2011 US Cargo Theft Report

FreightWatch International actively tracks and records cargo theft activity around the globe, categorizing stolen loads under 11 different commodity types, and tracking by date, location, modus operandi (M.O.) and specific product. This report summarizes the U.S. theft data collected in 2011 and analyzes trends derived from database content, law enforcement information and industry personnel. It also draws on observations by personnel in the field.

FreightWatch recorded 974 cargo theft incidents throughout the United States in 2011 — an 8.3% increase over 2010. This represents the highest number of theft incidents per year on record.

With an average of 81.2 cargo theft incidents per month, the United States supply chain sustained large-scale theft incidents (e.g. full truckload/container thefts, warehouse burglaries, driver thefts, etc. ) at a rate of 2.67 incidents per day.
Of the 974 cargo thefts recorded, 853 (87.5%) were full-truckload or container thefts and 34 (3.4%) were facility burglaries.

2011 also saw a rash of pickups by deception (fictitious), with 38 recorded for the year. The 38 thefts accounted for 4% of all incidents.

Violence remained an insignificant statistical proportion of cargo theft incidents in the United States, accounting for only 1% of the total incidents recorded for the year.(source: FreightWatch)

Back to archive