Security of freight transportation
Fraud in cargo transportation, cases of cargo theft. How to prevent cargo theft.
For cargo owners and carriers, the issue of cargo safety during transportation will always be relevant anywhere in the world. Theft of goods, medium and high value, through the use of fraudulent schemes is a profitable business for criminal groups, their methods are sophisticated and varied, and this is already someone’s business.
Attackers can encroach on any cargo – electronics, food, alcoholic beverages, regardless of the type of cargo value. Including secondhand goods. Cargoes for general consumption: clothes, medicines, car tires and spare parts, building materials, and other “hot” goods. Selling, which on the black market, even for half the price, you can get a significant “fat”.
Usually scammers prefer long-distance cargo transportation, preferably crossing several state borders – this way it is easier to cover their tracks and confuse the investigation, if any, given the many barriers.
In order to prevent the actions of criminals and not fall for their tricks, you should know and take into account as much as possible about the methods of theft of goods, and methods to prevent such cases. The most important thing that the cargo owner should remember is that cargo theft is possible at any stage of cargo transportation, with the participation of fake drivers or other intermediaries, due to an unscrupulous forwarder who took advantage of the customer’s ignorance of the details of the transport process, or the negligence of the carrier.
Here are the most common statistical examples of cargo theft:
- One-day companies, scammers pretending to be real transport companies.
- Like real shipping companies use when stealing cargo.
- What should the cargo owner, the owner of the cargo, do to prevent cargo theft.
- Unscrupulous forwarding company dispatcher, potential pest.
- Local cargo theft, enterprise collusion, corrupt employees.
- Cargo theft options – smart schemes.
1. One-day firms, fraudsters pretending to be real transport companies.
There are a huge number of decent transport companies operating in the international cargo transportation market, but at the same time there are teams of fraudulent professionals with fake or stolen registration data of real freight forwarding companies. They have fictitious bank details, a legal address, phone numbers, they even rent an office where their “logistics” accept applications for cargo delivery.
In other words, it creates the appearance of the activities of a legal transport company, with the conclusion of contracts and the execution of all proper transport documentation. By actively offering their services to clients on the Internet who need urgent delivery of cargo, fraudsters enter into the trust of the cargo owner – they offer to carry out transportation at a reduced cost, and in the shortest possible time.
Having received an order for the transportation of expensive cargo, they bring vehicles with “left” license plates to the loading place, most likely a duplicate of a real truck that is part of the fleet of the transport company, which the scammers are disguised as. A driver with a fake driver’s license takes the cargo from the warehouse to the agreed place, where the cargo or goods are reloaded into another vehicle, or to the warehouse, and then all phones are no longer working, there is no logistician who accepted the request for transportation, the office is closed – the cargo is stolen, and taken away in an unknown direction.
Imagine that in a short time, in a similar way, fraudsters accept a dozen applications for the transportation of goods, also take an advance payment for transportation and disappear with money and valuable goods. In the future, it turns out that such a transport company never existed, or a completely respectable company operates at the specified address, whose documents were stolen or forged by fraudsters who have already moved to another region, and are preparing new frauds to steal goods.
2. How real transport companies are used when stealing goods.
Quite often, when applying this scheme, the driver of a transport company can be “out of business” and used by fraudsters “in the dark”. He arrives for loading on his truck with valid license plates and driver’s license, delivers the goods to the address specified in the transportation contract. He receives a payment from the “black forwarder” who hired him, and does not even suspect that he brought the goods to front warehouse, and that he became a participant in the crime because he did not check the accompanying documents, which indicated the real recipient of the cargo. Finding it later is not a problem, but he knows nothing about the further fate of the cargo. Most often, the cargo is delivered by fraudsters on another vehicle to the buyer’s warehouse, which was found in advance, and can be resold to another buyer or sold through illegal markets. You can’t return the load. Illiterate, unskilled, inexperienced and uninstructed drivers should not work for transport companies that value their reputation.
3. What should the cargo owner, the owner of the cargo, do to prevent cargo theft.
– personally check and confirm to the consignor via fax or e-mail the data of the driver and vehicles that came for loading, so that they coincide with those specified in the contract-application. Completely exclude the possibility of shipment of goods to the “left” truck, having previously received state orders from the transport company. truck numbers. Require the prompt receipt of all copies of CMRs and other shipping documents to verify their correctness for the cargo.
– demand from the freight forwarding company copies of enterprise registration certificates, a copy of the vehicle registration certificate, driver’s documents, the first sheet of CARNET TIRA, a copy of the CMR insurance policy valid for a year. Recommendations from other consignee companies who have previously transported goods by the same transport company that you hired to transport the goods.
– require compulsory carrier or freight forwarder liability insurance, an insurance policy. For a reputable and decent transport or forwarding company, this is a common practice
If the transport company is from another country – ask to send translated documents confirming the legality of the enterprise, an extract from the local association of freight carriers. Letters of recommendation from other clients to whom the company provided transport services in the country of registration of the transport company.
Transport companies that are an associated member of the organization of carriers ASMAP, BAMAP, AITA and other similar associations of other countries, transporting goods by CARNET TIRU, have a great advantage among all other carriers. Transportation carried out by TIRU (TIRU) has always been considered safe, as it has a guarantee and increased obligations of transport companies.
4. An unscrupulous dispatcher of a forwarding company, a potential pest.
A typical case in the organization of international cargo transportation is as follows: the dispatcher receives an application for the carriage of goods at a certain cost, takes his percentage and gives this order at a reduced price to another intermediary – a forwarder, whom he finds on the Internet and does not even know personally and does not suspect that he is a fraudster ! Well, he hires a driver for a small payment, who picks up the goods from the warehouse and takes him away, but not for the intended purpose, but where the employer told him to. As a result, the intermediary disappears with the cargo.
Who is to blame in such a situation? There is no corpus delicti in the actions of the driver. He was hired and told to deliver the cargo to a certain place. The dispatcher is to blame, who wanted to get his percentage, cut the transportation budget and transferred the order to an unreliable intermediary who trades in the theft of goods. Of course, such an unscrupulous employee can be fired, brought to administrative or criminal liability – hardly, and what’s the point: it won’t help to find and return the stolen valuable cargo.
Solution for the cargo owner: compulsory insurance cargo for all unforeseen cases. Compulsory liability insurance for the freight forwarding company, which, as a legal entity, will have to pay damages for the negligence of its employee.
5. Theft of cargo by “their own”, collusion at the enterprise, corrupt employees.
It often happens that information about the upcoming transportation of valuable cargo is leaked to fraudsters by the employees of the company ordering the delivery of the cargo. They know when, in what direction, a specific cargo will be delivered, they report all the details about the cargo to the criminals, who find a buyer for it in advance. Organizing the theft is already a matter of technology, since they thoroughly know the route of transportation, where stops will be made and where it will be easiest to steal the cargo. Fraudsters also use a simpler option – an employee of the company responsible for organizing the transportation of goods indirectly helps his accomplices “carriers” get an order for the transportation of goods, they take the goods from the warehouse under the guise of a carrier and stage a robbery on the way.
Solution for the cargo owner: more careful selection and hiring of personnel to exclude people with crime from entering the team past. If the company has a logistics manager responsible for shipments without experience in organizing transportation, the company exposes itself to a huge risk of losing the cargo one day. Carry out restructuring of the transportation department, reduce the number of employees who have complete information about the upcoming delivery of cargo to a minimum: the manager, deputy director, and those who have the responsibility of ordering a car. So it will be easier to calculate the “mole” – the one who organizes the theft of goods from his own company.
href=https://moldovatruck.md/ 6. Cargo theft options – intelligent schemes.
The driver enters into an agreement with the consignor, they do not load part of the cargo still in the warehouse, they stage the theft of cargo on the way, all responsibility is shifted to the transport company that hired him, and from that one to the insurer. The driver can apply the same scheme by entering into an agreement with the consignee, if it is not the owner of the cargo himself, to shift the responsibility for the theft of part of the cargo to the carrier, who will demand damages from the insurance company
Solution for the cargo owner: to work only with transport companies that insure the carrier’s liability, CMR insurance providing a guarantee of damage and loss of cargo during transportation. Do not order the delivery of cargo from private carriers at a low price, no one vouches for the quality of such transportation and the safety of the cargo. Do not accept dubious offers, even if they seem profitable at first glance.
Robbery of goods en route. Theft of goods from unguarded parking lots, theft of entire vehicles or only a trailer with cargo in unlit places. Stopping a truck on the highway under the guise of traffic police officers, with the help of pre-prepared ambushes. Many criminal groups have “their” people in the traffic police and customs authorities, leaking information about the movement of especially valuable goods.
Cargo owner solution: Equipping a truck, trailer, or cargo with GPS beacons or other satellite surveillance systems. Ensuring armed protection of especially valuable cargo. Require the transport company or forwarder to accompany the cargo and report on its condition at each stage of the cargo transportation, or insure the cargo.
Remember that the fate of the cargo depends not only on the competence of the carrier, but also on the awareness and timely taken security measures by the cargo owner. In case of cargo theft, the police are no help.
Given the colossally low percentage of detection of such crimes, the police do not like to take on such cases, especially if the theft of cargo occurs on the territory of a foreign state. The difficulty lies in the fact that it is almost impossible to establish exactly at what stage of transportation, at a distance of thousands of kilometers, the cargo was stolen. Police officers accept allegations of cargo theft, but they are reluctant to investigate them, they put pressure on the involvement of the applicant himself – the owner of the cargo, who allegedly staged the theft of cargo in order to obtain insurance.
Without receiving proper protection and assistance from law enforcement agencies, the cargo owner must first of all take care of the safety of his cargo during transportation and minimize the risk of theft of his cargo.
