A large number of goods were stolen, and cross-border sellers suffered heavy losses: I will never use small freight forwarders again!

In the past two years, there have been frequent thefts such as stealing goods and containers at US ports, which has caused great annoyance to sellers and freight forwarders.

Large amounts of goods stolen in the United States

Compared with the frequently changing rules of the Amazon platform, a more fatal blow to cross-border sellers is to be suddenly notified that a large number of their goods have been stolen in the United States.

Recently, many sellers have received "goods theft" notifications from freight forwarders.

The notice showed that the goods in the SBD1 warehouse were secretly driven away while the driver was away for a short meal, and the whereabouts of the truck remain unknown. The freight forwarder has reported the case to the police, but the truck has not been found yet.

If the seller's goods are stolen, they not only need to compensate the platform consumers, but also need to pay the suppliers and freight forwarders. If things go wrong, the seller may have worked for nothing in the first half of this year.

"Goods stolen, freight forwarder calls the police" is not uncommon in the United States. Compared with the blatant zero-dollar purchases in the past, the theft gangs are becoming more cunning. They steal the owner's information, bribe truck drivers, collude with insiders , and steal goods and containers crazily.

A similar theft occurred in the United States earlier this year.

Just after the Spring Festival this year, a freight forwarder issued a notice, pointing out that in Los Angeles, the United States, criminals obtained consignee information through illegal means and stole containers , causing many sellers to run out of stock of old products, causing widespread distress. What is more worrying is that this is not the first time that this freight forwarder has encountered such an experience.

Cross-border Knowledge has learned that stealing containers at docks and goods from overseas warehouses has now formed a gray industry chain in the United States . Once the theft gang targets a truck, they will follow it to the parking lot, rest area, or even truck station. They take advantage of the temporary stop or unattended situation of the goods to drive away the entire truck and unload the goods, and then sell the stolen goods.

In addition, there are gangs that use another carrier's FMCSA MC number to deceive the shipper's trust . When the shipper finds that the cargo tracking is abnormal and calls the truck company office, they learn that the company has never dispatched a truck in their name. The theft gang has already used a tracking-blocking device, making it impossible for the shipper to track the cargo. By the time they discover it, it is too late.

It's all because of the low price.

According to a report by CargoNet, a cargo theft record company, in the first 20 weeks of 2023, there were more than 900 cases of theft and fraud crimes during cargo transportation, an increase of 41% compared to 2022. Among cargo theft cases, California, Texas and Florida are the most frequent areas of theft, and these three states accounted for 46% of all cargo theft cases in North America in 2022 .

Between December 23, 2023 and January 2, 2024, there were 205 incidents of cargo theft at warehouse distribution centers such as truck stops, parking lots, and cross-dock stations in the United States. It is estimated that the average loss per theft was about $121,472, and the total cumulative loss reached a staggering $7.53 million.

A seller once revealed that his container, which had not yet been unloaded, was stolen by thieves using a tractor at the door of the warehouse , with a loss of more than 1 million RMB. After calling the police, he waited for nearly an hour and a half before the police arrived at the scene. Unfortunately, the goods were not recovered, and the seller had to pay the shipping company for the cost of the container .

After a seller's container was stolen, the thieves even carefully installed new lead seals in an attempt to cover up the crime. Another seller said that he exported 18 tons of goods from Tianjin, but only 3 tons were left when it arrived at the destination, which was a heavy loss.

If the goods can be recovered luckily, the seller and freight forwarder may feel a little relieved; however, in most cases, the criminals have already escaped without a trace. It is understood that 90% of the goods have not been recovered.

Industry insiders commented that many bad overseas warehouses and hauliers collude with each other and steal goods, largely due to low-price competition . As the freight forwarding industry continues to be subject to price pressure and profit margins are constantly compressed, some people have evil thoughts and embark on this crooked path.

For example, some unscrupulous overseas warehouses will use the leakage account as a cover to lie to customers that the goods have been seized by UPS, but in fact they do this to resell the goods; in addition, some overseas warehouses secretly take away part of the goods during the delivery process, resulting in a "reduction in goods" situation.

So why is cargo theft a growing problem? The reasons are complex.

On the one hand, the substantial growth in global trade has caused large ports such as Los Angeles to bear huge cargo throughput, and the difficulty of supervision has increased dramatically. Since monitoring facilities may have blind spots, and it is difficult for monitoring personnel to conduct comprehensive and detailed monitoring during busy hours, this provides opportunities for criminals. On the other hand, there are many dock workers with different identities and backgrounds. If the internal management is not good or the employee background check is not strict, it is easy for criminals to sneak in.

So how can the cargo owner recover the loss after the cargo is stolen? According to past experience, if domestic logistics companies act as carriers of multimodal transport, they must first assume the responsibility of compensating the cargo owner for the loss of the cargo. Subsequently, the logistics company will further claim compensation from the truck company or foreign agent.

However, in actual operations, due to various complex factors, logistics companies often choose to bear the losses themselves to resolve disputes.

Nowadays, thefts of goods and containers are common, and sellers must remain highly vigilant to deal with possible risks. When choosing a freight forwarder, do not just focus on low prices, but carefully select a reputable partner. Once the goods are found to be stolen, report it to the local law enforcement agency immediately and properly retain relevant evidence to minimize losses.