Hey! That’s my load

Next time you pit stop at the Flying J for a coffee and a stretch, take a quick look at the equipment around the lot. Without inviting a tire-iron attack from an overprotective driver, do a quick survey of the locking devices on the trailers around you. Don’t be surprised if you find many of them secured with nothing more than a standard Canadian Tire padlock or a chain your kid might use to hitch his mountain bike to a post. Some trailers have no security device at all.
No wonder trailer and cargo theft has soared an astonishing 80 per cent over the last decade. American losses currently run anywhere from five to $10 billion a year. Canadian authorities claim that our per-capita rate of theft is even higher.
Cargo thieves are getting increasingly brazen and in many cases boast backing from organized crime. They target anything that can be fenced: designer clothes, cigarettes, alcohol, electronics, and even, according to police, food. So a skid of apples that can moved out of a trailer and onto the street before rotting is just as vulnerable as a load on Sony’s new CD players, according to Peel Regional Police Constable Mike Plante, who heads the division’s Commercial Auto Crime Bureau in Mississauga, Ont.
Still, if you judge by the lack of anti-theft devices on trailers, it seems many carriers and owner-operators aren’t too concerned. That may have to change in the near future, though. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration-the U.S. Dept. of Transportation agency created after the Sept. 11 attacks-is reviewing an anti-terrorist rule that would require the locking of all trucks and trailers while on the road.
Whether complying with U.S. law or not, Erik Hoffer, president of Somerset, N.J.-based CGM Security Solutions and education chairman of the National Cargo Security Council in Annapolis, Md., recommends that any carrier hauling high-target products install proven anti-theft systems. And even though his company sells them, Hoffer doesn’t recommend standard steel padlocks, dead bolts, or cables. Such devices may deter smash-‘n’-grab hoodlums but they won’t stop professionals who, he says, make up “90 per cent of the pilferage market.”
These guys are handy with a lock pick and steel cutters, and some amateur chemists have been known to pour liquid nitrogen on steel locks, which then shatter with a simple tap from a hammer. “It would take me, personally, about 25 seconds to open a trailer locked with one of the most robust steel bolt (locks) you can use,” Hoffer says. “Most people think, ‘Well, I can’t break it with my teeth, so it’s pretty good.'”
Peel Region’s Constable Plante says if a professional thief “really wants that load, he’ll find a way to take it.” For this crowd, the objective isn’t as much prevention as it is deterrence. And because a heist requires a certain amount of time and cover, the best deterrent is a collection of devices that work in concert to make a thief’s job as difficult as possible.
Hoffer says there are a handful of systems that, in his opinion, have proven to be reliable.
His first suggestion: a disabling system that, unlike kingpin locks, would be much harder to circumvent. A permanently mounted brake lock, like the TS-3B from CGM Security Solutions (www.cgmsecurity
solutions.com) hooks into the air line with quick-connect fittings. It cannot be closed while the lines are energized, and only the driver can set it once he bleeds the lines and leaves the trailer. Once set, it locks the air to the brakes rendering them immobile in the locked down position and therefore virtually useless to thieves.
A cheaper alternative is a glad-hand lock. This seals the air-intake valve on a trailer’s brake system and cuts off access to the air-brake line. However, these are temporary solutions, and because thieves with a lot of time can replace the entire glad hand, they are less effective than air brake locks.
Second, Hoffer recommends indicative seals. While they don’t actually prevent theft, seals help when it comes to dealing with insurance companies by proving that the load had not been tampered with.
“It lets you go back to whatever party and say, ‘I didn’t do it and here’s the proof,'” says Hoffer. A variety of companies manufacture seals ranging from $1 plastic units to $100 electronic versions that also act as alarms. The Road B.O.S.S. from Richmond, B.C.-based Bulldog Technologies (www.
bulldog-tech.com) is a readable electronic seal that attaches to the locking rod on a rear trailer door. An attempted break-in transmits an alarm code to dispatch or a driver’s pager in real time. “The unit transmits a signal every 10 seconds,” says Bulldog Tech’s president John Cockburn. “If that signal after 10 seconds doesn’t go through because someone took a crowbar and just smashed the thing altogether, it will still send out an alarm.”
A third device combines seals and locks. CGM’s Navalock uses locking bars or cable wraps around the keeper bars and incorporates an indicative seal in the handle. Another dual-purpose seal is Cadec’s SecureLoc (www.cadec.com), which uses the seal design of its popular SecureSeal while adding a lock that’s permanently attached to the trailer. Closing the seal, which is accessed with a random five-digit security number, automatically locks the door.
Unfortunately, sometimes you need a system that kicks in after the thief has left the premises. That’s where GPS comes in. Mark Alden, vice-president of Muir’s Cartage in Concord, Ont., says his custom system uses two-way communications and a connection to the on-board computer’s I/O leads to the engine or transmission to simulate a mechanical failure.
“We can track the unit on the road for police, and at the same time cut fuel to the engine or (simulate) a transmission failure,” Alden says.
Even Alden agrees that the first line of defence is the perimeter of a yard or warehouse. Loaded trailers should be dropped off in well-lit areas with doors parked against a wall. “We find that it comes down to the basics, which is really deterring that thief from coming into our yard in the first place,” says Alden.
Constable Plante couldn’t agree more. “No lock is worth anything if the trailer or tractor is not properly secured in a yard or warehouse,” he says. “There is only one proven prevention system: Never leave a loaded trailer alone, ever.”Your driver steps out of the truck stop, ready to motor. He eyeballs the lot. He could have sworn his rig was up against that rear fence. But it’s gone. And in it, all his paperwork. This is not good. Whether you’re talking about an entire coupled unit driven out of a truck stop, a trailer lifted from the warehouse, or the roll-up door smashed in and goods looted, officer Mike Plante of Peel Police’s Commercial Auto Crime Bureau advises drivers to have all the following information handy. It’s what he needs before he can set out to recover the goods:
1. The bill of lading.
2. The trailer unit number and licence plate number. “A lot of times drivers are told to pick up trailer A, B, or C, and they have no idea what the trailer is,” says Plante, “or know if it may or may not match the manifest if it’s hard to read.”
3. Names and numbers of key managers who can help police launch their investigation as quickly as possible.
4. A full manifest. “This stuff moves fast,” Plante says. “If we don’t have a list of what’s on the trailer right away, than we’re way behind the eight ball.”