As People gear up for fireworks and barbecues at the moment, one other group is planning of a distinct sort: cargo thieves.
Yearly, the times are Independence Day see a notable spike in legal networks seizing shipments of every little thing from televisions to power drinks to very important medical provides, exploiting the disruptions and lowered oversight that include the vacation rush.
It’s all a part of a rising cargo theft epidemic. As soon as a sporadic nuisance, it has metastasized right into a nationwide legal enterprise that’s bleeding the U.S. provide chain to the tune of greater than $35 billion annually. And on a regular basis People are those footing the invoice.
These thieves aren’t simply smashing locks in the dark. Refined legal rings are exploiting weaknesses in our digital infrastructure, utilizing ever-evolving cyber fraud and identification theft to impersonate professional carriers and hijack hundreds with out ever touching a crowbar — usually rerouting freight earlier than it even leaves the warehouse. Others goal vans and trailers at relaxation stops and distribution facilities, threatening the private security of drivers who’re merely doing their jobs.
The implications ripple far past the lack of items. Small trucking firms face larger insurance coverage premiums or exit of enterprise. Retailers, already navigating international provide chain complications, should take in delayed deliveries and stock losses. Shoppers see worth hikes and empty cabinets. And for drivers — usually the final line of protection — the stress of fixed vigilance turns into a day by day burden.
Cyber-enabled “strategic theft” is now one of the insidious and fastest-growing strategies of committing cargo crime. When coupled with just about nonexistent enforcement, it’s a low-risk, very high-reward proposition for these unhealthy actors. Only one in ten thefts ends in an arrest.
That’s the reason Congress should act and move the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, a bipartisan invoice that will lastly give federal authorities the authorized framework, sources and cross-agency coordination wanted to take this disaster significantly. It’s a badly overdue step towards unified nationwide enforcement.
This invoice would create a federal process drive with the investigative authority to discourage these legal rings. Simply as importantly, native regulation enforcement ought to be skilled and geared up to acknowledge and reply to cargo theft. Federal funding ought to assist multi-jurisdictional investigations.
We additionally want higher information. In contrast to different types of crime, cargo theft is severely underreported and inconsistently tracked. The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act establishes a nationwide cargo theft database — complete, centralized and clear — which might be a strong device for regulation enforcement and trade stakeholders alike. Because it stands, we’re probably severely underreporting the true scale of the financial harm.
The numbers we do know are regarding. The common worth of every cargo theft is greater than $200,000, and in line with the Nationwide Insurance coverage Crime Bureau, there’s been a 1,500 percent increase in cargo theft incidents since 2021. Complete cargo theft losses elevated by 27 % in 2024 and are projected to rise one other 22 % in 2025.
The FBI and Division of Homeland Safety have flagged this as a rising nationwide risk — however the theft epidemic rages on, as a result of the actual failure is considered one of enforcement. The penalties for cargo theft are weak. Investigations are uncommon. Prosecutions are slower than a backed-up port. Cargo thieves should face penalties that replicate the size of their crimes — not pocket change that comes with a slap on the wrist.
Sen. Todd Younger (R-Ind.) not too long ago said it well: “Eliminating cargo theft would require an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ strategy that includes Congress, federal companies, native regulation enforcement, and the personal sector.”
That each one-hands-on-deck strategy would have helped Adam Blanchard, CEO of Texas-based Tanager Logistics. As he told members of Congress in February, thieves brokered hundreds beneath his firm’s identify, deceiving each shippers and carriers. They then stole truckloads of Purple Bull, diverting them to suspicious warehouses in California and ostensibly transport them in a foreign country.
When Blanchard turned to insurance coverage firms, native regulation enforcement and federal companies — FBI, Federal Motor Provider Security Administration, even the Division of Homeland Safety — he was met with a wall of indifference and crimson tape. This is identical paperwork that claims to guard our borders and safe our economic system but can’t deal with this rampant fraud. It’s unacceptable.
Put bluntly: cargo theft threatens our nationwide safety, weakens our economic system and overtly defies regulation enforcement. Truckers are being focused, companies are struggling and the prices are borne by shoppers.
The trucking trade has proven its resiliency repeatedly — via pandemics, pure disasters and financial shocks. We take nice delight in delivering America’s freight safely and on time to maintain our economic system operating. However we can not combat organized cargo crime with out the complete assist and partnership of our federal authorities.
By passing the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, Congress can ship a transparent message: We is not going to stand by whereas legal syndicates hijack our provide chain — we’ll hunt them down, shut them down and shield the spine of American commerce.
Chris Spear is the president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations.