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ATS tackles cargo theft issue with IP cameras |
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| Theft of transport truck trailers is costing the economy billions |
| Written by Neil Sutton, on Mon-March-2009 |
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 Cargo theft might be the perfect crime: ample opportunity, desirable merchandise and limited police resources to get in the way.
The problem of cargo theft is almost unfathomably huge, says Mario
Possamai, a Toronto-based security consultant who has made a study of
the phenomenon. Back in 2003, he estimated that it could be responsible
for as much as $60 billion in losses in the U.S. alone, but it’s hard
to make an accurate assessment.
“No one knows how big it is. That’s part of the problem,” he says.
“There’s no central records keeping, no tracking of it. Until you have
an ability to actually measure the problem, you don’t how effective
what you’re doing really is.”
The police are doing what they can, but it’s not a high priority, says
Possamai. There’s relatively low incidence of violence associated with
cargo theft, so it tends to get put on the back burner. And who can
blame them?
“Are they going to put officers in high-crime areas to protect the
public or are they going to try to do some work on cargo crime? They’d
like to do it all, but I think they’d probably get more support from
the community if they focused on street crime and violence.”
Calls to the Peel Regional Police requesting comment were not returned.
Cargo crime is typically carried out by very organized people, says
Possamai. It’s worth a lot of money so it’s worth doing it right. Theft
gangs will go city to city to follow important loads and will even hire
expert drivers to transport lucrative cargo from one end of the country
to the other if a buyer can be lined up.
John Burdett, corporate loss prevention manager, for Toronto-based
Andlauer Transportation Services (ATS), is familiar with the problem.
Prior to joining ATS, Burdett worked for a large, well-known freight
and shipping company where they had “significant issues” with theft.
It’s typically the white label, independent cargo companies that get
hit the worst because they’re vulnerable, but “everybody has an issue
with this. They just don’t advertise it.”
When Burdett joined ATS in 2005, he quickly set to updating the
company’s cameras, replacing analogue models with Axis IP cameras. The
cameras act as a theft deterrent, but serve other practical purposes,
like monitoring for employee health and safety.
“We use them for a variety of purposes here, but basically by having
almost full coverage of our warehouses, we get visibility of what’s
going on,” he says. “Even if there’s no security person present, we can
still go back and troubleshoot or find root causes to certain issues —
whether they be operational or criminal. We’ve had success in
everything from workplace accident investigations to thefts and
pilferage.”
Burdett has been updating cameras steadily for the last four years:
replacing analogue cameras with IP when they wear out and in some cases
doing complete installs for high-priority, larger locations.
Of the 24 cargo facilities that ATS operates, seven have been
completely moved over to IP. Burdett envisions that most will
eventually be migrated to IP, save perhaps the small facilities (15,000
sq. ft.) where analogue is still sufficient to cover the area.
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