The use of violence in cargo theft – a supply chain disruption case

Abstract

This paper examines patterns of reported cargo thefts involving violence in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region with regard to the value of stolen goods, incident frequency, transport chain location, and incident category. The research method is deductive and is based on analyses of secondary data obtained from the Incident Information Service by the Transported Asset Protection Association. The results are discussed within a frame of reference based on supply chain risk management and supply chain disruption literature. We found that perpetrators who use violence seem to cause greater losses per theft than those who use other types of modus operandi. Further, the most common type of violent cargo theft occurs on Mondays in January when cargo vehicles are robbed on the road and consumer electronics are stolen. In terms of supply chain disruption, violent cargo thefts can be seen as externally-caused disruptions, which can indirectly cause major problems for the supply chain.

Seasonality of incident types in transport crime – Analysis of TAPA statistics

“…Within that understanding, violent MOs like Hijacking and Robbery leads to greater value lost per incident. This is in line with other studies (Ekwall and Lantz 2018). In terms of seasonality for the time of year, the data in Table 2 do not support the common idea that violent crimes can be expected to be more common during the warmer season.…”

“…Furthermore, this would also lead to that the data about these incidents are more reliable than for other incidents. For the incident types Hijacking and Robbery, the idea of the weakest link work here as if the physical security is considered too good, from the perpetrators point-of-view, violence towards the personal becomes an alternative solution to bypass security efforts (Ekwall and Lantz 2018).…”

“…Hence, cargo theft can be described as a root cause for Supply Chain Disruption (cf. Ekwall and Lantz 2018).…”

Exploring shippers' motivations to adopt collaborative truck-sharing initiatives

“…The results of this study also suggest that the least important motive for shippers in adopting truck-sharing practices is “safety in transportation,” which is a major rising concern in many countries (Herrera Dappe et al , 2019). About 41% of all unexpected occurrences (like robbery, theft and fraud) happen during the transport phase (Ekwall and Lantz, 2018). Therefore, further research is needed in this area to focus more precisely on how collaborative freight transportation can meet the safety challenges in distribution networks and capitalize on the opportunities that exist for shippers.…”

Parking Lots Assignment Algorithm for Vehicles Requiring Specific Parking Conditions in Vehicle Routing Problem

“…Such orders include the transportation of valuable loads (e.g. electronic equipment) [14], transportation of dangerous loads [15], and transportation of oversized loads [16], [17].…”