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Ronald Greene, senior vice president, Intel and Fusion Center, at Overhaul, is an experienced logistics and security professional with 20-plus years in the industry. He holds degrees in engineering and economics, and a master’s degree in business. Greene previously held senior leadership roles in First Advantage Corporation as a lead consultant, where he built risk models for global logistics operations for fortune 50 companies. He spent seven years as the president of FreightWatch International, a global logistics security company.
Greene is one of the founders of Overhaul, a global logistics risk management software company. Ron is also the owner of Regional Express Carriers, an asset-based trucking company based in Laredo, Texas.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 00:01
Protecting cargo from theft. A bumpy road for freight markets. And the latest from the Logistics Managers' Index report.
Pull up a chair and join us as the editors of DC Velocity discuss these stories, as well as news and supply chain trends, on this week's Logistics Matters podcast.
Hi, I'm Dave Maloney. I'm the group editorial director at DC Velocity. Welcome.
Logistics Matters is sponsored by Rite-Hite. Do you want 24/7 safety at the loading dock? Rite-Hite exclusively offers audible and visual alarms to help keep your people safe on and off forklifts, inside and out. Discover more at ritehite.com.
As usual, our DC Velocity senior editors Ben Ames and Victoria Kickham will be along to provide their insights into the top stories of this week. But to begin today: Cargo theft continues to be a problem, as products are stolen from facilities as well as in transit. How serious is the problem of theft, and what can be done to prevent it? To address those questions, we welcome back our guest Ron Greene. He's the [co]founder of Overhaul, a global logistics risk-management software company.
Welcome, Ron. It's good to have you with us on Logistics Matters.
Ron Greene, SVP, Intel and Fusion Center, Overhaul 01:20
Hi Dave, great to be here again. Thanks for having me.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 01:23
Ron, for those not familiar with Overhaul, can you briefly tell us a bit about your company?
Ron Greene, SVP, Intel and Fusion Center, Overhaul 01:29
Sure can. So, we're primarily a technology company that we provide services, you know, in the logistics and transportation space, and our whole strategy is mitigating risk while freight is in transit, and there's a lot of things that can happen to cargo as it moves domestically, around the world. Our whole systems and solutions are designed to identify and mitigate risks while cargo is on the move, and one of those being theft.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 02:00
So, we're talking about the issue of theft today. How serious a problem, is it, and do you have any kind of figures as to how much is lost annually through theft?
Ron Greene, SVP, Intel and Fusion Center, Overhaul 02:09
You know, cargo theft is a significant issue globally. It's a significant issue domestically. One of the challenges in my space, in my industry, is there's not real good data about how much cargo was actually lost from theft. There's not an effective reporting mechanism by any organization or government that has kind of given us accurate figures. The FBI has some published figures. You know, we've, we publish trends. My company publishes trends, what data we can capture, but it is a multi, multimillion-dollar, potentially even a billion-dollar-a-year problem, domestically in the U.S.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 02:51
Are there certain types of products that are more vulnerable to theft? What kinds of things are stolen most often?
Ron Greene, SVP, Intel and Fusion Center, Overhaul 02:57
If you think about things you buy in your house, what can you resell on an online marketplace? Anything that can be easily resold, you know, for, you know, for a certain dollar value, close to retail value, those are the things are stolen. So, pretty much anything, Dave. You know, if we look at our data, which is just a subset of the actual full dataset, the largest theft item that we record is electronics — anything from computers, to printers, to phones, anything electronic — cameras — is on the target list for cargo thieves. The simple fact they can resell those those products very easily, either through wholesalers or through online marketplaces.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 03:46
And is the higher-value item more vulnerable as well?
Ron Greene, SVP, Intel and Fusion Center, Overhaul 03:50
Exactly. The higher the value, the more sought-after it is. You know, if you can steal a load of computers, that could be upwards of $1 million-plus, you know, that's a pretty big win for a cargo thief, because that's a — they can resell that for, you know, probably 50 or 60 cents on the dollar for what the retail valuation is.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 04:11
Ron, where the product stolen from? Is it from facilities, or while they're on the road in transit, more likely?
Ron Greene, SVP, Intel and Fusion Center, Overhaul 04:19
Predominantly, the majority of theft happens in transit. So, think of how goods get to somebody's house. They're in a warehouse somewhere, probably a domestic warehouse somewhere. They move from that warehouse to a retail lot or another warehouse — think of you know, the big box stores or electronic stores that sell sell these products to consumers — and there's full loads of electronics, full loads of clothes, full loads of home and garden, all these different products moving down the road every day. We all see them when we're out and about, and they are ripe targets for cargo thieves to steal.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 05:01
A lot of what you do is providing technology that helps in recovery. So, how often are these goods recovered?
Ron Greene, SVP, Intel and Fusion Center, Overhaul 05:08
So within our client base, which is a lot of the big household names around electronics, pharmaceuticals, alcohol, tobacco, high-end retail, you know, we're able to, we recover freight almost every week, but our whole mechanism is to prevent the theft from happening in the first place. So, our internal statistics say we're able to prevent close to 99% of the theft that happens within our client base. In terms of just broad recovery statistics, very few and far between. Because most cargo theft, if it's, it may not be reported to the police. There likely is not going to be a big investigation, and it's gone in the criminal networks.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 05:54
Of course, you produce technology that helps in that recovery effort. Can you talk just a bit about the kinds of technologies that are out there to assist in recovery? As well as maybe, I know recently, you issued a press release talking about some of the major wins that you had in being able to recover some of that cargo that was stolen. Can you talk about how that happened?
Ron Greene, SVP, Intel and Fusion Center, Overhaul 06:12
Sure. So, I'm gonna talk domestically in the U.S., because every region in the world is different, from a crime standpoint. In the U.S., the vast majority of cargo theft happens very close to the origin point. Think about that first warehouse, I mentioned, where the shipment originates. So, typically, cargo criminals target loads coming out of specific warehouses. They know, likely know what's in that warehouse, they likely know what's in that truck, and they target those loads for theft, The vast majority of time, they'll follow that load until it stops at a truck stop, at a rest area, some other location, wait for the driver to leave that truck unattended. The driver goes in for a meal, a shower, a restroom break, and that's when they steal the load. They'll either break into the back of the truck, or steal the entire load altogether and drive it away. You know, our the rule of thumb, you know, what we preach to our clients in the industry is that if you can get truck drivers who are driving a load of product, if you can tell them the rules for this load are, you can't stop for four hours. You must drive continuously for four hours before you stop for fuel or rest, that is a very effective mitigation strategy. Just keeping drivers moving the first four hours [of] their transit, that prevents, in most cases, criminal elements from targeting that load, and they'll typically give up after 50 or 60 miles and go look for something else that's easier. So, if we can do the simple thing of getting drivers not to stop for the first couple of, few — first four hours, that is the Number One mitigation strategy domestically. And our technology: You know, we monitor, track, monitor loads via IoT devices and integrations, and when we see a load that stops in the first four hours, we typically you know, ring up, ring the dispatch or call somebody and say "This driver stopped where he's not supposed to. Can you give us an update on that load?" Let the driver know that he's in a high-risk area for theft, and hopefully we can get that driver back on the road as quick as possible.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 08:22
You mentioned high-risk areas. Are some areas worse than others for thefts — either parts of the country, or urban versus rural areas?
Ron Greene, SVP, Intel and Fusion Center, Overhaul 08:31
If you've ever driven across the country, and you probably have noticed areas where there are a lot of truck volume, —you know, the central states around Tennessee, Kentucky, big metroplexes like Dallas, Los Angeles, Newark, Atlanta, Miami. These are the locations where there's a lot of cargo, and that's where the cargo thieves go. You know, a state-by-state basis, California takes the top position for cargo theft, by far the highest rate of cargo theft, or the highest number of cargo thefts in the U.S. is California, and specifically, predominantly around Los Angeles.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 09:11
As I'd mentioned, you had some wins in being able to recover some cargo in California recently. Can you talk about what happened and how that cargo was recovered?
Ron Greene, SVP, Intel and Fusion Center, Overhaul 09:21
Sure. You know, and we're recovering cargo in California, almost on a weekly basis right now within our client base. These two recoveries we had over one weekend, the drivers did not follow the rules. They pulled out on a Friday afternoon from the warehouse. They parked their loads in the yard for the weekend. They went home for the weekend, which you know, which is very common. Our recommendation to our clients is, why can't we hold those until Monday? Let them depart on Monday, which they can get out of, get out of the hot zone, we call it. But they didn't. They picked them up on Friday and pulled into a yard and parked them. In the hours after they parked them, you know, we were able to record that the door on those trailers was open. Our system allows for us to receive door-open alerts, and we immediately, you know, escalated, trying to figure out what's happening, and once we were able to talk to the different parties involved, it was very, very clear that there's likely something illegal happening, and that's when we call in law enforcement to recover the load. In all cases, we have tracking on the device, but getting access to that yard, getting a police report filed by somebody who is the cargo owner, or the truck or trailer owner, sometimes takes a few conversations to make happen. But we're very effective in recovering stolen freight.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 10:49
You had mentioned that, obviously, there are certain rules that you advise your clients to follow with their drivers. What should drivers be doing in addition to some of the things you've talked about, about where you park and how, where you take breaks, those sorts of things? Are there certain things that they can do to safeguard the cargo in addition to the monitoring that your company provides, and others do?
Ron Greene, SVP, Intel and Fusion Center, Overhaul 11:10
Yeah, it's pretty much, it's very common-sense. You think of your own vehicle, you know. If you're in an area where there potentially could be auto theft, you may take precautions to park in a well-lit area, park in a secure garage. The same things apply for cargo. When drivers are driving across the country, our recommendation is, when they do pull off for rest or fuel, you know, park in a well-lit area. Don't park in the back of the parking lot. If you have an opportunity to back the truck up to hard surface, or another trailer, so nobody can get access to those back doors, that does help. And if they can stay with the vehicle, you know, and not leave the vehicle unattended for a long period of time, that also helps. So, all those combined are our recommendations to drivers. But [the] Number One important thing is, stay vigilant. You know, there's, there are criminals out there, and if you're aware of your surroundings, take some common-sense steps to prevent somebody from breaking into the truck or stealing the truck altogether, it does go a long way to prevent theft.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 12:13
Some very good advice. We've been talking with Ron Greene, the [co]founder of Overhaul. Thanks again, Ron, for being with us today on Logistics Matters.
Ron Greene, SVP, Intel and Fusion Center, Overhaul 12:21
Thank you very much, Dave. Good to talk to you again.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 12:24
Thank you. Now let's take a look at some of the other supply chain news from the week. And Ben, you wrote a story about how truck freight patterns are changing in reaction to economic disruptions. Can you tell us more?
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 12:38
Yeah, that's right. We cover, of course, the the trucking freight sector pretty closely, because that's obviously a foundational part of U.S. supply chains — any nation, actually. Here in the U.S., though, the American Trucking Associations, the ATA, says that almost 75% of the nation's freight moves by truck as opposed to other modes. But that sector, like many others, has been pinched lately by challenges. We've all seen labor shortages, international strife, and, of course, the industry's own natural cycles. So, right now we're living in a time when U.S. trucking capacity is quite loose, which is good for shippers, but tough for fleets. And we got some news this week with some details on exactly how that trucking sector is reacting to these challenging conditions. It came from the U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index for the first quarter, and what U.S. Bank found is that volumes continued to contract nationwide. Specifically, the volume of freight shipments moved via truck, that had declined in Q1 by a little more than 6% compared to the same quarter last year, and that was the fourth quarter in a row that that happened, so you can see we've really, as we said, moving to a trend here. The drop that they were tracking was most intense in the Southeast and the West, and also in the Northeast. All of those were in the mid teens for the percentage drop. Also in the Midwest, it was a smaller drop, but that was the 12th straight quarter, so, persistent. But here was the really interesting part to me: shipments in the southwest part of the U.S. actually increased by 14% — so, really significant jump. In fact, the region's largest year-over-year increase since early in 2018.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 14:24
That is quite a jump, especially in a tough market. Did that report give any reasons for the increase?
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 14:30
They did. U.S. Bank pointed to two main reasons. One of those is a near shoring trend. That's when companies tend to source goods, in this instance, from Mexico, instead of looking farther overseas. And they do that because of global unrest, like Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We saw sky-high, enormous maritime container prices during the pandemic. And reason number two was a shift of container imports away from West Coast ports to Gulf Coast and East Coast ports, and we saw some of those because, also, there were long delays for ships trying to unload during the pandemic. Those have since come down. But in the meantime, there's an ongoing threat of labor strikes. There's a long, contentious negotiation between dock workers and port operators. And a few years ago there was a long strike, and so many companies are trying to work around and reduce their risk on that, so they've been looking at moving their freight through new ports. So, of course, that rise — the fall in volume, excuse me — is tied to a fall in spending. Spending on trucking freight fell nationwide, not quite half a percent year over year, particularly in the Midwest. However, it rose in some other regions: Southeast, and, of course, it grows quite a lot in the Southwest. That's what we're talking about here. To put a little color on that, Bobby Holland — he's the director of freight data solutions at U.S. Bank — he explained it this way: he said that this quarter, that's the first quarter of 2023, was a prime example of how important it is to examine regional data when we're assessing truck freight payments. Boosted by growing truck transport and trade with Mexico and increased activity at the Port of Houston, truck freight activity in the southwest region is markedly different than what we're seeing in other regions. So, that was the report from U.S. Bank.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 16:33
Yeah, it certainly has been an interesting year in freight markets, and of course, we'll continue to cover all those ups and downs that we're seeing. Thanks, Ben.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 16:41
Glad to do it.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 16:43
And Victoria, you wrote this week about the latest snapshot of the overall health of the logistics industry. Can you share some details? Absolutely, Dave, yea. So, the logistics industry has been performing at lightning speed for the past couple of years, driven by strong demand for services during the pandemic and in its immediate aftermath, but those conditions have been cooling down recently, and that cooling continued in April. The Logistics Managers' Index, or LMI, is a monthly survey of industry leaders from across the country. And the index slowed to an all-time low reading in April. It measured just above the threshold indicating expansion across the industry, registering 50.9, and to give you an idea of what that means, about a year ago, the same index measured 76.2. Now, a reading above 50 indicates that the industry is growing, and when we see it in the 70s range, that indicates very strong growth. And the LMI was in that 70s range from much of 2021 and 2022. In a nutshell, what all this means is that demand for services across transportation and warehousing has slowed down. The researchers said that that's due to a continued reduction in inventories across the supply chain, which in turn is helping alleviate pressure in warehousing. Space had been very hard to come by and very expensive over the past few years, and that's beginning to change. We've also been tracking the very sluggish transportation market conditions, and those continued in April as well, as Ben just gave us quite a bit of information on. Victoria, many had been hoping, in a sense, to have some sort of return to more normal industry conditions. You'd mentioned the LMI is close to 50 — just above 50 right now, which means just a tiny bit of growth. Is that what we're seeing, a more normal return?
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 18:28
Yeah, it seems to be. I spoke to one of the LMI researchers, Zac Rogers, who is assistant professor of supply chain management at Colorado State University, and he said that the inventory issue in particular represents what many in the industry were hoping for throughout 2022, when those inventory levels were high and warehousing capacity was very tight. Rogers said the April data, which actually is continuing a trend that began late last year, may signal that — a return, I should say, to seasonalit, and that he says that logistics managers are are getting a better handle on the supply of goods and working through that glut of inventory they've been dealing with for the past year. So, yeah, I think it seems that conditions may be getting back to the kind of growth we're accustomed to seeing, but there's so much economic uncertainty out there that it's really still hard to tell what's on the horizon.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 19:18
It certainly seems that way. Thanks, Victoria.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 19:22
You're welcome.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 19:22
We encourage listeners to go to DCVelocity.com for more on these and other supply chain stories. Also check out the podcasts Notes section for some direct links on the topics that we discussed today.
And again, our thanks to Ron Greene of Overhaul for being our guest. We welcome your comments on this topic and our other stories. You can email us at podcast@dcvelocity.com.
We also encourage you to subscribe to Logistics Matters at your favorite podcast platform. Our new episodes are uploaded each Friday.
Speaking of subscribing, check out our sister podcast series Supply Chain in the Fast Lane, coproduced by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and Supply Chain Quarterly. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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We'll be back again next week with another edition of Logistics Matters. Be sure to join us. Until then, have a great week.
Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:
- Overhaul
- Truck freight volume continued to contract in Q1, US Bank says
- Logistics industry growth slowed in April
- Visit Supply Chain Quarterly
- Listen to CSCMP and Supply Chain Quarterly's Supply Chain in the Fast Lane podcast
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