargo theft and hijacking. National Insurance Crime Bureau (NCIB) experts say that a driver who knows, understands and follows security tenets is less likely to have his or her truck targeted for theft. “Once you know how cargo theft happens, you know what to look for,” explains Bill Anderson, Director of Security for Ryder.

For instance, drivers should park in well-lit areas, preferably near the front of the truck stop, near the facilities rather than in a quiet back row. They should check to make sure load seals are intact during pre-trip inspections and during stops en route. Drivers should learn to watch for a vehicle tailing them and what to do if they spot one. And they should know the required procedure if a theft happens. Training should cover things as simple as not leaving the keys in the truck. In Brooklyn earlier this year, a thief stole a $50,000 tractor-trailer packed with $200,000 in beef. Making a delivery at 3:30 a.m., the driver parked her truck with the key in its ignition. She returned 10 minutes later to find it gone.
Drivers should not discuss a load or where it’s going on the CB or at truck stops. Controlling information is key, says Bill Anderson. “It can be a seemingly innocent conversation that somebody has over a cup of coffee, which when combined with other information, reveals a lot about the supply chain.” Fountain says driver training has given Schneider “the biggest bang for our buck,” both during new-hire on boarding and quarterly “sustainment” training. “It does take some time, but it’s time well spent.”

3. Avoid red-light districts

Thieves routinely wait outside known shipping points, such as plants, warehouses and distribution centers. They follow trucks as they leave, wait for drivers to stop, then grab the cargo often in less than five minutes. Counter this by instructing drivers to go at least 200 miles or four hours before stopping, and then use secured lots. And they should avoid cargo theft hot spots. “We’ll set up a ‘red zone’ around pickup and delivery areas for our high-value freight,” asking drivers not to stop within 200 to 250 miles from the pickup, says Schneider’s Fountain. “So they arrive at the shipper all fueled up and ready to go, and plan their trip without having to stop in that red zone for DOT breaks or fuel.”

While this tactic takes some planning and communicating with drivers beforehand, it’s relatively inexpensive, something the smallest fleet or owner-operator can do.

4. Lock the lock; walk the walk

Locks will deter opportunistic thieves and will at least slow down those determined to get a specific load. “People will just go down the line and open the backs of the trailers and hook up to one with something in it they like,” says Steve Covey, who heads up something called the Midwest Cargo Theft Initiative, based in Chicago. “Kingpin locks, gladhand locks, any of that stuff –there’s always a way to defeat it, but if a thief sees a driver’s doing something to protect his load, he may move on to the next trailer.”

Some critics believe a bigger lock or fancier seal also can tip off thieves that there’s something in there worth stealing. Steve Covey says he’s seen loads of electronics with just a tin seal on it that thieves can easily cut with a pair of pliers. “My opinion is a lock is like the arms race,” says Schneider’s Fountain. “You build a bigger lock, they build a bigger cutter.” In addition to padlocking trailer doors, consider ways to secure unattended trailers, like kingpin locks, and for the tractor, locks for air brake valves and gladhands. There are also devices designed to prevent tampering with cargo seals.

5. Make computers your friend

Particularly vulnerable, high-value cargoes cargoes might require high-tech protection. any tracking and communication systems can remotely disable a truck that has been reported stolen or that travels outside a previously set “geofence.” For instance, InteliTrailer sells a keyless lock/unlock product operated by smart phone or hand-held remote control. It also offers a GPS tracking and disabling system. Magtec makes security systems with features like driver authentication; unattended idle protection; real-time reporting of the state of the vehicle; remote disabling while moving or parked; in-cab panic/emergency buttons; remote lock and unlock, and more.

6. Covert your tracks

Tracking and communications systems can keep track of vehicles and help recover lost loads. Using Skybitz trailer tracking, Mesilla Valley Transportation (MVT) was able to recover several trailers and their loads following an attempted theft. Trailer tracking capability also helped MVT land a Fortune 500 shipper of consumer electronics, computers, televisions and other high-ticket items that was concerned about product theft. However, as regular truck and trailer tracking used for productivity has become common, professional thieves have become experts in disabling it. That’s why you’re seeing more “covert” devices that can be hidden in inside a freight pallet or beneath the undercarriage of a trailer. Some are small enough to be hidden inside a pill bottle. Ryder’s Anderson points out that these devices are not cheap, so they are only viable in a situation where you will be able to get them back.

When using covert tracking, says Schneider’s Fountain, it’s important to work hand in hand with the shipper. “I think it’s important to make sure everyone understands what you’re trying to accomplish. Just buying a product and sticking it in a box is going to be less than satisfying. You need to have in place proper response procedures, notification procedures, so everyone knows what they’re going to do” if the load does get stolen.”

7. Join a wait loss group

“Freight at rest is freight at risk,” say theft-prevention professionals. One of the big problems, says Covey, is drivers who pick up a load on Friday that needs to be delivered a 10-hour drive away, but the receiver won’t accept it until Monday. “It’s going to sit over the weekend, and statistically weekends are peak times for cargo theft, especially full trailer loads,” Covey says. “A lot of that is just leaving the load in a lot somewhere that’s not secured.” Carriers’ yards should have good fencing and a gate system that’s monitored by security staff. If it makes sense, install alarm-surveillance systems. Make sure the perimeter, entrances, building doors and windows are well-lit. Back trailers up against a solid wall or barrier to prevent door openings. Ryder’s Anderson questions the value of closed-circuit TV. By the time you try to cover a broad area and try to keep 30 days of video, he says, the quality of the video is often so low that “you see somebody, a vague figure, walking to the truck and taking it. Well, you pretty much knew that already.” He instead suggests focusing on a critical control point and narrowing down your field of view—for instance, placing a camera that gets a good clear picture of all truck drivers as they arrive at a gate.

Trip planning is important in finding a secure place to stop. Schneider has nearly 40 secure facilities for high-value loads, and the first choice is for drivers to go there. If they’re not close, Schneider tries to arrange for drivers to park in customers’ lots en route.

Safe parking for a fee is available from Secure Trailer Parking Network, part of Terminal Exchange Services. Its yards have 24-hour surveillance, plus cross-docking, office space, and service bays. It has more than 125 locations nationwide and is opening more this year. The company also is developing a wireless Internet reservation system.

8. Play hard to get at

The effectiveness of all these strategies will be multiplied when used in combination.

“The more barriers you throw up, the less cargo theft you’re going to see,” says Ryder’s Anderson. “If thieves see people following the procedures, they’re generally going to target someone else. If they see trailers are sealed, if they see accurate counting, if they see drivers staying on route and parking in secure areas,” thieves are more likely to look for easier pickings. Once a program’s in place, stick with it. Conduct regular audits to make sure everyone’s following procedures. “If everything goes according to the process, the goods will get from point A to point B, generally,” Anderson says. “In just about every sort of theft or hijacking, there’s some sort of process failure; the driver parked in an area that was unsecure, he left the truck unattended for too long, and so on.”

9. Read mores stories like this one

Crafty criminals are always coming up with ways to defeat security devices and systems. There are a number of resources available to help you stay ahead top of them, stay informed on cargo theft trends, and identify hotspots where drivers should avoid stopping or at least take extra security precautions. Share that information with drivers and other employees. Schneider uses info from other fleets, local law enforcement, the FBI, FreightWatch International and CargoNet and puts out weekly messages. Security people post locations with high theft incidences on the company’s intranet. While some of these suggestions require a cash investment, many are more a matter of being aware and developing and using policies and strategies to help keep cargo safe. “It’s a matter of focus, and a matter of not assuming that just because it left the dock it’s going to get to the customer,” says Ryder’s Anderson. Or as Schneider’s Fountain says, “If you leave it to chance, eventually your luck will run out.”