Lawmakers look at expanding FMCSA’s power to rein in cargo theft

WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration could and should do much more to address the surge in cargo theft in the trucking industry, according to carriers that have fallen victim to the crime.

“One issue we’ve seen constantly is that [FMCSA] is falling further and further behind the sophistication of these criminal organizations,” Adam Blanchard, CEO of San Antonio-based trucking company Double Diamond Transport and brokerage Tanager Logistics LLC, testified before the Senate Commerce Committee’s surface transportation subcommittee on Thursday.

“FMCSA needs to be the group that quarterbacks a unified federal group of agencies and law enforcement groups to address these issues and create a database and repository so it can be coordinated appropriately among federal and state law enforcement, and increase the cybersecurity that they have to prevent these things from happening.”

Blanchard’s outlook resulted from personal experience with a cargo theft scam at his brokerage company beginning a year ago. He told the subcommittee that criminals purporting to be with his company brokered loads to unsuspecting carriers that delivered cargo while the scammers took the money.

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

A check of FMCSA’s SAFER database shows a “Tanager Logistics LLC” in San Antonio and in Westerville, Ohio, the latter entry indicating that its status is “active” but with a “not authorized” operating authority.

Blanchard’s attorney determined that the Ohio address belonged to a person with no ties to trucking or logistics and that the criminals behind the fake database listing resided in Africa.

“We provided this evidence to FMCSA, but they have refused to take it down,” Blanchard said. “Simultaneously we were on the receiving end of misdirected rage from motor carriers that had also been scammed. Through no fault of our own, we were blacklisted by factoring companies for fraudulent invoices and nonpayment to those motor carriers.

“We sought to report these crimes but kept hitting dead ends with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. We did our due diligence, but the message was clear: You’re on your own.”

FreightWaves has reached out to FMCSA for comment.

Snowballing stats

Will Johnson, chief special agent of the BNSF Railway Police Department, testifying on behalf of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, told the subcommittee that cargo theft in the trucking industry has increased 1,500% from 2022 to 2025 and accounts for 33% of all cargo theft, citing data from CargoNet, a theft prevention network.

The problem has been increasing in the freight rail sector as well. In 2024, total costs to the nation’s Class I railroads exceeded $100 million, according to the Association of American Railroads.

AAR also estimates that over 65,000 thefts occurred in 2024, a roughly 40% increase from the prior year. “Additionally, railroads are also reporting an escalation in tactics with suspects being armed increasing the potential for apprehending these individuals to result in violence,” the group asserts.

Empowering FMCSA

Johnson urged lawmakers to give federal regulators more power to combat cargo theft. His association supports establishing a federal supply chain crime coordination center and supply chain fraud and theft task force.

He also suggested modernizing FMCSA’s vetting process to “include stronger authentication methods, real-time carrier verification, and implement controls around the sale or transfer of DOT and MC [motor carrier] numbers,” while increasing penalties for cargo theft.

Testifying on behalf of independent truckers, Lewie Pugh, vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told lawmakers that FMCSA may not need more money to step up enforcement, but instead to redirect funding it already receives.

“They continually say there’s not a safety effect to this problem [and therefore outside their jurisdiction], but we know there is,” Pugh said.

He pointed out that because profit margins in trucking are so slim, a $3,000 to $4,000 hit by scammers is a major setback. “It causes truckers to lose money that should be used for maintaining safe equipment. So there’s definitely a safety component.”

Subcommittee Chairman Todd Young, R-Ind., was open to all suggestions. He agreed that FMCSA currently does not have safeguards “to identify fraudulent actors or remove them from its system, nor does the agency have the statutory authority to assess civil penalties for violations of its safety or commercial regulations.”

Related articles:

• Data behind cargo and rail theft epidemic
• Borderlands Mexico: Organized crime groups fuel rise of US cargo thefts
• Strategic cargo theft costing carriers, brokers millions in freight in Q1
• 3PL Summit: Addressing fraud in the industry

Click for more FreightWaves articles by John Gallagher.

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