Visibility Must Do More to Combat Cargo Theft

Analyst Insight: Cargo theft is accelerating at a rate that supply chains can no longer dismiss. In Q3 of 2025 alone, more than $111 million in goods were stolen in transit in the U.S. and Canada. But the scale of loss is only part of the story. The average stolen load now exceeds $336,000, which is twice the value reported in Q3 2024.

These numbers signal a sharp departure from the past. Cargo thieves today do not rely on chance. They study routes, manipulate corporate structures and launch nearly undetectable phishing schemes long before freight is in motion, succeeding when visibility falters and teams assume that silence means everything is fine.

With annual losses now estimated at $35 billion, visibility must do more than show the location of cargo. It must reveal behavior, risk and the earliest signs of a problem, so that teams can intervene before a shipment goes missing.

Part of the problem is that the methodology of cargo theft has fundamentally changed. Criminal groups now operate with patience and a deep understanding of how freight actually moves.

Various remote-access tools are often misused by bad actors to observe operations, harvest credentials, and quietly reroute freight.

The challenge for leaders now is not only detecting theft, but identifying the early signals that precede it. Phishing scams can even be done with domain names that replace a lowercase letter “L” with an uppercase “I” to essentially be undetectable to the human eye on an invoice, purchase order or bill of lading. Visibility needs to distinguish between expected behavior and subtle signs that something is off. There are many tools that shippers and carriers are using to detect bad actors before they even load their products onto a truck.

Following are some tactics supply chain leaders can start implementing today.

Layer visibility with tracking. Combining real-time tracking with continuous monitoring is one of the most effective ways to disrupt cargo theft. Layered visibility creates constant awareness by tracking location from origin, movement patterns, door openings, route deviations and stop durations. When these signals work together, teams receive immediate alerts the moment a shipment behaves abnormally. This breaks the predictable patterns bad actors rely on, and allows teams to intervene early.

Leverage network visibility data for better planning and routing. Beyond real-time monitoring, network visibility data provides long-term strategic insight. Data collected across millions of shipments reveal high-risk lanes, unreliable handoff points, patterns in fraudulent pickups and gaps within carrier networks. These insights can help supply chain leaders refine routing, strengthen carrier selection, improve security protocols and make more informed, risk-aware decisions that reduce future exposure.

Build end-to-end resilience into the supply chain. Resilience requires eliminating single points of failure across operations. Visibility must work in tandem with stronger carrier vetting, verified driver authentication, controlled handoffs, and product-level tracking for high-value freight. Supported by clear processes and trained teams, visibility becomes a foundational part of a supply chain that can withstand increasingly sophisticated criminal tactics.

Resource Link: https://www.tive.com/

Outlook: Yesterday’s tools aren’t enough for today’s cargo theft challenges. Visibility must become the backbone of modern freight security, representing a small investment to ensure that your cargo is safe. As a supply chain leader, you should work on making real-time layered visibility an essential part of your team, while shifting your organization from an easy mark to a hard target to hit.