Heavy commercial vehicle theft has increasingly been in the spotlight since the Berlin Christmas market attack in December. This attack highlighted how easy it is to steal a semi-truck and cause mass casualties, CargoNet said. In 2016, analysts recorded 623 stolen tractors and 732 stolen trailers in the U.S. and Canada. Tractor thefts are up 8 percent year-over-year, and trailer thefts are up 4 percent year-over-year.

CargoNet recorded $114m in stolen cargo across 554 cargo theft incidents — for an average loss value of $206,836.97. Apply this average to the events with a missing value, and the loss value would equal $172.9m. Reported cargo theft incidents were highest in California (228 reports; up 36 percent year-over-year), Texas (135 reports; up 1 percent year-over-year), and New Jersey (73 reports; down 25 percent year-over-year). Georgia is usually one of the most common states for cargo theft, CargoNet says, but tough cargo theft legislation along with a statewide task force has made the state more hostile to cargo thieves. Reported cargo theft losses in Georgia dropped 64 percent year-over-year.

Food and beverage commodities remained the most stolen category of cargo in 2016. Out of 836 reported cargo thefts, 217 of them involved theft of food and beverage products. Alcoholic beverages, meat products, and non-alcoholic beverages were the most stolen items, respectively. Electronics items were the next most stolen commodity with 122 reported losses and most costly category with $45.6m in reported losses across the U.S. and Canada.

Cargo theft was most common on Fridays, with 164 reported events, and Saturdays, with 140 reported events. However, Mondays and Tuesdays were the most common days to report a cargo theft loss to CargoNet; 201 cargo thefts were reported on Mondays and 171 on Tuesdays.

Source: CargoNet