Fleets Use Trailers as Active Tools Against Cargo Theft

A Samsara survey of industry leaders found that 71% of organizations experience theft of a critical asset at least once a quarter. (Getty Images)

As cargo theft becomes more deliberate and sophisticated, fleets, shippers and brokers are rethinking how they protect freight, shifting from passive tracking toward systems that treat the trailer itself as an active participant in protecting cargo.

Connected trailer technology is transforming cargo-theft prevention from passive, after-the-fact tracking to active access control, said Jeff Irish, general manager of trailer telematics provider Road Ready, a Clarience Technologies company.

“With tools such as GPS tracking, cargo monitoring and geofencing alerts, fleets can spot unauthorized activity and safeguard assets proactively rather than discovering a theft after the cargo is gone,” Irish said.

That information is more important than ever as the transportation industry contends with a surge in stolen shipments and equipment.

At the same time, cargo theft has become more organized, more identity-driven and harder to stop at any single point in the supply chain, said Mark Wallin, general manager and senior vice president of product for Phillips Connect.

“Fraudulent carrier profiles, spoofed [motor carrier] numbers, fictitious pickups … these aren’t opportunistic crimes,” he explained. “They’re coordinated operations.”

A Samsara report surveying more than 1,500 industry leaders found that 71% of organizations experience theft of a critical asset at least once a quarter. However, those who have deployed asset tracking have seen a 76% reduction in annual losses from theft and a 31% reduction in insurance premiums.

The financial impact compounds when theft involves both the equipment and the load. David Gal, vice president of product and engineering for connected equipment at Samsara, said fleets are increasingly losing entire trailers with high-value cargo inside, amplifying both replacement costs and customer exposure.

For years, cargo protection focused on locks, seals and GPS tracking that could help fleets react after a theft occurred, but Phillips Connect’s Wallin said that is no longer enough.

“The shift happening now is from ‘where is my trailer’ to ‘what is happening at my trailer, right now,’” he said, adding that thieves look for the points of least resistance, and the trailer has historically been the softest target in the supply chain.

Brett Suma, managing director at trailer maker Wabash, said theft is no longer just about breaking locks, but about exploiting handoffs, appointments and assumptions across the supply chain.

Security, he said, is increasingly focused on how connected systems reinforce legitimate freight movement rather than relying on isolated devices.

Different stakeholders often prioritize different parts of the security stack, Suma added. Brokers tend to focus on identity and access control at pickup. Fleets emphasize inspection intelligence and chain-of-custody documentation. Shippers moving high-value freight increasingly want end-to-end visibility that combines identity verification, door controls and cargo monitoring.

Suma said theft risk often peaks during custody changes, such as at pickup, when a driver is assigned and access is granted.

“That moment has historically relied on manual checks and assumptions, with limited visibility into who’s actually taking control of the load,” he said.

Technology providers have responded with digital identity verification and matching capabilities.

TrailerHawk.ai, a security technology firm founded by Suma, verifies driver and carrier identity before granting physical access to a trailer by cross-referencing driver credentials and motor carrier numbers against the load tender at a specific location and appointment window.

Wabash acquired TrailerHawk.ai last year.

Layers of Protection

Real-time trailer intelligence can indicate whether a door opened at the wrong place, cargo levels changed unexpectedly, or activity occurred outside a scheduled delivery window. Sensor alerts from unauthorized door openings or unusual cargo movement arrive within seconds.

Compressing the time between an incident and a response improves the likelihood of recovery, said Chip Lebovitz, vice president of smart trailers for Orbcomm, adding that the first 15 minutes of an incident are crucial.

The shift happening now is from ‘where is my trailer’ to ‘what is happening at my trailer, right now.’

Mark Wallin, Phillips Connect

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Wallin of Phillips Connect said fictitious pickups and impersonation schemes are among the fastest-growing theft methods and among the hardest to detect at the trailer door. The technology supplier addresses that risk by monitoring tractor-trailer pairing and alerting fleets when an uncredentialed tractor hooks to a trailer.

“If an uncredentialed tractor hooks up, you know immediately,” Wallin said, adding that fleets are increasingly deploying multiple security strategies rather than relying on a single device.

In practice, security systems are often layered together, creating a real-time security perimeter around the trailer, said Irish of Road Ready.

“Digital door locks, driver identity verification and door sensors work together by tying physical trailer access to a verified, monitored action,” he said.

Different types of sensors provide different forms of visibility. Door sensors flag unauthorized access, cargo sensors detect unexpected movement or load changes, and tracking devices establish location context around each event.

Samsara’s Gal said visual data adds context that pure location tracking cannot. Samsara’s trailer cameras transmit images in near real time, allowing fleets to see what is happening around the equipment and apply artificial intelligence to identify unusual activity.

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Lebovitz

Orbcomm also incorporates visual data into its smart trailer offerings. Lebovitz said images captured near the time of an alert help fleets assess the severity of an incident and determine how to respond.

“It’s one thing to know where the thing is; it’s another thing to actually go and recover it,” he said. “We can show photos that are near real time, sometimes within seconds of the event, to provide that context.”

Lebovitz added that layering technologies also makes systems harder to disable. Because cargo sensors sit inside the trailer, physically disabling them requires entry into the cargo space, which would first trigger a door sensor.

TrailerHawk.ai also controls when trailer doors can be opened and records each event with time and location data, creating a continuous chain of custody.

“It starts with driver identity validation at pickup, followed by real-time visibility into trailer activity and is enforced through integrated door locks,” Suma said.

Rocco Marrari, vice president of sales for Pedigree Technologies, said some providers are also turning to concealed tracking devices as bad actors become more familiar with standard tracking equipment.

“The first thing they’ll do is go steal that device, rip it off or hit it with a broomstick,” he said.

Pedigree Technologies developed a GPS tracker concealed inside a DOT-approved taillight housing, making it difficult to disable without damaging the vehicle. The unit also serves as a Bluetooth Low Energy gateway, enabling fleets to monitor nearby sensors such as door and cargo devices.

Intelligent Security

There is no single solution to stop theft, and it must be addressed on multiple levels, said James Grier, director of fleet service at Nussbaum Transportation.

“I think you need to look at your specific operations, where you operate, the kind of equipment you’re utilizing, and fine-tune it to your needs,” he said.

Nussbaum is rolling out door sensors and cargo-vision cameras from Phillips Connect in addition to its existing geofencing infrastructure as part of its commitment to customers.

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Grier said technology also helps the fleet manage scenarios where a trailer is unattended, such as when it is parked overnight at a facility without a driver present.

“Drivers have a life as well, so this allows us to get a little more confidence and a little more security as we add these additional features,” he said.

Carriers are also using smart trailer technology to demonstrate compliance with shipper security requirements, such as sharing live tracking data with customers and monitoring whether high-value loads travel a specified number of miles without stopping.

Trailer intelligence is beginning to influence how fleets manage risk across their networks, and Wallin said the value compounds over time. Individual events, such as a door opening at the wrong location or cargo levels dropping unexpectedly, become data points that can reveal broader patterns. Those patterns can indicate which lanes carry the most risk, which facilities see the most unexplained activity and which types of loads are most frequently targeted — all information that can help fleets become more proactive.

While providers recommend layering solutions, Pedigree’s Marrari said the right combination of devices depends on the fleet and its specific challenges.

“You never jump in and try to fix every problem at once,” he said. “We find the main pain point, and that’s what we try to rectify. Then we can take the next step and the next step.”