TIA Lobbies Congress on Cargo Theft Reporting as Losses Mount

What did TIA ask Congress to do about cargo theft?

The Transportation Intermediaries Association brought cargo theft to Capitol Hill on September 25, urging lawmakers to mandate federal reporting of freight thefts. The lobbying push comes as the industry recorded more than $1 billion in stolen loads in 2025, with no unified tracking system to help law enforcement or insurers connect cases across state lines.

TIA members met with congressional offices to press for legislation that would require carriers, brokers, and shippers to report thefts to a central database. Current reporting is voluntary, and most thefts go unreported because carriers fear higher insurance premiums or damage to their safety scores. The result is a fragmented picture that makes it harder to spot patterns, recover loads, or prosecute organized rings.

Why cargo theft hits small fleets hardest

A single stolen load can bankrupt a small carrier. The average theft in 2025 was worth $214,000, according to CargoNet data. For a three-truck operation, that wipes out months of profit and often triggers an insurance non-renewal. Larger fleets absorb the loss across hundreds of units. Owner-operators and small fleets do not have that cushion.

The lobbying effort follows a string of high-value thefts that used fake pickup credentials and hijacked carrier accounts. In one Memphis case, thieves traded a $110,000 frozen-chicken load to settle a drug debt. In another, suspects used fake FedEx IDs to walk out with $680,000 in electronics. Both cases involved identity fraud that a centralized reporting system might have flagged earlier.

What TIA wants in the bill

The association is backing a proposal that would require any theft over $50,000 to be reported to the FBI's National Crime Information Center within 24 hours. The threshold is low enough to capture most trailer and load thefts but high enough to avoid burying the system in petty tool thefts. The bill would also create a searchable database accessible to law enforcement, insurers, and verified industry participants.

TIA argues that voluntary reporting has failed. Less than 30 percent of freight thefts are reported to police, and even fewer make it into any national database. That leaves carriers, brokers, and shippers blind to whether a new partner has a theft history or whether a pickup location is a known hotspot.

How this changes for small carriers

If the bill passes, small fleets would gain access to theft data that currently only large carriers with dedicated security teams can afford to track. A carrier vetting a new broker could check whether that broker's loads have been targeted. A dispatcher routing a high-value load could see that a particular truck stop has had six thefts in the past 90 days and choose a different fuel stop.

The downside is compliance cost. Reporting a theft within 24 hours means someone at the carrier has to file the report, gather documentation, and follow up with law enforcement. For a two-person office, that is time not spent moving freight. TIA has not proposed any funding to offset the administrative burden, and small carriers will likely eat the cost.

What happens next

The bill has bipartisan support but no floor vote scheduled. Congress recessed without acting on the measure in September. TIA plans to continue lobbying through the fall, with a goal of attaching the cargo theft language to a larger transportation or crime bill before the end of the year.

For now, carriers are left with the same patchwork of voluntary reporting, private databases, and word-of-mouth warnings that has failed to slow the theft surge. Until a federal mandate takes effect, the gap between what law enforcement knows and what the industry is losing will keep widening.