New data from the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) EMEA group shows that freight thefts from trucks left in unclassified parking locations have reduced dramatically since the pandemic.
TAPA believes this is due to companies taking more proactive action to protect the resilience of their supply chains. It has also been leading the drive to establish more secure truck parking places across the EMEA region to protect drivers, vehicles and their loads.
The data is based on reports of criminal attacks reported to the TAPA EMEA Intelligence System (TIS), its cargo crime database.
53.4% or 6,545 of the 12,259 incidents in 2019 were recorded in unclassified parking places. In 2022, only 6.72% (or 832) of the 12,378 freight thefts reported to TAPA EMEA stated a location of ‘unclassified parking’.
Meanwhile, for the 10,698 cargo crimes recorded so far in 2023, less than 4.6% were reported to the Association in unclassified parking places.
Thorsten Neumann, President & CEO of TAPA EMEA, explains: “Overall cargo crime in the EMEA region is continuing to rise year-over-year, but when you look at recorded incident data provided by the industry, law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders since 2018, there is a clear and accelerating downward trend in the number of cargo crimes taking place in unclassified parking places.
“TAPA EMEA members are contributing to this improvement because they can access our full Facility (FSR), Trucking (TSR) and Parking (PSR) industry Standards. It is only by adopting an end-to-end supply chain security strategy than you can mitigate the growing cargo security risks companies are facing today.
Thorsten Neumann, President & CEO of TAPA EMEA
“Our ability to also provide intelligence on thousands of cases of cargo crime, and training to support the implementation of our Standards, is enabling our members to maintain the highest levels of supply chain resilience.”
He added: “Additionally… these statistics may also demonstrate much greater awareness among businesses and drivers of the need to think about, and plan for, their parking requirements. This results in significantly fewer attacks on trucks in unsecured parkings, and, consequently, lower product losses in these locations, which we naturally welcome.”
While the number of these types of incidents shows a significant decline, based on recorded data, TAPA continues to highlight high value losses which can stem from poor parking decisions.
Losses reported to the Association’s TIS database in 2023, in which criminals have targeted vehicles in unclassified parking places, have included:
In 2018, the Association launched a new Parking Security Requirements (PSR) industry Standard for Parking Place Operators (PPOs) to help them identify the minimum-security levels customers needed.
PSR is now the most adopted Standard in EMEA for secure parking, with the TAPA EMEA PSR secure parking database currently giving its member companies access to over 20,700 parking places at 87 locations in 16 countries, up 10% year-on-year. A new 2023 version of PSR was launched in January after a review of the Standard to take onboard new or emerging security threats.
In April, TAPA EMEA was also awarded Official Training Centre status by the European Commission for its EU Safe & Secure Truck Parking Areas (SSTPA) Standard, which is also working to help fund and establish more professional parking locations in Europe.
TAPA also signed a partnership agreement with the National Security Inspectorate (NSI) earlier this year, with the Inspectorate’s auditors supporting the adoption and growth of TAPA’s primary standards.
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