- How do You Protect Yourself?
Cargo theft impacts your ability to conduct business. Carriers that experience theft face higher insurance premiums, accruals for self-insurance and the embarrassment of informing customers. Shippers lose the cargo causing product shortages, jobsite downtime, replacement costs, rush charges, time spent on additional paperwork and missed sales opportunities.
Cargo theft is real but pressures cause it to be silent. Industry participants strive to keep instances quiet to minimize bad publicity; besides, cargo theft involves multiple jurisdictions and requires considerable effort to sustain interest and resolve a case. Cargo thieves have found that this environment reduces the risk of being caught while the payoff is high. Commodities such as TVs, computers, pharmaceuticals, designer clothes, or other desirable products can generate .80 cents on the dollar.
It is estimated that the combined losses suffered by the trucking, insurance and railroads surpasses $20 Billion in the US annually. However, this estimate is meaningless until your company has experienced a loss. Cargo theft ranges in value from $15k to $3 Million or more. The common trends include armed robberies to hijack the truck and trailer and robberies at the terminal. Less violent robberies occur at the transportation truck yard, commercial parks, truck stops, rest areas or at the driver’s home.
Criminals are targeting you to compromise your cargo, trailers, products and supply chain. The minute you let your guard down is when criminals strike. How can you protect your assets? It is imperative that your company and supply chain properly layer security practices and follows the policies to protect your assets, reputation and goodwill.
Every organization that relies on a supply chain should implement three basic security practices to protect in-transit goods:
- A documented set of freight security requirements
- Binding standards for transport vendors
- A continual monitoring program to evaluate performance against security objectives
The procedures that your company develops must include activities at the factory, warehouse, terminal, transit, delivery and any other vulnerable situation. Skipping any of these key practices leaves your organization vulnerable to cargo theft.
Secure Trailer Lots is committed to protecting cargo at rest. Studies have shown that cargo at rest is the most vulnerable and this why we developed our cargo safe havens. Future letters will provide additional information that we recommend to protect your cargo and supply chain.
Please contact me if you have any questions regarding cargo protection and I will leverage my 25+ years in protecting cargo to help protect yours.
Mel McKern
Executive Sales Agent
Secure Trailer Lots
(712)326-9966
Mel.mckern@securetrailerlots.com
http://www.securetrailerlots.com/
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