Stolen Cargo in Brazil
Cases of stolen cargo in Brazil are relatively high, mainly due to the dependence on road transportation and the lack of stricter punishment for violators. This article will cover this crime and its characteristics in the country.
Overview
Over BRL 1 billion. That is the estimated amount lost in 2013 due to stolen cargo in Brazil, according to NTC&Logística, an acronym for the National Association of Cargo Transport and Logistics. This amount corresponds to a total of approximately 15,200 occurrences.
The amount worries the transport sector, especially the ones focused on business made in the southeast region of the country. More than 80% of these crimes happen in this area, and more than half take place only in the state of São Paulo.
Still, according to the entity, the main targets of criminals are cargo containing food, cigarettes, electronics, and pharmaceutical products. Nearly 70% of the felonies happen in urban areas, often when loading or unloading processes are happening.
Usually, the cargo is taken to small cities, split into smaller portions, and then sold to receivers. Not rarely, criminals use jammers to avoid the tracking of the vehicles, and, in many cases, the drivers are kidnapped during this action.
Other Modals
The stealing of cargo from aircrafts and vessels happens way less than the crimes involving trucks on the highways.
This, in fact, prompted many criticisms on how dependent Brazil is on the road transportation. Around 58% of all the transportation processes in the country is made that way.
Nevertheless, this type of crime happens with other modals, too. The stealing of chartered planes is more common when it comes to aircrafts, although they hardly happen in big cities with a stricter fiscalization. Sea piracy is not very usual in the Brazilian coast, but sometimes, there are registered cases of stolen cargo while the ship is anchored at ports, during loading and unloading.
Policies to Fight Cargo Stealing
One of the recent Brazilian initiatives that support the fight against cargo stealing is named Brasil ID. Still under implementation, it consists in a system that is able to identify, track, and authenticate merchandise, using mainly RFID technology. The measure was developed in order to create a national standard, and enabling, among other actions, the wider fiscalization of goods.
Two measures are widely used by transporters in Brazil to combat cargo stealing: the hiring of insurance and the hiring of consulting companies, responsible for tracing safer routes for the truck drivers.
In Brazil, the Federal Police is the governmental body responsible for operations seeking to fight or prevent stealing of cargo. This entity conducts different operations, seeking for a disarticulation of the stealing gangs and also searching for the stolen merchandise.
How to Avoid
Transport companies and associations state that there is not a completely efficient measure to avoid cargo stealing, but, along with governmental bodies, they listed some recommendations to lower the chances of this crime. Some of them, directed at the drivers or the transporting companies, are:
- Do not give lifts
- Only stop in places that might be considered safe, and avoid asking for information from strangers
- Avoid leaving the vehicle unattended, and make sure that a check-up is always made after a stop, in order to avoid any sabotage
- Try to make any personal marks on the transporting vehicles, so it can be easily recognized in case of emergencies
- Avoid nightly freight; if needed, do it in convoy with other vehicles
- Make sure that communication between the drivers and the company is established regularly throughout the freight time
- Fuel up the vehicles before loading them
- Whenever possible, install tracking and fiscalization systems.