Cargo theft6 min read
A load disappears. Who pays?
There is no single answer, which is why the argument starts while the freight is still missing. The contract decides more than the press release does.
Three different policies get confused
- The carrier's cargo insurance covers freight in its care, usually with exclusions and a dollar limit that may be far below a trailer of phones or pharmaceuticals.
- The broker's legal liability is not the same policy. A broker who hired a careful carrier is in a different position from a broker who hired a DOT number that was two weeks old.
- The shipper's own cargo or stock-throughput policy may be the only coverage that actually pays a fictitious pickup, and only if the shipper bought that coverage.
Motor truck cargo policies often expect theft to look like theft: forced entry, a police report, a seal. Strategic theft can fail those boxes because the warehouse loaded the thief on purpose. That gap is why some shippers discover, after the loss, that they were uninsured for the exact crime that is growing.
What to write down immediately
- The carrier name and DOT number on the rate confirmation, and the name on the truck that actually loaded.
- Driver name, as written on the identification the dock saw. If the dock did not look, say so. It matters later.
- Pickup time, seal number, and the last tracking point.
- A police report. Many policies require one even when everyone knows the truck is three states away.
Then the commercial fight begins. A September 30 guilty verdict in a $2 million cargo case does not, by itself, repay the shipper. The broker says the carrier is liable. The carrier says that was not their driver. The insurance company says the loss is excluded. None of that brings the freight back the same day.
Sources
The Ro-Mac Brief summarizes public reporting for a general reader. Figures can be revised by the agency that published them. This is not legal advice.
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