Industry focus
Stand and Deliver—Are We Slowing Down the Juggernaut of Supply Chain Crime?
New Drive to Put the Brakes on the Risk Hazards on the Road Ahead
The powerful analogy of attempting to “slow a juggernaut” refers to the almost impossible task of applying the air brakes to a fast-moving freighted vehicle in an attempt to avoid the carnage of a collision with an immovable object.
In this instance, the juggernaut is one of definition and perception when it comes to retail crime. The juggernaut in question is the largely under-recognised and under-reported industrial levels of “highway robberies”—the HGV hijackings, heists, and hold-ups—as well as curtain slashes and trailer raids happening on a daily basis across the UK’s half a million miles of roads.
Freight Crime Across Europe
Data reported to the TAPA Intelligence System (TIS) in the two years to 31 July 2024 shows 6,506 criminal attacks on supply chains across the UK, and losses of €110 million.
Major cargo thefts in the UK in this period—crimes with a reported loss value of €100K or above—produced an average product loss of €1,452,114.
But TAPA (Transported Asset Protection Association) which monitors freight crime across the world said cargo thieves were active in 31 countries across the EMEA region.
Although only 5.1 per cent of incident reports included a financial loss value, the thefts amounted to a total loss of approximately €16.2 million in a single month—an average of more than half a million euros per day during that month (July).
Since this represents only a fraction of the thefts, the real damage could be up to twenty times higher, TAPA estimates.
The average loss for each of the 86 cargo thefts reported was around €186,000. According to TAPA, this shows there was no “relaxation” in supply chains during the holidays.
The report said: “Organised criminal groups are particularly active during the summer holidays, public holidays, and around Christmas and New Year.”
Most Serious Incidents
To date, TAPA received reports of twenty-seven serious cargo crimes in July, representing over €15 million in losses for the month, or an average of €558,517 per incident.
The TAPA report shows the top least safe countries with nearly 90 per cent of all recorded incidents last July occurring in the following countries:
- The UK, with 620 incidents, or 35.7 per cent of all thefts
- Germany, with 359 cargo thefts, or 20.6 per cent of all incidents
- Italy, with 243 thefts, or 14 per cent
- France, with 222 thefts, or 12.7 per cent
- Spain, with 114 thefts, or 6.5 per cent
Of these five countries, all except Spain recorded their highest number of incidents so far that year in July.
“The total number of incidents in the UK in July was up 58 per cent from this year’s previous record high in February. Reported cargo theft in Germany increased by 15 per cent from the previous highest level in May. Italy’s incident rate was 13 per cent higher than in March, and France reported 16 per cent more cargo crime than in the previous record month of March,” TAPA highlights
According to TAPA EMEA, UK police forces continue to be successful in disrupting crime groups, arresting suspects and recovering stolen goods but—similar to other countries in Europe—face constant pressure to apply limited resources to responding to more serious and violent crimes.
UK Challenges
The limited resources in the UK have up-until-recently presented themselves as the immovable object we spoke of earlier.
This has been seen as successive Government intransigence to recognise the issue. It has been party to a collective failure to designate secure and safe parking areas on motorways and A-roads, or even provide separate criminal definitions of what constitutes freight theft to help guide the UK’s forty-three police forces to prevent and halt cargo crime in its tracks.
Conversely, high-profile media coverage of attacks on frontline store colleagues by violent shoplifters have dominated the media headlines in recent months, leading to tougher Government pledges including a separate offence of assault on a retail worker.
While retailers now welcome this new prioritisation of store theft, the arguably juggernaut-shaped crisis in the retail supply chain, if left unchecked, could put a large dent into the reputations of the law enforcement community and the criminal justice system.
Unbelievably, as the law stands, whether it is a multi-million-pound consignment of iPhones, high-end fashion and accessories, or a trailer-load of tobacco products, the crime is simply classified by the Home Office as a “theft from vehicle”—the same definition applied to the lifting of a pair of sunglasses from a family car, for example.
But a full-throttle drive by the freight industry, the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) and the National Business Crime Solution (NBCS) is at last putting crime fighting in retail supply chain back in the driving seat.
NBCS
According to British Retail Consortium (BRC) figures, the average value of items stolen in a shoplifting incident is £119, whereas the average cost of a trailer theft before the items have reached the store is a staggering £46,000. The values are miles apart, but the latter, which arguably pushes up the price of consumer goods more rapidly than store theft, is left standing when it comes to law enforcement resource.
Stephen Gray of the NBCS which operates its TruckPol initiative for members, told Loss Prevention Magazine Europe: “The stark difference in values is eye-watering, and supply chain crime is a massive problem for retailers.”
“It seems that all of the emphasis has been on thefts from bricks and mortar stores, but this is eclipsed by stock that goes missing as a result of organised logistics crime which include robberies and intimidation of drivers, jump-up thefts, trailer thefts and break-ins, not to mention bogus delivery pick-ups and Romanian rollover crime from moving vehicles.”
“Put simply, the official response to logistics crime is not equal to that focussed upon stores. The NBCS last year recorded more than two hundred incidents of freight crime across its membership, with one gang lifting half-a-million-pounds worth of tobacco in one attack.”
“There is little in the way of crime prevention and joined-up thinking, although Opal is now looking at this issue.”
“But the travelling nature of these organised gangs means that it should fall into the jurisdiction of the regional organised crime units (ROCUs), rather than the regular police,” he added.
With high-value stock, long, and more vulnerable supply chains from overseas, the extensive outsourcing of driving and warehousing to third party logistics providers (3PLs), together with organised criminal infiltration of driver agencies because of recruitment challenges, it is little wonder that gangs see this moving target as a valuable source of low-risk rich pickings.
In the winter 2024 issue of Loss Prevention Magazine Europe, a new UK organisation highlighted the challenges of these new scams.
In the article: “The Freight Pretenders”, the International Supply Chain Protection Organisation (ISCPO) said fake couriers with insider intelligence of retail delivery patterns are successfully targeting high value merchandise in socially engineered scams that are creating financial and reputational damage for major brands.
The “bogus pick-ups” where drivers even turn up in authentic uniforms to intercept high end products, are the latest iteration of an increasingly audacious community of cargo criminals, according to trend intelligence revealed at ISCPO’s first European meeting staged in London in October.
According to the organisation which represents several key industry sectors including retail, wholesale, e-commerce, manufacturing, distribution, logistics, insurance, risk management, and law enforcement, the ever-growing threat of fictitious pickups and other strategic thefts, has prompted a shift in the landscape towards an increase in greater sophistication.
The expansion of various methods deployed by fraudsters, the organisation argues, has placed a tremendous burden on the transportation industry, distribution facilities, business operations, and organised crime task forces.
The potential of carrier identity theft and double-brokering has international implications, as freight is mis-directed, with a high percentage of cargo going overseas, according to Glenn Master, ISCPO president and chairman who hosted the event.
In one audacious attack fake couriers targeted a luxury household brand at a retailer’s premises with claims suggesting the items were faulty and needed to be returned to the manufacturer before loading up and driving them away. This happened on a number of occasions at different locations, and it was only when the incident had been highlighted to the manufacturer that the scam came to light.
It is believed the items are being shipped overseas for sale as part of a stealing to order scam which is likely to involve a level of collusion in terms of the level of knowledge of the product.
The trend had been previously picked up in the retail and logistics press last year.
According to an article in Better Retailing, there had been multiple instances of fake parcel-pick-up drivers attempting to carry out collections from stores.
Retailers working with one dominant carrier business confirmed the courier sent an email warning of instances of fake drivers visiting stores with scanning devices.
One retailer who had previously fallen for a bogus pick-up scam, said: “We were told we have to check the ID, the uniform, and to look out for new faces.”
Definition of Freight Crime
But to get a correct handle on tackling these more sophisticated issues, the UK has got to start with a deep dive recognition of the fundamentals, and that starts with a legal definition and scale of the challenge on the UK’s roads.
Freight traffic, for example, represents 30 per cent of movements along the 4,300 miles of the UK’s Strategic Road Network (SRN), despite the fact that the SRN accounts for only 2 per cent of the total road length in the country.
This highlights the importance of the SRN for long-distance and high-volume traffic where up to 40 per cent of offences, such as speeding violations, occur, due to the high volumes of traffic and presence of enforcement technology.
Up to 90 per cent of deliveries to retail businesses in the UK use the Strategic Road Network, which is critical for the movement of goods, especially for long-distance transport, as it connects major cities, distribution centres, and key retail locations.
The Road Haulage Association (RHA), the UK trade association representing 8,500 road haulage, coach and van operators, has recently demanded that freight crime is made a specific criminal offence to counter a problem that cost the UK economy an estimated £420 million (€495m) in 2023.
It was one of a series of “recommendations to Government” contained in the RHA’s blueprint document “Mission driver: a blueprint for delivery”.
The RHA, whose members operate around 250,000 HGVs (half of the UK fleet) out of ten thousand operating centres and range from a single-truck company to those with thousands of vehicles, says greater penalties are needed to deter criminals from preying on hauliers.
“Freight crime is destroying businesses, impacting the health, safety and well-being of our drivers, and it’s making it harder for firms to recruit and retain staff,” the Association stated.
RHA’s Ashton Cull, commented: “It’s remarkable that theft of perhaps millions of pounds worth of goods from the back of a truck is in many ways recorded the same as an opportunistic theft of a purse from a passenger of a personal vehicle.”
“It needs to be clearer; the impact needs to be seen. Freight crime is low-risk, high-reward for highly organised criminals. This is happening every night in truck stops across the UK. We believe the specific offence of freight crime should be recognised, with tougher sentencing in place to reflect the wider harm caused.”
In November 2024, the RHA appeared before the Freight and Logistics All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) meeting in Westminster where it launched a report highlighting the rise of freight crime.
“Last year alone there were 5,370 reports of HGV and cargo crime across the UK, with at least £68.3 million worth of goods stolen. That’s solely crimes that have been reported. Our industry is under attack, and we know that there are still many crimes going unreported daily. Since 2020, the true estimated value of loss due to freight crime is believed to be over £1 billion.”
“We hear it every day from members; everything from clothing and electrical goods to food, alcohol, and perfumes are prey for highly organised crime gangs who are monitoring hauliers’ journeys and taking risks to steal high-value goods.”
The APPG also heard about a recent growth in more sophisticated attacks where fraudsters are using emails and messaging apps to collect data and gain access to loaded trucks. This is deeply concerning.
“The chronic shortage of safe and secure parking spaces and roadside facilities is leaving drivers and businesses extremely vulnerable to this crime. It’s clear too that the police are trying hard but are severely under-resourced to adequately deal with the scale of freight crime,” the RHA said.
In the report, entitled “Securing Our Supply Chains: How the Government can crack down on freight crime”, the trade body is calling for immediate action.
“We’ll continue to engage with all the MPs in the APPG who continue to support our industry. We will continue to work on behalf of our members to press Government to act to crack down on these dangerous criminals and safeguard our drivers, businesses and supply-chains.”
NaVCIS
According to Mike Dawber of the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS), a dedicated police resource funded by the freight industry to engage with businesses and track freight crime across the UK, the juggernaut of freight crime could be slowing as part of a recognition of the need for a concerted effort.
In 2024, the UK Government provided £55.2 million worth of funding for service stations and truck stops to apply for on the proviso they spend it on accredited secure parking and welfare facilities for lorry drivers, a figure to match-fund investment by affected businesses.
In addition, the British Parking Association (BPA) has approached NaVCIS with a view to providing a secure “Park Mark” parking standard across its lorry estates.
“While many lorry parks advertise themselves as safe, there are currently only a handful of UK lorry parking sites that are deemed secure and accredited to the TAPA standard. This new “Park Mark” therefore represents a step change,” according to Mike.
“These are major steps forward for the freight industry that has suffered at the hands of organised criminal gangs for too long,” said Mike.
“These gangs think nothing of slashing curtains, cutting trailer bolts, or engaging in jump-up crimes involving violence and intimidation, not to mention new MOs including bogus pick-ups with forged paperwork.”
“If a lorry curtain is slashed en route, it may cost £100 to repair, but what is never mentioned is the insurance implications for that business. If that cargo is not stolen, it may be totally rejected by the customer at the other end involving a stock write-off. Larger 3PLs have to absorb these costs, but smaller freight operators may be forced out of business by such incidents.”
The measures go some way to reducing the risk, but, according to Mike, there is no silver bullet to halt criminals who, like the juggernauts they attack, plough forward in a relentless trajectory.
“Where there is a market for the stolen goods, cargo theft will prove to be a lucrative vehicle,” said Mike whose role involves the searching of social media sites for stolen items such as tobacco that could be linked to highway robbery.
The road is long and circuitous when it comes to countering retail crime and specifically freight larceny. Once the preserve of single-cut purses and highway robbers, modern day theft from and of vehicles in the retail supply chain is a hugely organised and lucrative enterprise across the UK’s highways and by-ways that has, up until now, shown no signs of slowing down.
But is that juggernaut about to turn? Is the collaborative force of Government, industry, and law enforcement about to shine an unwelcome investigative light onto the darker laybys of freight crime and deliver a full-throttle intelligence-led and radical set of solutions that signal the end of the road for the latter-day highwaymen? There seems to be some positive movement and wider recognition of the trailer-shaped crisis Europe’s logistics businesses face, but while only time will tell, but there is at last a sense of some long overdue joined-up thinking for joined-up journeys.
