Cargo Theft Losses Hit $304.6 Million, and Insurers Are Cutting Coverage

Cargo theft losses reached an estimated $304.6 million in 2026 — more than double the prior year's total — even as the number of recorded incidents across the U.S. and Canada fell 26% year over year, according to Verisk CargoNet. The arithmetic is stark: fewer thefts, but each one far more expensive, because organized groups now concentrate on high-value shipments.

In the first five months of 2026, Verisk CargoNet recorded 1,120 cargo theft incidents and more than $121 million in estimated losses. Put differently, the remaining months of the year produced the bulk of the damage — a pace that caught both trucking companies and their insurers off guard.

Scott Cornell, executive vice president at SPG Cargo & Logistics and crime and theft specialist for LogistIQ Insurance Solutions, said the dramatic rise in strategic cargo theft has complicated risk management for trucking companies, freight brokers, and their insurers. The market response has been swift and, for some policyholders, expensive.

How are insurers responding?

Some carriers have raised rates, increased deductibles and imposed new coverage exclusions. Others have gone further: several insurers have eliminated theft protection from standard cargo policies entirely, requiring insureds to purchase separate coverage.

"When cargo theft exploded, we started to immediately see more exclusions around theft across the insurance industry," Cornell said. He was careful to add a caveat: that trend will not apply to every carrier. But risks without good theft mitigation in place, he said, will probably see increased rates, increased deductibles, and exclusions.

The takeaway in plain words: the coverage a trucking company had last year may simply not exist this year.

What tactics are thieves using?

Verisk CargoNet notes that organized theft groups increasingly target high-value shipments with cyber tactics, chief among them business email compromise. According to Verisk, business email compromise continues to be the primary access point for most sophisticated cargo theft schemes: criminals gain access to shipment information, communications, contacts and transportation management tools, then identify high-value freight, impersonate trusted parties, and alter shipment details while appearing legitimate.

Yet Cornell cautioned against fixating on the cyber angle. "A lot of people lose sight of the fact that straight theft is still 70% of all cargo theft," he said. Traditional theft — criminals physically stealing freight from trucks, trailers, warehouses or parking facilities — remains the industry's largest exposure.

He also flagged a quieter trend: theft of individual pallets, known as pilferage, has increased as criminals seek to avoid tracking devices installed in commercial trucks.

"There's an old adage that we use in the industry: freight at rest is freight at risk," Cornell said. "Anywhere that the freight stops and sits is where it's going to be stolen. So, that's truck stops, drop lots, parking lots, staging lots, outside of warehouses and distribution centers."

What actually reduces the risk?

Cornell's prescription begins with process, not hardware. "Don't go right to technology, don't go right to hard locking devices, don't go to those things until you have good process and procedures in place," he said. For freight brokers, that means recognizing suspicious carrier credentials and fraudulent pickup attempts. For trucking companies, it means training drivers on high-risk routes, parking locations and theft hotspots.

Only then, he said, should companies layer on tools: hard locking devices for carriers, vetting technology platforms for brokers. "If you lean too heavily into the technology and you leave the human element out of it, the technology will ultimately fail you," Cornell said.

Drivers sit at the center of that defense. Cornell argued that companies treating drivers well — competitive pay, free two-year college education for a driver's child, gym access, health dieticians, even collecting a driver's mail — get better drivers and better security. "As a cargo theft expert, when you talk about street theft, your first and best line of defense is always your driver," he said.

He also urged insureds to have their agents communicate loss-prevention investments to underwriters. Companies demonstrating stronger-than-average security practices may qualify for better coverage and pricing. "Show your client that you have an interest in their success, and it's mutual success," Cornell said. "The better the client is at preventing the theft, the better that you can help stabilize their rates, help stabilize their coverages."

With losses doubling in a single year and carriers narrowing coverage, the practical question for every shipper and broker in 2027 is not whether theft will happen, but who will pay for it when it does.