For a supply chain manager, risk assessment is a daily consideration. From delays to weather events to staffing shortages, they are constantly managing new threats to their bottom lines. The wisest companies will take a proactive approach to risk management, predicting and preparing before reacting.

In the case of theft, one of the most significant risks supply chains face today, a proactive approach is far more effective than a reactive one. And yet some companies are still behind in this thinking, dealing with cargo theft only when it’s too late to recover the loss.

Danny Ramon, intelligence and response manager at Overhaul, a supply chain visibility and risk management company, knows first-hand how important theft prevention is for supply chains. “As great as it is to recover a stolen load, we consider a recovery a loss, because it should have never been stolen in the first place,” he says. “Prevention is the name of the game.” Unfortunately, he adds, the supply chain industry as a whole is still a highly reactive one.

Too many companies, according to Ramon, underestimate the risk, taking an “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” approach. Until, of course, it happens to them. The risk of theft, however, is constant. “If cargo is on the road, it's at risk,” says Ramon.

John Cannon, law enforcement liaison at Overhaul and retired special agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, adds that visibility is key. “Once it leaves the shipping location, it's at risk. And the monitoring of that particular cargo until it reaches the destination is absolutely imperative.”

How, then, can companies better understand the realities of cargo theft and put more preventive measures in place, not only to mitigate this very real risk, but even to gain a competitive edge?

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