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Troy: Alright, hello and welcome truckers. The date is October 3. It is the 20th episode of BigRigBanter. I hope you’re all doing well out there. I’m your co-host Troy Diffenderfer.
Lenay: And I’m your co-host Lenay Ruhl.
Troy: And that’s right. I have someone else here in the cab with me. Lenay is gonna be sticking with me full time as a co-host. Lenay, how are you today?
Lenay: I’m good, how are you?
Troy: I’m doing great. So, you might have heard her voice on the previous GATS episode. Lenay was on the floor down at GATS doing a lot of interviews and she is often working behind the scenes here at BigRigBanter so I’m really excited to have her on. Lenay, why don’t you tell our listeners about yourself? How’d you end up in the trucking industry, working here?
Lenay: Sure. So, before this life in the trucking industry I was a journalist for a few years for a business journal so that gave me exposure to not just trucking but all kinds of different industries and how they work. And then I found this great company here in Lancaster and decided to switch over to more of a marketing role. I also spent three months a few years ago driving across the country by myself. it was something I always wanted to do and I spent a lot of miles alone on the road just thinking about life. It really put into perspective for me what it would be like to be a truck driver. You know, I have a lot of men in my family who drive truck, a few uncles, my dad used to drive truck, and, you know, I never really understood what it would be like to be alone on the road with just your thoughts and the highway so I really can appreciate and respect the drivers who spend their lifetime doing that.
Troy: Yeah and I know this is just your second time you’ve been on BigRigBanter but many folks don’t know that Lenay’s often, whether it’s editing the podcast, or helping to listen to the podcast, Lenay’s been involved in this for a while. So, what are you most looking forward to now that you’re on the air and adding a second voice for BigRigBanter?
Lenay: Well anyone who knows me knows that I talk a lot so I think that I’m looking forward to that, just being able to hang out and chat with you, and to bring a new voice, and definitely a female perspective to BigRigBanter. I know there’s lots of ladies out there listening, and I hope to bring more of the women in the trucking industry to BigRigBanter. What about you troy, I mean you’re asking me all these questions, what draws you to the trucking industry?
Troy: Yeah well, I guess I probably never talk to listeners about this, you know, I don’t really introduce myself that much or talk about my background here but I was really drawn because of how different it is from my own lifestyle. I’ve never traveled that much or, I’ve never been someone that would spend time on the road for long periods of time. To me that’s not something I necessarily would want to do, but I’m always fascinated by these people that make a living traveling across the country and I think the fact that it’s so different from my lifestyle is what really drew me to this. I want to hear stories from these truckers. I want to really dig deep and get inside the mind of a trucker, and what it’s like, and I think that’s a unique perspective to have when it comes to reporting on this stuff and doing a whole podcast about it is having that kind of naive curiosity into the trucking industry.
Lenay: Yeah absolutely. And you know, we really love to hear from you guys so don’t be shy. You know, reach out to us on Facebook, leave us messages. We’d love to hear your stories or to bring you on the show. If you have an idea, let us know.
Troy: Absolutely, Truckers. Again, I thank Lenay for coming onto the podcast. I think it’s going to be really great to kind of banter back and forth and talk about these issues, do some great interviews, and I think you’ll see a lot of our personalities come through in these next couple episodes. Today we’re gonna talk about cargo theft. It’s a pretty serious issue and it’s not something that maybe truckers always think about, but it’s certainly something you should be aware of. I know many schools don’t really cover it. Everyone thinks, oh that could never happen to me but we’ll give you some statistics later in the show that say it’s actually more frequent than you think. Alright let’s look into some cargo theft statistics. Cargo theft, reporting from Cargonet, actually reported in 2017 that it was one of the safest years in terms of cargo theft and other theft incidents since the firm began recording them. A total of 741 cargo thefts were reported to the firm last year in the US and Canada, with an average value loss of nearly $200,000. The number of cargo thefts in 2017 was actually 12 percent lower than in 2016. The firm also recorded another 1,500 stolen tractors, trailers, or intermodal chassis and containers during the year. Food and beverage items were the most commonly stolen in 2017, representing 22 percent of all cargo thefts, Cargonet reports. Meat products and alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages were the most stolen in this category. So, I think it’s important to know that there are cargo thefts that happen out there and they’re extremely financially impactful when it comes to how much is getting stolen. But we have some stories to prove that. Lenay, I know you found some news articles that happened recently about cargo theft incidents.
Lenay: Yeah when we were doing our research I was just reading some news articles seeing exactly how this happens and you know a lot of the cases this is happening when your truck is parked. So, it’s going to happen when it’s in a warehouse or a fenced yard. And actually, at truck stops. You know people are watching and they see you go inside to relax and that’s when they’re most likely to steal your cargo. So, these are things to be aware of and to look out for. But enough of us rambling. Let’s hear from some experts on the subject of cargo theft and get some prevention tips for you.
Troy: Yeah, Lenay had the chance to sit down with some of the guys from the Cargo Security Alliance, so let’s take a listen.
Lenay: Alrighty, I’m here today with Walt Beadling and Erik Hoffer from the Cargo Security Alliance and we’re going to talk today about cargo theft. How are you guys doing?
Walt: Good.
Erik: Fine, very well.
Lenay: Good. So, Walt, how about you go first and just tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do at Cargo Security Alliance.
Walt: Ok, Lenay. Yeah, my name’s Walt Beadling. I’m the managing partner of the Cargo Security Alliance. Our vision, if you will, is we want to secure the global supply chain and expedite the flow of commerce, and there’s a tradeoff there because whenever you put security measures in place there’s a tendency to slow things down. Actually, many times if you do it right it speeds things up and it certainly protects the assets of the shipper and the motor freight company and ultimately the constitute? So, if you do cargo security right you not only protect those assets, you also can speed things up and protect those assets. So, we’ve been doing this for quite a while now. The Cargo Security Alliance is really a set of partners that work together in this endeavor. Those being a company called NovaVision, Inc., CGM, they actually provide physical security products like different kinds of ways to secure, seal trucks and packaging materials and things like that. We also have, one of our members is Regiscope, RDI, and they provide information technology to secure facilities and specifically to do driver and carrier ID verification. My company is called Cayuga Partners. We actually help clients design secure supply chains from the get go with the idea that if you got a well-conceived supply chain, as goods move through it, the number of stops that they make are minimal. And a favorite saying that we have is, “cargo at rest is cargo at risk.” So, as long as you keep it moving, the probability that anybody is going to be able to tamper with it, steal it, is minimized. So, those are the three major stools of the Cargo Security Alliance, the legs of the stool of the Cargo Security Alliance, and as I said, we’ve been at it for a while. We also have a number of other business partners that we work with to help us fulfill our mission. I’ll toss it over to Erik.
Lenay: Alright yeah, Eric, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do at the alliance?
Erik: Ok my company, CGM, has been manufacturing, designing, and patenting, security technology for cargo since 1972. I hold a number of patents for things like you’ve seen in the market place, like tamper evidence tape and other devices to secure pallets and vehicles. As a part of the Cargo Security Alliance, my role has been to use my expertise to figure out which is the best solution for a particular issue facing a shipper based on his supply chain and based on the methodologies he uses to ship his goods. I have been a teacher for a long time. I was the chairman of education for the National Cargo Security Council, of which became the International Cargo Security Council after a while, Department of Transportation. I’ve written a number of books on this topic and I used to teach at the US Senate and other places to enlighten people as to the vulnerability of cargo and the vulnerability in general of the supply chain as to how it affects different types of shippers. How it would be in all mobility’s like shipping by truck, sea, or truck and then rail. Depending on how the freight moves the vulnerabilities are different. So, I used to enlighten people about that in different venues which involved government and private industry, dealing with basically every commodity possible. So, my background in this has been about since the early 1960s where I did the same kind of thing in the military.
Lenay: Awesome! So, it’s a good thing that I called you because I really don’t know too much about cargo theft except the little bit of reading that I did on the internet prior to our call. So, why don’t you tell us, you know, how common cargo theft is and why it’s such an issue, especially for the trucking industry?
Walt: Let me try that one a little bit, just to frame that. One thing is no matter where cargo starts and where it ends up, at some point along that chain it’s gonna be in a truck and often multiple times across that chain it is in a truck. So really, trucks are the single most common mode of transportation for cargo in the supply chain, and frankly, most cargo theft, it doesn’t happen when it’s in a warehouse or someplace else. It happens when it’s on a truck, in a truck, something like that. So, it is an issue for trucking for sure, and it’s very, very common. Cargo theft is a crime that is notoriously under reported. When you talk to folks who keep track of these things, what actually gets reported is just the tip of the ice burg, and there’s a variety of reasons for that. I think Erik probably can explain that best.
Erik: Most importantly, cargo theft has been going on forever, so whether there’s theft involved, stealing something, tampering with it, or reloading the pallets with something else to able to remove the commodity and replace it with telephone booths or something of the same weight, has been going on for years. So, ever since I got into the business, literally in ‘65, the numbers that started out as minimal, after you realize what the real numbers are, averages somewhere in the neighborhood of say $25 – $45 billion annually. And when you look at that kind of number, which has been gone over by all types of agencies, to determine what the real numbers are, you find that it’s pretty consistent over time – that the numbers are staggering as to what the losses are. So, when you start to recognize that you’re talking about a real significant piece of the GDP (gross domestic product), now you’re saying, that this is an under economy. This is a whole economy of all these goods that are being stolen and then what do you do with stolen goods? You Resell them. So now you have a double whammy. You have the goods that are stolen from the continuity, from the owner of those goods, or from the shipper who still owns them, and then those goods are being sold against that intellectual property holder in the field and their sold against them. So now you have a market, a sub market, that’s selling those goods at a lower price, because they didn’t pay for them, obviously, against the manufacturer who’s selling them normally. What happens is you blend the market and it’s a tremendous loss for the intellectual property holder who owned the goods originally and a great profit center for the people that stole them. When you start to look at cargo theft as a, as an entity, basically it’s where another business has formed, using the same exact goods or the same exact characteristics, that the real manufacturer had, and now you have a whole different economy with billions of dollars of goods, in the market place, that have been stolen and nobody paid taxes on them. The manufacturer had to remake those goods and they had to reship those goods and so the cost to the manufacturer is outrageous. The other thing that Walter’s alluding to is that in the cargo theft world, when goods are stolen, if they’re recovered, depending on the commodity that we’re talking about, by law, those goods, their ingestible, have to be destroyed, so therefore there’s no insurance value because the insurance company recognizes the goods have been recovered. Whether they’re usable or not is not a question, those goods have to be destroyed. So now the owner doesn’t make anything. He doesn’t get anything on insurance. He doesn’t get anything on the value of the goods, and he has to throw them out. So, in cargo theft the only ones that ever win are the attorneys, because everybody segregates everything to everybody else. Shipper A shipped the goods by carrier B who gave them to carrier C to deliver carrier C suddenly doesn’t have the goods and B sues him, A sues B and it goes on for years. And at the end of the day nobody gets anything. So, cargo theft is a very, very dynamic business, if you will. It’s something that people don’t recognize the real effect on the US economy, but it’s there and when you start to evaluate it you will see that it’s one of the most crushing things that can happen to an intellectual property holder.
Lenay: Right, so when is this most likely to happen and where is it most likely to happen?
Walt: Let me try to take that one Erik. Yeah, there are certain times of the week and of the month and year when cargo theft is most common. It correlates very strongly, of course, with the volume of activity that happens across the supply chain, and there’s a lot of statistical information on a lot of data. In terms of where it happens, most cargo theft happens, like I said, cargo at rest is cargo at risk, so it’s usually when cargo is either in a truck that’s been parked, or in a yard somewhere, or it can also be in warehouses… there’s a lot of inside theft that goes on as well. So again, there are a number of different statistics you can look at that show when and where cargo theft occurs and it’s pretty well documented. Weekends tend to be a time because many times the trucks are idle on the weekends and that’s a time when it’s most vulnerable. Erik anything to add there?
Erik: Well, keep in mind that you have to determine, in terms of cargo theft, the value of the goods. The greater the value the more apt they are to be surveilled and stolen. So, when you look at trends, obviously the greater the amount of volume that’s shipped out, around Christmas time, what have you, is going to be a time when you have to consider that protection levels tend to be higher. In terms of the product that you’re shipping, if you’re shipping soap powder, you know that has not anywhere near the level of vulnerability as shipping pharmaceuticals. You have to look at what the product is, what the supply chain is, when you’re shipping, and determine if your particular product has a greater level of vulnerability and then that’s what you want to protect.
Lenay: Ok, and are there certain products that are most commonly stolen?
Erik: High value. Anything of high value. You can break it down to jewelry, to pharmaceuticals, to cosmetics, to electronics, to anything that has an instant resale value and a high individual value. So, you have to also understand that in different countries, especially Mexico, remember, this is a worldwide problem, global problem, you’re just as apt to get a truck load of toilet paper stolen in Mexico or stolen somewhere in the United States, and that product is then immediately distributed through the barrios, through the stores. And before you know it, and I’m talking about, they can strip the truck out in a couple of hours and have that stuff completely gone, and sold in these small stores. So, to them, to that particular group of people, they can get money instantly, from the stores, the stores get to buy it for 10 cents on the dollar, the thieves are obviously making a lot of money, and the stuff moves out very, very quickly. So, you have to recognize that it’s what your market is and where you are. You know, but clothing, jeans, things that are easily dispensed is the basis that the business exists. But the business, there’s a “why” to it. Remember there’s a whole underground economy so when stuff is stolen off a truck, now you have 100 television sets, you have whatever, what are you going to do with it? You have to have a means for which you can get rid of those goods very quickly because you don’t want the truck to be sitting around much more than a few hours with the stolen goods. You have to recognize what is happening. There’s a whole market place, a whole market place, from gangs to drugs, to all types of different people who have their sights on being able to move cargo. Because, as Walter said before, there are really no remedies… So, when you find people who would normally maybe rob a store, rob a jewelry store, rob the bank, they’d be more apt to highjack a truck that has $30 million worth of cargo in it and sell it for a $1 million and they’re out free and clear. So, you have to recognize that it’s a much more dynamic thing than just you and the cargo. Keep that in mind. There’s a lot more to it.
Lenay: Before we get into like prevention tips is there anything else that you guys want to mention just to paint the pictures of cargo theft, how, why, where it happens?
Erik: Where it happens, as Walter said, typically when freight is left unintended is one particular time that someone would go for it, and that means that the stuff could be unattended at the trans shift point, from the warehouse. It could be unattended at the outset where somebody takes the product from the original shipper, opens the pallets, takes out what they want, reseals the pallet, puts them back on the truck, and the stuff moves out and has already been stolen. There’s another problem where somebody might highjack the vehicle in route. The driver gets out of the truck to eat. He leaves the truck alone and somebody will go in and steal the truck. Another thing might be a more violent type of high jacking, where the driver who’s being watched from the time he leaves the warehouse and he might have millions of dollars’ worth of goods on there, or he might have hundreds of thousands of dollars of just general cargo and then one pallet of, you know, oxycodone. Then suddenly you have that particular truck being high jacked when all they want is that one very expensive pallet. So, that’s another way. And then of course upon delivery, if there’s confusion, if there’s a lot of boxes, where as opposed to palletizing it with a visual chain of custody, where everything is in chaos, that has to do with liquor and things like that, where it’s just boxes of this, boxes of that and no one particular pallet worth of goods, then they will short you. Where somebody will sign a bill of landing saying that there were 30 boxes and there were only 27 and now suddenly you have a claim. So, there’s all sorts of ways of having cargo being removed, manipulated, stolen or otherwise missing at the time of delivery.
Walt: I just wanted to make another point, Lenay, just to expand a little bit on this. I think that there is sort of different types of cargo theft. At one end of the spectrum you do have these high value goods, pharmaceuticals, electronics, things like that. Those crimes tend to be more targeted, premeditated, if you will, better planned out. I think, on the other hand, you have this sort of general commodities, as Erik mentioned, which are easy to fence. You know, stuff virtually untraceable like toilet paper, or detergent, or whatever it may be. That’s also very attractive because it’s so easy to get rid of, and frankly, it’s almost impossible to trace. So, kind of depending on the motives of the cargo thief, they’re going to target different types of cargo and then use perhaps different types of techniques to identify where it is, track it, and take it. Just wanted to make that point.
Lenay: Sure, thank you. So, when truck drivers are on the road, what are some things that they can do to prevent cargo theft from happening?
Erik: Well remember, the person who is standing next to the truck upon delivery is suddenly the person who is going to be accused of the loss. Whether the loss happens at the factory where it was made and it was short-shipped, whether it happened in the warehouse where it was transshipped, whether it happened anywhere along the supply chain, the guy that comes in with the goods, who is the driver, is suddenly attacked by the recipient who says, hey where’s the rest of my goods? The driver is sitting there with egg in his face. He has no idea. So, if a driver recognizes that he’s moving cargo, any kind of cargo, whatever he’s moving, if he’s moving it in a truckload, at that point, requesting that door be locked and sealed in some way that can be manipulated. Then he could photograph that or he can make sure that number’s on the bill of lading such that when he gets to the destination, he can go to the recipient, go do the dock foreman, whoever he’s getting to open the doors, and he could go up there and say, this is the bill of lading, there’s a seal number, 12345. Then the driver can take the guy out to the vehicle itself, and before he opens the door, whether it’s roll up or screen up or whatever it happens to be, he can say with some level of certainty that this type of seal was on there and the number is the same. now seals are not all the same, so using a seal that is appropriate to the vehicle, to make sure that nobody can surreptitiously open it, and circumvent the seal is also critical, but having a chain of custody such that when a driver picks up the cargo, he can attest that that particular number is assigned to that particular freight and suddenly at least he’s vindicated that hey, I picked it up with this number, I delivered it with this number, and I didn’t open the trailer. When there’s nothing on the trailer, or something that is an inappropriate seal for that level of protection, then the driver again can be vulnerable.
And so, the drivers always should recognize that they need to protect their interests by doing something proactively to identify the cargo is contained and controlled while it was in their care.
Walt: Right, well nowadays you can have most drivers do have smart phones where they can take pictures and document the loads that they’re carrying if there’s anything at all suspicious. It’s easy for them nowadays to document that and they should be very careful to do that. So, I just want to highlight that as one technique that can and should be used. Erik mentioned the whole idea of a chain of custody, and you know, the driver is a key custodian, if you will, of that cargo in that chain and so, you know, understanding what the chain of custody is, making sure the documentation is all correct and accurate, double checking the bills of lading with what they actually have, again checking those seals, all those kinds of things – you can’t be too careful when you’re accepting cargo for shipment. I think when you’re actually on the road, then you need to have what is usually called situational awareness. Drivers need to be very careful to check periodically to make sure they’re not being followed, that their truck hasn’t been targeted or possibly is being followed by someone. They need to be very careful when they actually park. If they do have to park along the route, that they’re parking in a well-lit area. If they can, back up against a wall, for example, so that it’s hard to get into the back of the truck if they haven’t sealed it properly with locks, which often they fail, they don’t do. And it’s amazing… when you drive down the highway, look and see how many of those doors are actually locked. The vast majority of doors, swing doors, roll up doors, on trucks, are not locked, which is pretty amazing. So, following all those just common sense procedures is really, really important. If it’s a real high value load, pharmaceuticals, electronics, whatever it may be, then team driving is indicated, where there’s always somebody with the truck. Somebody has to stop, limiting the amount of distance that’s traveled on a particular route, avoiding those high-risk lanes that we talked about a little bit earlier. All those kind of things, you need to think through what you’re doing. And making sure that you’re not going into a high-risk situation, a high-risk area; all those kinds of things are very, very important for the driver to be aware of.
Lenay: Right, so I mean, obviously, no driver wants it to happen to them but if it does what should they do?
Erik: Well if somebody recognizes that a theft has occurred, then the driver needs to make sure he stays with the freight and has some way to be able to vindicate themselves. If the driver gets into a situation where he is being surveilled or he is being reported to a choke point where he can’t back out or he can’t do anything, the most important thing he can do is be observant. Try to understand who is there. I mean he could call 911 while he’s still in the vehicle… he can lock himself in the vehicle, that’s another possibility, but no cargo in the whole world is worth anybody’s life. So, when you understand that, you have to recognize that if there’s a situation where the driver is in fear of his life, you really want to give up that cargo and not start a situation where the driver is protecting those goods, because there’s no product in the world that’s worth his life.
Walt: And in the United States, I think it’s rare for drivers to be physically threatened and hijacked. It happens, but it’s rare because of the implications of that the thieves have. They’re not gonna want to go down that path, because as Erik said, I mean, if it’s just a property theft, 9 times out of 10 those things don’t really get followed up, but if it turns into something where somebody’s been physically harmed, or worse, then all of a sudden, the heat comes. In other geographies, that’s not the case. They’re much more likely to put the driver’s life at risk to affect cargo theft than here… places like Mexico, parts of Europe, Africa, places like that. Physical violence against drivers is much, much more common than it is here.
Erik: And you have to recognize that most of these drivers that are out there on the street have been driving for a bit and most of them, they really do understand you know, what they need to do to protect their interests. That’s really important to recognize. These guys are not stupid. They don’t want to get hurt, and they want to be sure that they are in a position to get out, extract themselves from whatever this peril happens to be. So, most drivers know the ways to get out of it, but typically what happens is goods are stolen somewhere along the supply chain, and this guy’s suddenly coming in and delivering them and they open the boxes and they’re all full of telephone books… that driver, he’s done for because he’s going to be accused of the theft. He’s going to be accused of being complicit. He’s going to be accused of something and there’s going to be ramifications because it’s not that they’re going to pursue the crime as much as he’s going to get fired because he’s implicated in the theft.
Lenay: Right, right. Are there any regulations regarding cargo theft that are in place right now or new ones that drivers should be aware of?
Walt: Well, I think the biggest thing that’s happening right now in the motor freight industry number one is the economy is booming right now. And there are a lot of constraints on the availability of transportation assets, especially trucks, truck drivers. So, that is a problem in the sense that there’s a lot more freight moving so there are many, many more opportunities for theft to occur. The other thing that’s happening at the same time is there’s something called the ELD mandate, the Electronic Logging Device mandate that was actually implemented by the federal government in the beginning of April of this year that requires drivers to record a lot of information. They have electronic logging devices in the trucks now by law, it also limits their hours of service, so what happens is when drivers have reached that limit of hours of service, what do they have to do? They have to get the truck off the road and they have to rest. Ok. So again, cargo at rest is cargo at risk. The combination of this volume of activity combined with the ELD mandate, that means drivers are actually allowed to spend less time actually driving, has created a situation where cargo theft… there are many more opportunities for cargo theft to occur. We really haven’t seen the data yet. My suspicion is that when that comes out we’re going to see a spike in cargo theft for those reasons. So, there’s more cargo moving, and there’s more cargo at rest because by law. Drivers are being forced to spend less time actually on the road. Erik, do you have anything to add to that?
Erik: Well, that’s absolutely true. That’s right. Things are changing, and thieves are not stupid. They spend all day every day 24 hours a day thinking about how they can beat the system, and at this point in time when you are a shipper, or you’re a cavalier, or a truck driver, or who is basically honest, you spend about a minute a day thinking about that. You just don’t think about it. You just run your logistical operation as you would normally. and then what happens is when the data starts coming in where you have losses, 3 percent, 5 percent, 10 percent, suddenly the numbers are in your bottom line and they’re on your balance sheet. That’s when people start to really get serious about the problem. But thieves are thinking about it all the time and they can beat ya any time they want. If you don’t think about it at all, you, as a company, are remiss in being able to protect the goods that you own already. And a lot of cases that’s a problem that corporate America doesn’t even talk about. They don’t think about it, talk about it, but those who sit in the board rooms… there’s definitely a major issue because the people there say how come we lost 40 million dollars? Where’d it go? And at that point and time, suddenly, now you have a recognition that this has happened but you don’t have any plan to do anything about it. Or somebody might burry it. Well, we lost this money but… and then somebody glosses it over. So, it’s a real major problem. Cargo theft is a very, very serious issue to your bottom line and unless people take it seriously, they’re never going to do anything about it and that amount of money is going to stay, as I said, in the supply chain, as an underground economy. It’s goods that you didn’t pay for that you’re selling. Goods that have to be remade, reshipped, all the things that are associated with having to make the goods in the first place. You have to do it all over again.
Lenay: Yeah, I think it’s really interesting, you bringing up the ELD mandate and just drivers having to stop when they reach so many hours. So, it’ll be interesting to see how those numbers change, or if they change.
Walt: And again, many times it’s not reported, I was going to say, Lenay, many times, recognizing that many times it’s not reported so those data are not the most reliable data out there, but my guess is that we’re gonna see a spike.
Erik: Just envision if you were, I’m using an example and this has nothing to do with reality but, you were J&J or you were Pfizer, or you were somebody who’s a big major name in any industry… whether you’re selling cameras or you’re selling whatever, but pick any name in the industry, and you’re a public company, and you are selling stock. On the one end, there are people who invest in your business. On the other end, you’re losing your shirt in cargo theft. Nobody’s going to report the fact that they have had billions, million in some cases, hundreds of millions of dollars in law suits, and that comes right off the bottom line, dollar for dollar. That’s profit at 100 percent value. And so suddenly, that’s gone a. and then b. suddenly you have competition where you didn’t have any competition before, selling your own goods cheaper than you are, so you’re not going to sell at the same level that you were selling. So, if those things are reported and people start to recognize that’s happening to the public company, now you have an even further problem, because your bottom line has been affected. And so most cargo thefts, in general terms, are not reported. Because there’s no benefit to reporting them because you’ve already lost it and you don’t want to tell anybody about it. Why air your dirty laundry when you don’t have to? Keep that in mind too. That’s very important in the way the companies rationalize cargo theft.
Lenay: Yeah that’s a really good point too. Thank you. Is there anything else you guys want to mention or you think is important to talk about when it comes to cargo theft before we wrap up?
Erik: Well yeah absolutely, I mean what we do. What our company does is we sell technology. Very inexpensive highly effective technology to be able to stop cargo theft. Whether it’s identifying a loss in a small box or tamper evident tape, or whether it’s sealing a truck with a lock and bar that goes across the… rod; whether it’s creating an electronic lock that goes on the back of a roll up door or a protocol for being able to ship from point A to point B. We make specialized locks that are used to seal a tractor trailer break locks to be, lock out the truck so it can’t be moved. All these different things are what we do, and so, when somebody comes to us, the whole idea of being an alliance of different companies with different technologies is we can modify a game plan for somebody to reduce their vulnerability to a particular supply chain loss. So, remember that yeah, these things are happening but there are remedies, and since most companies are very, very reluctant to create a remedy, which I can’t understand and I’ve been doing this since 1965, I can’t understand why companies are not willing to step up and say “I can lose hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars and it might take a few thousand dollars, literally, to secure my supply chain and to make my customers less vulnerable.” Suddenly, you know, they just don’t do it, and that blows my mind, makes me crazy. I have no idea why people sit there in front of me and say, “You know, I’m not going to do that,” when I know that there losses are seven figures. I don’t get it.
Walt: And a lot of big companies just put a number on their balance sheet for shrinkage, like you know, X percent, and this cargo theft stuff just gets buried right in there. And it’s a shame because it does effect the bottom line, as Erik said, and it can have many, many other deleterious effects. So yeah, we’d be happy…. if anybody’s interested, we have, as Erik said, a number of products that we sell, best practices, types of products and services that we can provide to help folks figure out how to better secure their assets and protect the chain of custody and their supply chains at the same time. You can learn more about us on our website, which is securecargo.org. https://www.securecargo.org/.
Lenay: Yeah, we’ll include a link to that website at the bottom, in the notes for this podcast, so you guys can check that out. Thank you, Erik and Walt, for being on the call with me today. I really appreciate it.
Erik: You’re welcome. It’s a great opportunity and hopefully we’ll make some people take notice of the issue and do something about it.
Walt: Yeah thanks for asking Lenay; we appreciate it.
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Troy: Alright and again a big thanks to Cargo Security Alliance and Lenay for putting together than interview and folks. If you like what you hear, don’t forget to give us a review on iTunes, find us on Facebook or Twitter… we always want to interact with our listeners, so feel free to reach out if you have an idea for a future episode or if you have a company that you think would be a great fit to come on our podcast.
Lenay: Yeah, and if you have any additional questions about cargo theft, feel free to reach out to us. We can get some answers for ya. We’ll also be writing a blog on AllTruckJobs.com with further details about cargo theft, so keep an eye out for that.
Troy: Well Lenay, you didn’t mess up too bad so I guess we’ll keep you for another episode. How do you think you did?
Lenay: Oh, I don’t know. I mean, I think I did alright… pulled out my old reporting skills and put them to the test. What do you think?
Troy: I think you did a great job and I’m excited to have you on for the next episode. And speaking of, I don’t think we’ve really decided what our next episode is. I know you had a couple ideas.
Lenay: Yeah, I was thinking maybe doing something about nonprofits since it’s Thanksgiving. We also tossed around the idea of doing something with veterans so I guess we’ll have to hash that out and see what we come up with.
Troy: Yeah that’s right folks, stay tuned for our next episode coming in November and you’ll have to find out what we decide to talk about. But I’m your co-host Troy Diffenderfer.
Lenay: And I’m your co-host Lenay Ruhl
Troy: And this has been BigRigBanter
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