Cargo Theft Statistics The Verified 2025 to 2026 Numbers, Sourced to Verisk CargoNet, With the Unsourced Figures Flagged.
Cargo theft got more expensive fast. The credible data comes from Verisk CargoNet, which tracks reported supply chain crime across the United States and Canada. Its 2025 analysis shows losses jumping to roughly $725 million as organized groups shifted from grabbing whatever was on a trailer to targeting high-value loads. This page collects the sourced figures, explains what they do and do not measure, and flags the round numbers that circulate without a study behind them.
How Much Is Lost to Cargo Theft?
Verisk CargoNet estimated cargo theft losses at nearly $725 million across the United States and Canada in 2025, a 60 percent increase over 2024. The count of confirmed cargo thefts rose about 18 percent, from 2,243 to 2,646, while the average value stolen per event climbed 36 percent to $273,990. Total recorded supply chain crime events were basically flat at 3,594, so the story is not more thefts overall, it is thieves getting far more selective and hitting bigger loads.
Those figures count events that were reported to CargoNet, so they are a floor, not the entire problem. A lot of cargo theft goes unreported or is settled quietly through insurance, and CargoNet does not capture every carrier or region. Treat the numbers as the best sourced view of the trend and the average loss size, not as a complete national total. The often repeated "cargo theft costs $15 billion to $35 billion a year" range traces back to an old, loosely sourced estimate and is flagged further down this page.
Verisk CargoNet 2025 supply chain risk analysis, United States and Canada. Reported events only.
The Verified Cargo Theft Figures
| Measure | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Estimated total losses | ~$450M | ~$725M | +60% |
| Average value per theft | $202,364 | $273,990 | +36% |
| Confirmed cargo thefts | 2,243 | 2,646 | +18% |
| Total supply chain crime events | 3,607 | 3,594 | Flat |
Source: Verisk CargoNet 2025 supply chain risk trends analysis, United States and Canada. The roughly $450 million 2024 figure is implied by CargoNet's stated 60 percent year-over-year increase. Numbers reflect events reported to CargoNet and are a conservative floor, not a full national total.
What These Numbers Actually Mean
The single most useful takeaway is the split between volume and value. The number of supply chain crime events barely moved, but losses jumped 60 percent, because the average haul got much bigger. Thieves are spending more effort to identify and take high-value loads, electronics, appliances, metals, and brand-name consumer goods, rather than grabbing whatever trailer is unattended. For a logistics operator, that changes the math: a single successful hit now averages more than a quarter of a million dollars, so the loss from one event can dwarf a year of small pilferage.
The other shift is method. A growing share of the loss is what CargoNet calls strategic theft, which uses fraud rather than a physical break-in. Criminals pose as legitimate carriers or brokers, book a real load with stolen or spoofed identity documents, pick it up on paperwork that looks clean, and disappear. This is why cargo security is no longer just fences and cameras at the yard. It is also verifying who you are actually handing freight to, and confirming that a carrier's contact and payment details were not altered mid-transaction.
Finally, remember the scope. CargoNet aggregates reports from its members and law enforcement partners, mostly in known theft corridors around major ports, rail hubs, and freight-heavy metros in states like California, Texas, Illinois, and Georgia. It is the best sourced trend data available, but it is not a census. The real national loss is higher than the reported figure because plenty of theft never gets logged in a shared database.
Why Fraud Now Drives the Loss
The rise in strategic theft is the part most yard managers underestimate. When a load is stolen by someone who booked it with fake carrier credentials, no alarm goes off and no lock gets cut. The freight simply leaves with the wrong driver. Detecting it means tightening the paper trail as much as the perimeter: confirming a carrier's motor carrier authority, calling back on a known phone number rather than the one on the rate confirmation, and watching for last-minute changes to where a payment or a pickup is supposed to go.
Payment redirection is a common tail end of these schemes, where the fraudster follows a real load with a request to update banking details. Operations that verify a carrier's payment details before releasing funds catch the switch that a rushed accounts team would miss, closing the loop between a physical theft and the money that funds the next one. The yard camera and the back office are watching two ends of the same fraud.
On the physical side, the loads that get hit are rarely random. They sit too long in an unfenced drop lot, they are staged near an open gate overnight, or the yard has no record of which trailer left when. That is exactly the visibility gap camera analytics is built to close, turning a yard full of trailers into a searchable log of who and what moved through it.
What Actually Reduces Cargo Theft
The controls that move the number are layered. Verify carriers and brokers against current authority records and confirm any change to pickup or payment details through a trusted channel, not the one on the new document. Keep high-value loads moving rather than staged, and never leave a loaded trailer in an unsecured lot over a weekend, which is when the largest thefts cluster. Physical basics still matter: hardened kingpin and glad-hand locks, covered yards, gate control, and good lighting.
Camera-based analytics tie the yard together. AI watching the gates and drop lots can read license plates on arriving tractors, flag a trailer that moves outside scheduled hours, and turn hours of footage into a timeline of which unit left with which driver. When a load does go missing, that record is the difference between a vague report and a clip with a plate number for investigators. Our logistics video analytics and license plate recognition run on the IP cameras a distribution yard already has, so the gate log and after-hours alerts come without new hardware.
Numbers We Will Not Print
A few cargo theft figures get repeated everywhere without a solid source. We leave them out on purpose, and here is why, so you can recognize them elsewhere.
"Cargo theft costs the US $15 billion to $35 billion a year"
This wide range traces to an old, loosely attributed FBI estimate that has been repeated for years without an updated methodology. It is not comparable to CargoNet reported losses and should not be presented as a current, measured total.
"Only 10 to 20 percent of cargo theft is ever reported"
It is true that a lot goes unreported, but the specific 10 to 20 percent figure has no traceable study behind it. The honest statement is that reported totals are a floor, without inventing a precise capture rate.
A single "national number of cargo thefts per year" stated as fact
CargoNet counts events reported to it, not every theft in the country. Quoting its total as the definitive US figure overstates coverage. Cite it as reported CargoNet data, which is what it is.
Cargo Theft: Questions
How much is lost to cargo theft each year?
Verisk CargoNet estimated cargo theft losses at nearly $725 million across the United States and Canada in 2025, a 60 percent jump over 2024. That counts events reported to CargoNet, so it is a conservative floor rather than a full national total. The average value stolen per theft was $273,990, up 36 percent, meaning a single successful theft now costs more than a quarter of a million dollars on average.
Is cargo theft increasing?
The losses are rising sharply even though the number of incidents is flat. CargoNet recorded 3,594 supply chain crime events in 2025, about the same as 2024, but confirmed cargo thefts rose 18 percent and total losses climbed 60 percent. Thieves are targeting higher-value loads rather than stealing more often, so the financial impact is growing faster than the raw theft count.
What is the average value of a cargo theft?
CargoNet put the average loss per cargo theft at $273,990 in 2025, up 36 percent from $202,364 in 2024. That average has climbed because organized groups increasingly focus on high-value commodities like electronics, appliances, metals, and brand-name consumer goods. A single event can therefore exceed the annual cost of ongoing small-scale pilferage at a facility.
What is strategic cargo theft?
Strategic theft uses fraud instead of a physical break-in. Criminals pose as legitimate carriers or brokers, book a real load using stolen or spoofed identity and authority documents, pick it up on paperwork that looks legitimate, and vanish. It often includes redirecting payments by requesting a change to banking details. It is a growing share of cargo loss and is why carrier verification now matters as much as yard security.
How do companies prevent cargo theft?
Effective programs layer controls. Verify carriers and brokers against current authority records and confirm any change to pickup or payment details through a trusted channel. Keep high-value loads moving rather than staged, especially over weekends when the largest thefts cluster. Use hardened locks, gate control, and lighting, and add camera analytics that read plates at the gate and flag trailers moving outside scheduled hours.
Where does most cargo theft happen?
Reported cargo theft concentrates in known freight corridors around major ports, rail hubs, and distribution-heavy metros, with California, Texas, Illinois, and Georgia among the most active states in CargoNet data. Theft clusters where high volumes of freight sit briefly in transit, such as drop lots, truck stops, and rail yards, which is why unsecured staging over off-hours is the most common vulnerability.
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