If I stole your truck and trailer, here’s how I would do it.
by Michael VonWald
I loved the first Fast and Furious movie. I have to admit though; these guys went through a lot of ridiculous work to steal a semi truck full of goods. Being in this industry, I could have given them a lesson or two that didn’t include jumping out of moving cars and using grappling hooks. I know that drivers and companies leave these trucks and trailers out for the taking with little security. I guess my movie on stealing rigs would be pretty boring.
I am not trying to convince you to start stealing cargo. However, the average bank robbery nets about $4,330 (US News & World Report) compared to the average cargo theft which nets $232,924 as reported by Freight Watch International (FWI). That’s a difference of $228,594 without a nasty shootout at the end. FWI also recorded an average of 66 cargo thefts occur per month or 2.2 per day. Those are just the thefts that were reported. Cargo theft is a $30 billion dollar industry annually in the US and is growing (Inbound Logistics).
DISCLAIMER: You may be wondering how I came up with the following method to rob your stuff. I have always been and will always be a law-abiding citizen; I just make a living from protecting assets so I need to think about these things to help our clients.
Lets get started. While contacting organizations to help with asset tracking, I have found that many companies avoid investing in asset security. My first order of business would be to call you representing an asset security company and hope that you would tell me you have never had an asset stolen and have no need for such a device or service (I am pretty sure this idea is original). If you did use a security service, I would likely put you at the bottom of my hit list, but at least I have a heads up.
Then I would start watching your vehicles, where you park them, and what kind of products you haul. One guy last year stole a semi-truck of 200,000 eggs, talk about a disappointing robbery. If they don’t visually locate the truck, the smell of rotten eggs should give your location away.
Next, if I want the truck, the locks are not that difficult to break through on most semi’s (so I hear), so I get in the cab and drive off while you or your driver is at a rest stop and not paying attention or the truck/trailer is parked over night. Your yard camera’s or local truck stop caught me on a video feed, but I was wearing all black, so good luck identifying me. Or, maybe I will wear all white because I was feeling extra confident that evening. If I were just taking a trailer, I would just back up my own tractor and take off.
Ok, but what if you have GPS on your trailers? Most likely your device is run on the vehicle’s power and is secured to the outside of the chassis. Cut the power line and cut the devices ability to send tracking information. Or, I can buy a GPS jamming case on ebay and cover your device. If I am not sure where the device is located, I can buy a frequency based jammer for around $50 on jammer-store.com. All orders shipped via DHL are free, I told you this was easy (and quite cost effective).
So how do you defend against cargo theft?
Using a GPS device is an obvious way to start. But you have to think about how your device is powered and how to protect against the smarter criminals who are jamming the devices. This is the reason our devices give alerts the moment someone tries to use jamming methods. When someone uses jamming methods our devices have the ability to connect via cell, satellite, or wireless Internet.
The devices also report on the moment someone opens a trailer door to remove goods from a trailer or locate a device. They are powered by a battery that lasts 6 – 12 months without an outside power source, allowing them to be hidden in goods or anywhere on a trailer. And did I say they are smaller than an iPhone? Good luck finding one of these things hidden in a trailer full of goods.
At Position Intel, we provide this security for $99.95 a year with no monthly fees and no contract. Call us before someone calls you pretending to be us at (651)-337-9033 and we would be happy to talk about the security you are looking for.