Record year for supply chain thefts

2019 has been a record year for thefts of products from supply chains in the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region with thefts averaging €305,000 (£277,558) a day in the first six months of 2019.

According to new incident data reported to the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) thefts exceeded €55 million (£50 million) in H1 2019 and follows four previous years of consecutive theft growth.

After collating intelligence on 3,981 cargo crimes in 2018, TAPA EMEA has already identified 4,198 incidents in the six months to 30 June 2019, up 5.1 per cent.

Thorsten Neumann, president and CEO of TAPA EMEA (pictured), said: “While these figures should set alarm bells ringing for manufacturers and the cargo industry, they are still only a fraction of the full impact of freight losses in the region.

“Less than 30% of the losses in Q2/19 provided any financial data and, even more significantly, it is important to remember that we can only share intelligence on the thefts reported to our database. The vast majority of crimes still are not being reported to us but we, and other associations we are engaged with, estimate the true cost of loss to be billions of euros every year in our region,” her added.

Theft from vehicle crimes represented 853 or 57.4% of those committed between April and June 2019 followed by incidents involving theft from trailer; theft of vehicle and theft of trailer. 61% of these crimes featured trucks in unclassified parking locations.

Theft from facility accounted for 51 cases, or 3.4% of the Q2 total.

By Christopher Walton