Imagine you’re a freight broker who has done business with the same trucking company for many years. The fleet has a good reputation, and you know them personally. Unbeknownst to you, those in charge of the trucking company sell its motor carrier number; unbeknownst to the fleet, those who purchase the number are cargo thieves.
With this MC number, the cargo thieves come to you, the freight broker, for a load. The cargo thieves paid extra to the original fleet for its phone number, email, and other contact information. So, on your end, nothing has changed; the fleet information looks the same in your system. You have no idea that your once trusted carrier sold its MC number. You give them a load, and the thieves steal it and others in one fell swoop, abandoning the MC number afterward.
This Trojan Horse method is called motor carrier number manipulation, and according to cargo theft experts, it’s currently on the rise.
What is motor carrier number manipulation?
As described above, MC number manipulation occurs when MC numbers are sold to cargo thieves who use the numbers to steal loads. According to Scott Cornell, transportation lead and crime and theft specialist at Travelers, many truck drivers who sell their MC numbers believe they’re also selling their businesses, so they’re willing to also give thieves their company’s contact information, but this isn’t truly the case; selling a business or LLC is much more complicated, no matter the state.
Cornell told FleetOwner that cargo thieves legitimately purchase an MC number, but their intent is nefarious.
“They paid maybe $20,000 to get that MC number,” Cornell said. “And if they steal a dozen loads, and the average load value is $220,000, their ROI is incredible, right? So [the cargo thieves] are real, in the essence that they have that MC number, they have trucks, they're moving freight. But their intent is nefarious.”
MC number manipulation is a rare combination of straight cargo theft and strategic cargo theft. It’s strategic cargo theft in that the cargo thieves are tricking honest carriers into giving them the cargo, but it’s also straight cargo theft since the thieves are physically going to collect the cargo.
See also: What to do after a cargo theft incident
Why is motor carrier number manipulation on the rise?
According to Cornell, MC number manipulation has been on the rise since the COVID-19 pandemic, but this increase is more connected to the status of the industry rather than the pandemic itself.
“When transportation was at a peak, spot rates were at a peak, a lot of truckers went out on their own, bought MC numbers, and made good profits off of the spot market for 2020, 2021,” Cornell said. “And then when the transportation market economy started to decline, they set those MC numbers aside, and they went back to driving as contractors or employees, etc.”
Cornell explained that the age of an MC number affects credibility; carriers often look for MC numbers that are a few years old versus brand-new ones. So cargo thieves are buying these older MC numbers that honest truck drivers are no longer using to give themselves enough credibility to steal loads.
How can the industry prevent motor carrier number manipulation?
Understanding how to prevent cargo theft and MC number manipulation isn't easy because cargo theft has become more sophisticated in recent years, moving from straight cargo theft to strategic theft and involving larger international rings than smaller, local rings. According to Cornell, what’s really needed now is a shift in how the industry understands, approaches, discusses, and handles cargo theft.
“Much like safety became part of the culture of the way the supply chain does business several decades ago, you can't move freight in this country anymore without everybody having very positive conversations around safety,” Cornell said. “So the industry's made a lot of positive improvements on safety over the last few decades. Supply chain security has to mimic that. Supply chain security now has to become part of the way the supply chain does business, soup to nuts.”
Cornell continued to point out that cargo theft prevention can’t be the responsibility of one person or just part of the industry. Given how sophisticated cargo thieves have become, a whole industry approach is needed to stop them.
“Quite often, you see a freight broker hire 'ABC Trucking,'” Cornell said. “But 'XYZ Trucking' shows up at the shipper to pick up the load, and they say, ‘Well, we're here on behalf of ABC Trucking,’ and we call it the million-dollar phone call. Somebody just needs to make that phone call to the freight broker.”
