Cargo theft on Western lanes is not only a truck-stop story. Read recent crime data as a planning problem: higher-value freight is being chosen more carefully, geography inside California is shifting, and deception can begin before a trailer is ever forced open. Shippers who move food, metals, or high-value technology across the West should treat those patterns as reasons to tighten identity checks, visibility, parking, and seal discipline — not as a promise that any one control will make the load disappear.
The figures below come from Verisk CargoNet’s analysis of 2025 supply-chain crime, published on January 22, 2026. They are industry estimates from that dated report, not Teocal incident counts and not a forecast for your next shipment.
What the January 2026 CargoNet analysis actually reported
According to the January 22, 2026 Verisk CargoNet release, estimated cargo-theft losses surged to nearly $725 million in 2025, a 60 percent increase from 2024, even though overall supply-chain crime event volume stayed roughly steady. CargoNet recorded 3,594 supply-chain crime events across the United States and Canada in 2025, compared with 3,607 in 2024. Confirmed cargo-theft incidents rose 18 percent, from 2,243 to 2,646. The average value per theft rose to $273,990, up 36 percent from $202,364 in 2024.
California remained the most impacted state, with 1,218 incidents. Inside the state, activity shifted: Los Angeles County was down 11 percent, while Kern County was up 82 percent and San Joaquin County was up 44 percent. CargoNet also reported large increases outside the West, including New Jersey, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Food and beverage thefts rose 47 percent, to 708 incidents, with meat, seafood, and tree nuts called out by region. Metal theft rose 77 percent, driven largely by demand for copper products. Enterprise computing hardware and cryptocurrency mining equipment were identified as top-tier targets, while some consumer electronics theft declined.
The same release said CargoNet expected continued targeting of high-value technology products in 2026 and anticipated more theft-by-deception aimed at misdirecting shipments tendered to legitimate carriers. That last point is the one Western shippers can act on immediately. A stolen trailer is one problem. A load released to the wrong identity is another, and it can look like ordinary dispatch until the freight is gone.
CargoNet publishes additional cargo theft data resources for later updates. Cite the dated analysis you are using, and do not blend a 2025 year-end report with a later monthly note.
Verify who is supposed to take the freight
Theft-by-deception often starts with identity, not with a pair of bolt cutters. Before a high-value pickup, confirm that the legal name, USDOT number, and driver check-in details match the company you awarded. FMCSA’s SAFER Company Snapshot is the public way to verify that identity independently of an email signature or a last-minute dispatcher text. If the truck, the bill of lading, and the snapshot do not tell one story, hold the freight.
Give receiving sites a short verification script: ask for the carrier name and load reference, compare them with the appointment, and call a published dispatch number rather than a number handed over at the dock. For a San Joaquin Valley outbound of tree nuts or a Bay Area outbound of computing hardware — illustrations, not customer claims — that extra minute is cheaper than reconstructing the tender later.
If an intermediary is arranging the shipment, identify the originating motor carrier before pickup. A load released to “the truck they sent” is harder to trace and harder to explain to a claims or security reviewer.
Say what visibility you expect while the freight is moving
GPS does not prevent every theft, and no honest carrier should claim that it does. It can still shorten the time between an unplanned stop and a question from dispatch. Teocal’s GPS shipment tracking page describes dispatch using GPS devices to monitor location, status, and condition between distribution points and delivery sites, with activity alerts on a secure internet platform used by dispatch personnel.
When you tender high-value or theft-attractive freight, ask how often location is reviewed, who receives an alert if a tractor leaves an expected route or sits too long in an unexpected place, and how quickly your team will be notified. Write those expectations into the routing guide so they are not improvised after an exception.
Visibility is most useful when someone is assigned to act on it. If the freight justifies a team driver, a no-idle instruction, or a prohibition on unplanned drop lots, say so before pickup.
Choose the parking plan before the driver has to invent one
Unplanned street parking and uncontrolled lots remain a weak point, especially when a receiver misses an appointment or a live unload runs long. If a trailer carrying high-value goods will sit, decide in advance where it is allowed to sit. A fenced, lighted, access-controlled yard is a different risk environment from a wide shoulder or an unsigned industrial street.
Teocal’s 24/7 secure trailer storage page describes temporary trailer parking and overflow container storage at San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California distribution facilities, with fencing, lighting, 24/7 onsite security, video monitoring, an automated gate, and motion detection on the perimeter. Those published site features matter when a Western shipper needs a planned holding point. They are not a guarantee against theft, and they do not replace an agreement about who authorizes the drop.
Use storage as a scheduled tool. If a Fontana receiving window will be missed, asking dispatch to hold the trailer in a controlled yard is a different decision from telling a driver to “find somewhere nearby.” The first decision can be written down. The second often becomes the fact pattern in an after-action review.
Treat seals as a process, not as a sticker
A seal only helps if someone records it, compares it, and knows what to do when it does not match. Put the seal number on the bill of lading. Photograph the sealed doors at shipping. At delivery, compare the number before the doors are opened, and note any discrepancy immediately. Teocal’s freight solutions page lists security seals among the controls it describes, together with GPS tracking and direct communication with drivers. Ask any carrier how seal numbers are captured and who is authorized to break a seal in transit if an inspection requires it.
High-value technology and certain food shipments may also justify two-person check-in, sealed drop yards, or instructions that forbid unattended drops. Those requirements have a cost. They should be priced and staffed, not added verbally after the tractor is already dispatched. Across Teocal’s published twelve-state Western service area — Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming — the right control package depends on the commodity and the lane, not on a single slogan about security.
Match the control package to the commodity, not to a national headline
A $725 million national loss total is a reason to pay attention. It is not a reason to apply the same extra security package to every pallet leaving a Western dock. Food and beverage freight, metals, and high-value technology were called out in the dated CargoNet analysis for different reasons. Meat, seafood, and tree nuts move on schedules and through regions that create predictable dwell. Copper and other metals have scrap value that does not depend on a brand. Computing hardware and similar technology products attract buyers who already know how to resell quickly. Those differences should show up in the tender.
For food moving through Central Valley or Southern California lanes, appointment discipline and planned holding yards matter as much as seals, because a missed window can leave a trailer on an unsigned street. For metals, ask whether the bill of lading and appointment notice are more specific than people outside the shipment need them to be. For technology freight, treat identity verification and no-unattended-drop instructions as baseline, then add visibility and after-hours coverage.
Do not assume every California county presents the same pattern. The 2025 analysis that named California as the most impacted state also showed Los Angeles County down and inland counties up. Use that inland shift if your freight originates or destines in Kern or San Joaquin counties, and do not treat a decline elsewhere as a reason to drop identity checks.
Decide who calls whom after hours
The first unusual stop often happens at night or on a weekend, when the only person watching the freight is the driver. Ask who at the carrier is responsible after posted business hours, how that person is reached, and what they will do if location updates show an unexpected dwell or a departure from the planned route. Ask the same question of your own receiving and security teams. A carrier cannot escalate a problem to a closed plant gate.
Write the after-hours path next to the appointment instructions, using a published dispatch number rather than one personal cell. If you use Teocal’s 24/7 Northern California dispatch, say how you want an alert handled. Ask any other carrier the same questions so the answers can be compared.
If a driver reports a suspicious approach, a broken seal, or a request to divert the load, the next step should already be written down: stop if it is safe to do so, call the published dispatch number, and do not accept a new destination from an unverified caller. Those instructions sound obvious until someone is standing at a darkened lot and trying to invent them.
Keep theft response separate from wishful recovery language
No routing guide should promise that freight will be recovered or that a claim will be paid at invoice value. What you can require is a documented response: preserve GPS history, seal photographs, gate logs, bills of lading, and the identity records collected at pickup; notify dispatch promptly; and open a claim file if cargo is missing or damaged. Those steps support recovery efforts and later review. They do not create a result.
A fenced yard, a tracked tractor, and a recorded seal are meaningful controls, not a warranty. Compare the specific practices a carrier will follow on your freight, not the adjective on a sales page.
Build the controls into the tender, then ask dispatch to walk through them
For the next Western shipment that would be attractive on the CargoNet list — food, metals, or higher-value technology, among others — write the identity check, visibility expectation, parking rule, and seal process into the tender. Ask Teocal dispatch to walk through how those controls would work on the actual origin and destination you have in mind. You can send that complete written package with a quote request or a dispatch call. A serious conversation about theft risk will not make the 2025 loss totals disappear, but it will tell you whether the people moving the freight have a plan that matches the cargo.
Sources
- Verisk CargoNet, “Cargo Theft Losses Surge to Estimated $725 Million in 2025, Verisk CargoNet Analysis Reveals,” published January 22, 2026: https://www.verisk.com/company/newsroom/cargo-theft-losses-surge-to-estimated-$725-million-in-2025-verisk-cargonet-analysis-reveals/
- CargoNet cargo theft data resources: https://www.cargonet.com/cargo-theft-data/
- Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, SAFER Company Snapshot: https://safer.fmcsa.dot.gov/CompanySnapshot.aspx
- Teocal Transport, GPS Shipment Tracking: https://teocaltransport.com/gps-shipment-tracking/
- Teocal Transport, 24/7 Secure Trailer Storage: https://teocaltransport.com/24-7-secure-trailer-storage/
- Teocal Transport, US Western State Freight Delivery: https://teocaltransport.com/us-western-state-freight-delivery/