The Transported Asset Protection Association said truck heists are the leading cause of the recent surge in reported cargo crimes in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Recorded cargo crimes in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region continue to rapidly increase, with 598 new freight losses recorded in the second quarter representing a 93 percent year-on-year increase, the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) said.
TAPA was formed almost 20 years ago to tackle cargo theft by raising awareness and spreading best practices for protection among its 800 member companies.
A loss value was provided in 43 percent of the incidents reported to TAPA’s Incident Information Service for the three months ended June 30, producing a combined value for products stolen of 19.3 million euros (U.S. $21.4 million) compared to 5.3 million euros for the same period in 2015. For the first half of the year, the value of stolen cargo in the region reached 27 million euros.
The association said that during the second quarter, it recorded cargo losses in 18 countries in the EMEA region, including 21 major thefts involving a loss value of 100,000 euros or more. Most of these high value losses occurred in the United Kingdom, which accounted for eight of the total. Based on all crimes reporting a value, the average loss for cargo thefts in the quarter stood at 75,000 euros.
The biggest single loss reported involved a violent robbery of a truck at a destination facility in Northamptonshire, United Kingdom during mid-April, which involved the theft of toys and games worth 3.1 million euros. It was one of three seven-figure losses in the three-month period.
In the other incidents, thieves in Paris broke into a facility on June 26 and stole two safes containing 3 million euros of luxury watches, while in April, 1 million euros of hazelnuts were stolen from a warehouse facility in Piedmont, Northern Italy.
TAPA’s intelligence on product thefts shows 91.4 percent of all reported crimes in the second quarter occurred in just six countries: the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Russia and Italy. Overall, 47.5 percent, or 284 of recorded crimes in the quarter took place in the UK, mostly in the East of England and the East Midlands. The 70.7 percent of UK crimes that gave a loss value were worth a combined 11.2 million euros.
TAPA, which sets security standards for warehouses and trucking, is now also looking at a new standard to increase the number and quality of secure parking locations, particularly throughout Europe. Data showed that 527 of the 598 new cargo crimes were thefts or attempted thefts involving trucks, with theft from the vehicle being the most recorded type of incident in 315 or 52.7 percent of cases. It also reconfirmed that most of losses take place when trucks stop at unsecured parking locations, often when drivers are required to take mandatory rest breaks. In the second quarter, TAPA was notified of 251 incidents at unsecured parking locations in the EMEA region, 42 percent of all crimes in this reporting period.
The use of violence or threat with violence was recorded in 26 or 4.3 percent of incidents. There were also 21 cases of truck hijackings with 10 of these having taken place in South Africa and six others in Italy.
Data for the last quarter also continued to reinforce TAPA’s message that virtually all products, irrespective of their unit cost, are now at risk of theft from the supply chain. Food and drinks, the most commonly stolen product type for the full year of 2015, had 76 losses for the quarter or 12.7 percent of the total.
Overall, the TAPA Incident Information Services database received information on losses in 18 separate product categories.
Seven of these averaged at least one theft a week or more in the second quarter, which included:
• Furniture/Household Appliances with 42 incidents or 7 percent;
• Clothing & Footwear – 34 incidents or 5.7 percent;
• Cosmetics & Hygiene – 32 incidents or 5.4 percent;
• Tools/Building Materials – 23 incidents or percent;
• Tobacco – 22 incidents or 3.7 percent;
• Car Parts – 18 incidents or 3 percent;
• And tires – 14 or 2.3 percent.
TAPA Chairman Thorsten Neumann, said, “These figures should be a great cause for concern for all manufacturers and logistics service providers because they clearly show the escalation of cargo crime. People wrongly assume that our crime data relates entirely to incidents suffered by TAPA EMEA members. In fact, very few of these losses were suffered by our members because of the risk management strategies they have put in place, including adoption of the TAPA Security Standards.
“The greatest risk is to the industry-at-large and, in particular, companies that have yet to fully recognize the issue of cargo crime,” he added. “We are encouraged by the growing awareness of the problem among law enforcement agencies in the EMEA region, many of which now report incidents to TAPA to help our members prevent such crimes happening to them. However, we also want to stress the importance of companies reporting cargo crimes to the police in the first place because this is another big challenge, particularly with cross-border shipments. It is important that all stakeholders work together and support each other.”
Overall, cargo theft is underreported because many companies don’t want to disclose that they were victims, TAPA said.