The $18 Million Daily Crime No One’s Talking About

By Heesham Naji | December 31, 2025

There’s a crime happening right now. By the time you finish reading this sentence, the freight industry will have lost another $12,500 in stolen cargo.

That’s not an exaggeration. That’s math.

The American Transportation Research Institute recently released a 70-page report that should be required reading for anyone who moves, ships, receives, or insures freight in America. The title is dry — The Fight Against Cargo Theft: Insights from the Trucking Industry — but the numbers inside are anything but.

$6.6 billion per year. $18 million per day. Gone.

And here’s what makes it worse: 74% of that stolen cargo is never recovered. Not partially recovered. Not eventually found. Vanished. Often loaded onto container ships and exported before investigators even know it’s missing.

The Numbers Nobody Wants to Hear

ATRI surveyed motor carriers and logistics service providers across the country. What they found should alarm anyone with freight on a truck tonight:

• 65.3% of motor carriers have experienced cargo theft
• Average annual loss per motor carrier: $521,000
• Average annual loss per LSP/broker: $1.84 million
• Average loss per incident for brokers: $95,351

That last number matters. When your average theft is nearly six figures, this isn’t petty crime. This is organized, strategic, and increasingly sophisticated.

The Shift That Changed Everything

Here’s where brokers need to pay close attention.

For motor carriers, the breakdown looks like traditional crime: pilferage (39.9%), straight theft (31.5%), and strategic theft (20.3%).

But for logistics service providers?

Strategic theft accounts for 62.5% of all incidents.

That’s carrier impersonation. Fictitious pickups. Double brokering schemes. Identity theft. Criminals sitting at laptops — not lurking in parking lots.

ATRI puts it bluntly:

"“Freight capacity can be sourced and contracted from anywhere in the world through an internet connection.”

The same technology that made freight more efficient also made it easier to steal.

Where It’s Happening

Geography tells the story:

• California: 48% of thefts in one large carrier’s case study
• Illinois, Texas, Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee round out the hotspots

For motor carriers, the most common theft location is their own terminal (24.3%).

For LSPs? Customer pickup locations (50.5%).

In other words, the load is stolen before it ever moves — picked up by someone who was never supposed to have it.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Recovery

When motor carriers experience cargo theft, 73.5% of that cargo is never recovered.

LSPs show better recovery rates — not because the problem is smaller, but because higher-value thefts justify aggressive recovery efforts. When $95,000 disappears, resources get deployed. When $29,000 disappears, it often doesn’t.

The ATRI report found that some carriers don’t even report thefts under $500 to law enforcement. It’s not worth the paperwork.

The Reporting Gap

Here’s another problem no one’s addressing:

• 82.2% of motor carriers report all theft to law enforcement
• Only 53.3% of LSPs do

For insurance reporting:

• 56.3% of motor carriers report all theft
• Only 36.4% of LSPs do

Why? Fear of premium increases. Administrative burden. And the quiet belief that nothing will come of it anyway.

This underreporting creates a data gap that makes the problem harder to solve. The $6.6 billion figure is likely conservative.

What ATRI Says We Should Do

The report outlines three priorities:

1. Build a Security Culture

Not just training — culture. ATRI found “too much complacency within companies.” The companies not getting hit aren’t lucky. They’re prepared.

2. Model State Legislation

ATRI recommends:

• Designating cargo theft as a distinct crime
• Graduated sentencing based on theft value
• State-level task forces for coordination and intelligence sharing

Right now, many states treat cargo theft like stealing a bicycle. The penalties don’t match the sophistication of the crime.

3. Federal Centralized Reporting

ATRI calls for a federal cargo theft Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) to centralize data, identify trends, and distribute intelligence.

Today, reporting is fragmented. Criminals exploit the gaps between jurisdictions.

The Bottom Line

Cargo theft isn’t a nuisance. It’s a $6.6 billion annual drain on the supply chain — a tax on every shipper, carrier, and consumer in America.

The ATRI report makes one thing clear: criminals have professionalized. They’ve moved from parking lots to keyboards. They operate across state lines and international borders.

The question is whether the industry will respond with the same level of coordination.

Because right now, while you’ve been reading this, another $50,000 in cargo just disappeared.

And 74% of it is never coming back.

Source: ATRI