Is your trailer being stalked? Criminals have started placing hidden GPS trackers at red lights to track and steal loads. This is only one of the new freight crime tactics being observed industry-wide.
Freight crime is growing in sophistication. Criminals invented new ways to steal in 2025 that weren’t around in 2024.
Here’s the latest on freight crime in 2025.
New Criminal Technology
In 2024, criminals stole over $1 billion in goods. If you stacked a billion $1 bills, the tower would be 68 miles high.
This boom in crime has been made possible, in part, by the rapid development of malicious technology. A few years ago, criminals were still touting ski masks and crowbars. Today, they are far less noticeable.
Sophisticated Processes
Criminals today are competent, organized, and capable of elaborate schemes.
For example, some criminals have started using GPS jammers to obscure trailer signals, allowing them to move freight undetected. Once a load has been diverted or hijacked, bad actors can process it using spoofed email addresses and phone numbers, making the delivery seem legit. It isn’t until the load fails to be delivered that fraud is suspected.
This elaborate scheme is typically initiated by a carrier falling for phishing… or an inside job.
Inside Jobs & Organized Crime
Organized gangs have begun bribing drivers and brokers to divulge confidential information about a load. Once this intel is secured, thieves will ambush a load, or slowly steal bits of cargo at a time.
These gangs can set up dummy brokerages with stolen docs and ads to win contracts, get paid, and vanish. These “strategic cargo thefts” have risen 400% in the last few years.
Freight Crime, Inc.
Criminal freight gangs are not delinquent posses; they can be comprised of networks spanning the globe. They operate just like a traditional company, with standardized processes, auxiliaries, and devoted person-hours.
These organizations have begun staking out warehouses, ports, and rail yards. They will paint marks on trailers to signify vulnerabilities, smash brake lights to force stops, and drive stolen rigs to phony warehouses. To these criminals, crime is a career.
How to Stay Safe
Crime today is dangerous but not inevitable. Carriers can prevent becoming a victim in several ways:
- Always vet any broker or shippers with the FMCSA. Confirm that purported names and numbers align with official FMCSA records.
- Follow the 250-mile rule: After picking up, always drive at least 250 miles before stopping. This deters any criminals tailing you.
- Lock up your trailer doors to the point of overkill. Use premium padlocks, kingpin locks, gladhand locks, and more locks. They’re worth the investment.
- Stay alert. Be suspicious of anything out of the ordinary. Despite seemingly good intentions, any individual attempting to coerce you out of your intended route is likely part of a ruse.
Freight theft is evolving at an unprecedented rate. With malicious tech, elaborate processes, inside jobs, and intricate crime gangs inflating crime to unforeseen levels, caution has never been more fashionable.
Stay alert, stay smart. Stay safe.
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