Freight Brokers Use Technology to Fight Surging Cargo Theft
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As freight brokers battle fraudsters intent on cargo theft, they are building defenses that combine multiple technologies provided by vendors and augmented in some cases by systems they have developed themselves.
Deceptions by bad actors aimed at diverting and stealing cargo have become more common and increasingly sophisticated, trucking experts said.
“Over the last 18 to 24 months, the proliferation of strategic cargo theft has been the main focal area as well as the main challenge across the industry,” said Scott Sandager, chief administrative officer at Arrive Logistics.
Strategic cargo theft, an umbrella term used in law enforcement and in the freight transportation industry, refers to the defrauding of brokers, carriers and shippers by tricking them into handing loads over to thieves.
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Criminals carry out cargo theft through a variety of methods, including identity theft, account takeovers and double brokering.
Arrive Logistics, a multimodal freight brokerage based in Austin, Texas, uses a mix of systems to detect potential fraud, including its in-house transportation management software, Sandager said.
“Certain vendors are fully integrated with our proprietary TMS, Arrivenow, providing real-time information for us,” Sandager said.
In addition, Arrive uses internal, custom-built systems and notifications that complement the vendor-provided systems and software.
For brokers fighting freight fraud, the answer to a simple question can be revealing: Does the carrier have a truck in the vicinity of the load? If not, that information could potentially save a shipment. By syncing up with electronic logging devices, some of the technologies offered by vendors can determine the location of a carrier’s truck or trucks.
If a carrier is known for runs between Texas and Georgia, for example, but “all of a sudden they’ve got amazing capacity for you out of California,” that’s a tell, Sandager said. “Why do you have your capacity [in] California? You’ve never moved a shipment for us out of California before.”
Arrive Logistics ranks No. 35 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America.
One of the systems that Arrive Logistics uses is provided by Descartes Systems Group.
TT's Seth Clevenger and Mike Senatore unpack the trends, surprises and shake-ups that define this year's Top 100 for-hire carriers.Tune in above or by going to .
In July, Descartes released MacroPoint FraudGuard 2.0, which is designed to help brokers, shippers and third-party logistics companies stave off potential identity fraud, double brokering and other threats.
Andrew Wimer, senior director of operational and professional services at the company, said the documented rise in fraud and scams “really pushed” Descartes, and MacroPoint specifically, to invest in anti-fraud technology because many of its customers are brokers.
Data analytics company Verisk CargoNet, in its annual supply chain risk trends analysis, said there were 3,625 reported incidents of cargo theft activity across the United States and Canada in 2024, a 27% increase from 2023.
“There’s a need for us to address,” Wimer said.
MacroPoint FraudGuard uses historical data to detect deviations from established patterns, along with real-time data for automated in-transit monitoring and risk alerts.
When Descartes acquired MacroPoint in 2017, it was for tracking, Wimer said. MacroPoint connects to trucks through integrations with devices and systems such as ELDs, smartphones and transportation management systems.
The protections provided with the initial introduction of FraudGuard about two years ago have been expanded with the introduction of 2.0.
The system can help flag anomalies that could indicate a higher risk of fraud, especially for high-value shipments such as pharmaceuticals and pickups from facilities in high-theft areas.
The updated version of MacroPoint FraudGuard shows carrier and driver details including a driver’s history interacting with the system. If a driver is moving his or her first load ever to be tracked by MacroPoint, that is unusual, Wimer said.
“It could be legitimate, but it’s very uncommon these days for a driver not to have [been] tracked at least one time with MacroPoint,” he said. “We’ve been around for 14 years now. We’ve tracked millions of truckload shipments across the world.”
Load Board Security
Load board operators DAT Freight & Analytics and Truckstop.com also have been implementing technology to help brokers vet carriers and deter fraud.
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DAT has been adding and strengthening features designed “to detect anomalies on the load board so that we can actually get in front of bad actors,” said Kary Jablonski, vice president of Trucker Tools and broker growth at DAT. Trucker Tools, a load tracking and freight matching provider, was acquired by DAT last year.
As part of its efforts to mitigate fraud, DAT is introducing its Carrier Management Suite, which integrates carrier authentication directly into the company’s DAT One freight network to help brokers to make more informed decisions.
“We don’t want to be in the business of telling brokers which carriers they should work with. We want to provide a really secure network,” Jablonski said.
Other new security features include Trucker Tools’ Fraud Toolkit, which Trucker Tools introduced last year before DAT acquired the business.
Jablonksi said Fraud Toolkit issues alerts upon detecting that a carrier might be using a Voice over Internet Protocol phone as part of an identity ruse or creating a GPS “spoofer” to create a fake location. Fraud Toolkit also issues an alert when it detects that a carrier might be booked on several loads at once, Jablonski said.
“Somewhere close to half” of the brokers who use Trucker Tools have implemented capabilities of the Toolkit and used them to foil “bad actors trying to steal loads,” Jablonski said.
Broker feedback is also prompting DAT to enhance another aspect of its network. Jablonski said brokers requested the ability to pull certificates of insurance into carrier profiles on DAT to streamline compliance.
“That is something that we’re working on getting to 100% coverage toward the end of this year,” she said.
Truckstop.com said its latest Broker Insights Survey of more than 700 freight brokers highlighted a growing emphasis on trust across the freight transportation industry.
Two-thirds of responding brokers cited fraud as a top issue. Double brokering was the most reported threat, affecting 86% of brokers who have experienced fraud, according to the survey’s findings, which Truckstop.com presented earlier this year.
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“We’ve seen this continued acceleration of new fraudulent activities,” said Todd Waldron, the company’s vice president of carrier experience. “More bad actors and bad behaviors are coming into the transportation realm and into the relationship between brokers and carriers.”
Truckstop.com’s risk management information system provides automated carrier onboarding and monitoring, including data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as well as insurance providers “so that brokers can help verify the carrier’s authority, safety ratings, insurance compliance instantly without slowing down their operations,” Waldron said.
Last year, the company launched its Risk Factors carrier vetting system, which provides behavioral signals and insights based on a carrier’s historic activities on the load board. It flags patterns that may indicate fraudulent behavior such as double-brokering or identity theft.
Used together, Truckstop.com’s RMIS and Risk Factors functionality help build “trusted relationships,” Waldron said.
“There’s been a lot of evolution in those tools as new ways of trying to infiltrate the supply chain have come about,” he added.
The fraud prevention capabilities serve one purpose when applied to carriers that are already participants in Truckstop.com’s network, and a different purpose when applied to new carriers looking to participate.
In the case of existing carriers, “we now have tools that help verify [that] the person you’re talking to is who you think you’re talking to,” Waldon said.
If the person is an impostor, load information could be divulged and used to carry out fraud, he added.
Brokerages also have an ongoing need to bring in new carriers, whether to cover spot freight or overflow freight or to build a roster of carriers to support contractual business.
“Illegitimate people can pose as legitimate carriers, so we’ve added software and technology to vet” newcomers, Waldron said.
Verifying Carrier Identity
Technology vendors have developed a range of software tools designed to help brokers and carriers prevent freight fraud.
Much of this fraud begins with scammers providing misleading or false carrier identity, said Michael Caney, chief commercial officer at Highway, which offers a carrier vetting and onboarding platform for brokers.
Through data connections with carriers and brokers, Highway can identify anomalies and flag potential fraud.
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“We’re able to act more like security companies and look for patterns that we think are leading indicators of fraudulent activity,” Caney said.
Truck location is a key data point.
“In Highway, motor carriers connect their ELD to prove that they have trucks, and where they are,” Caney said.
If they are on a load in Dallas and they have no trucks near Dallas, for instance, that’s a caution flag for the broker, he said.
Similarly, by linking to a broker’s TMS, Highway knows the load, its origin and destination and the motor carrier assigned to that load, Caney said.
If Highway’s system shows none of the carrier’s trucks in range, it issues a notice. Caney said an out-of-range notice can indicate an effort to deceive a tracking application. One way to do that is to download an app-based tracking application and drive a car to the location so that the broker thinks the truck is being tracked, Caney said.
Highway uses cargo insurance policy exclusions as another means to evaluate carrier authenticity. The company could flag when a carrier with an electronics exclusion is in the vicinity of an electronics facility, for example.
“We don’t give insurance advice, but we’re going to put up a yellow light” to the broker, Caney said. “Check with that carrier’s insurer and make sure that they can haul this load.”
In April, Highway introduced a feature to validate the identity of a person receiving a rate confirmation email from a broker.
“If a motor carrier’s inbox is compromised or that rate confirmation is intercepted,” the information can be used in the furtherance of fraud, Caney noted.
The validation feature is modeled on the type of two-step authentication widely used by banks, he added.
Another technology vendor, GenLogs, offers Freight Intelligence, a platform designed to help brokers, shippers and motor carriers coordinate loads and reduce the risk of fraud and theft.
“We help freight brokers connect directly with carriers that are frequently and recently running specific lanes with specific equipment types,” CEO Ryan Joyce said.
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For a broker looking to move a load from Dallas to Chicago, for example, GenLogs shows carriers that regularly haul freight on that lane and operate the type of equipment needed for the load.
Then the broker can reach out to a carrier that they “know to be real, reliable and running those lanes,” Joyce said.
GenLogs collects data on truck movements through a network of roadside sensors along freight lanes. The sensors contain three HD cameras that capture front, side and rear views of passing tractor-trailers, providing visual verification of truck locations.
GenLogs has data-sharing arrangements with Carrier Assure, a provider of carrier compliance software, and with Verified Carrier, a vetting platform, Joyce said.
“The best defense is multiple defenses,” he said, “so GenLogs’ hand is always outstretched to figure out how to work together on behalf of our mutual customers.”
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