The CEO of a trucking company is sounding the alarm about the prevalence of cargo theft in trucking. 

Adam Blanchard, Co-founder and CEO of Double Diamond Transportation & Tanager Logistics testified before congress on Thursday, February 27th to tell the story of how his company became the victim of an elaborate cargo theft scheme. 

“About a year ago, our American dream turned into a nightmare, when some unscrupulous criminals stole our identity by capitalizing on our good name.  They tarnished the reputation, we’d spent a decade, over a decade to earn,” Blanchard said. He explained how the thieves were able to mimic the company website, emails, and even add a dupe company to the FMCSA website. 

“In just one example, they diverted a full truckload of energy drinks with the retail value well over six figures, over a thousand miles from Texas to California.  Because they spoofed my company’s emails, the drivers was tricked into believing, we had made the request for the transportation of that load,” said Blanchard.

“Even at this very moment, two Tanager Logistics are listed on the FMCSA’s official website, my company and an imposter,” said Blanchard. He says he contacted multiple federal agencies about the crime, and was offered no help. 

“The Texas Department of Public Safety informed us this wasn’t their jurisdiction. The FBI recorded our information, but never returned our call.  The Department of Homeland Security met with us, but refused to investigate. We did our due diligence, but the message was clear, you’re on your own,” Blanchard continued.

Cargo thefts have risen 1500% since 2021, reports KENS5.

Blanchard says the government needs to “direct the FMCSA, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, to remove illegitimate carriers and brokers from the Safer website. The industry should be able to trust what’s safe, and publicize only legitimate entities, so that we can make informed decisions, when vetting business partners.”

Second, he says the government needs to pass the Safeguard Our Supply Chain Act, establishing a federal task force focused on cargo theft. Third, he mentioned passing the Household Goods Shipping Consumer Protection Act, which would increase “penalties against bad actors, and protect consumers,” he said. 

“Currently criminals view trucking as a low risk, high reward target. We must invert that calculus.”

You can read the statement from Blanchard below:

On Thursday, February 27, I was proud to testify before the U.S. Senate Commerce Subcommittee on behalf of the American Trucking Association (ATA) to shed light on the serious and growing problem of freight theft in the U.S. trucking industry and advocate for legislation to help fight it. Freight theft does not just threaten trucking companies, it threatens the U.S. supply chain and ultimately U.S. consumers, public safety and national security. Exasperating the problem is the fact that there has been virtually no recourse for trucking companies that have been the victims of freight theft as local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have either had no jurisdiction or are otherwise unable to help us to identify and punish these criminals.

My companies, San Antonio-based Double Diamond Transport and Tanager Logistics, have been the victims of various forms of freight theft. Most recently, through a sophisticated identity theft scheme that is common in our industry, our company identity was stolen. A bad actor, representing themselves as Tanager Logsitics, was able to steal and sell a truckload of goods to another motor carrier. Beyond the significant monetary impact to our small business and others, our outstanding reputation was sullied in the industry, and we’ve had to work hard to explain the issue to our customers and business partners in order to restore it. Unfortunately, local and state law enforcement said they had no jurisdiction in this matter, and federal agencies were not responsive.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has within the last 9 months implemented a fraud prevention team to help address these crimes, and my companies have worked alongside the ATA to urge Congress to provide oversight and legislation to ensure that the FMCSA and other regulatory bodies have stronger mechanisms to help us detect and respond to these scams in real time. More importantly, federal agencies must prioritize cyber capabilities to track and shut down these criminals before they can continue defrauding businesses like ours, and ultimately defrauding U.S. consumers.