Analysis and Mitigation of Cargo Theft Risk

Aim of the project: To explore and compare actual and perceived cargo theft risks in Sweden and Finland and in the EU as a whole in order to outline managerial strategies that can reduce the risk of cargo theft. Cargo theft is really a substantial problem in an international perspective. For example, annual cargo theft losses in the EU are estimated at EUR 8.2 billion (EP, 2007). Most of the freight transport in the EU is by road, so road cargo theft can be considered as a threat to one of the EU’s core principles, the free movement of goods (Europol, 2009). For several reasons, it is difficult to assign values on the risks related to cargo theft. The fact that the expected loss, from a statistical perspective, can be calculated as the probability of a theft multiplied by the value of the lost goods if the theft actually occurs (Manuj & Mentzer, 2008) shows that the concept of risk is a complex issue in this field.