Here are a few statistics that may make you stop in your tracks:
According to Senator Deb Fischer, R-Neb, since 2021, there has been a 1,500 percent increase in cargo theft incidents in the U.S., costing as much as $35 Billion annually.
As reported by the Transportation Intermediaries Association, cargo theft grew by more than 600 percent between November 2022 and March 2023 alone - less than 6 months.
Recent estimates are that 2,500 truckloads are stolen every year. That’s an average of over 200 truckloads every month, about 7 per day - or hourly between 9 and 5.
Who pays for all of that theft? Companies shipping goods, companies transporting goods, and you: the consumer.
Cargo theft is a massive problem, one that is getting worse by the day. Not only is it draining value out of the supply chain, it is forcing companies to spend their strategy and transformation resources on loss prevention instead of growth and sophistication.
Cargo Theft by the Numbers
It is bad enough that cargo theft is a big problem, but the rate of growth (by practically all metrics) is alarming to everyone covering the space.
Cargo theft surged in the second quarter this year, growing by 10 percent above what was seen in Q1. We can see this problem year over year as well, with 13 percent more thefts in Q1 of 2025 than in the first quarter of last year.
According to Freightwaves, “The trucking industry is under siege from a relentless wave of criminal activity that threatens its stability and safety. In 2024, cargo theft incidents surged to 3,625 across North America, a 27% year-over-year increase, with losses exceeding $455 million and an average loss per theft of $202,364. The economic toll of cargo theft alone is estimated at $15–$35 billion annually.”
Profiling Criminal Patterns
Trailer burglaries and full-trailer theft have been recorded at elevated levels in major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Atlanta, GA, and New York City. Looking at the data another way, California, Texas, and Illinois are the top three states targeted by cargo thieves, accounting for 46 percent of all reported thefts in 2024.
There are patterns to when the crimes take place as well.
A CargoNet analysis of theft incidents revealed high levels of theft early in the week, a slowdown midweek, and then a surge on Fridays, which account for over 20 percent of all incidents.
When a trailer goes missing on Friday, people are less likely to notice it until Monday. By then, thieves have a solid head start, making recovery far more challenging. Long weekends are an even bigger problem, so with Labor Day this coming weekend in the U.S., everyone had better make sure their yards and trailers are secure.
Case Study: Copper
Whensorted by category, according to DC Velocity, the most dramatic cargo theft increase was in metals. The 96 percent annual increase in metals theft just so happens to coincide with record high copper prices, suggesting that organized crime groups are as smart as they are sneaky.
Copper intended for automotive manufacturing and construction is stolen from trucks on route to their destination. In 2024, there was a 26 percent increase in reported copper theft from North American logistics companies, and the first half of 2025 is up 61 percent from the first half of 2024.
Many thieves are targeting loadboards, where shippers work through middlemen to match their loads with available carriers. They know what origins, destinations, and origin-destination pairs are likely to include copper and simply pick up the loads like they one the shipper is waiting for.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that copper theft costs American businesses approximately $1 Billion annually, and that around 8 percent of copper wiring for new construction is lost to different forms of theft.
There are a lot of costly problems facing supply chains today. Theft is just one more on that list. If the losses keep growing the way they have been, cargo theft could easily rise to the top of the list and become public enemy number one. Maybe then this widespread problem will get the attention it deserves.
