Cargo Theft in Europe by the Numbers: €2.5 Million Stolen Every Day and Why It Keeps Getting Worse

February 23, 2026 ·Mairi Kutberg ·

cargo-theftfreight-fraudlogistics-securitysupply-chainphantom-carrierTAPA

€2.7 billion stolen in three years. 634 incidents in a single month. Average loss per major incident: €878,525. A data briefing on Europe's cargo crime crisis.

Cargo Theft in Europe by the Numbers: €2.5 Million Stolen Every Day and Why It Keeps Getting Worse

If you run a logistics operation in Europe and have not updated your cargo security strategy in the past 18 months, you are working with an outdated threat model. The cargo crime landscape has changed faster than most industry leaders realise, and the numbers behind it are stark.

This article is a data briefing — not a vendor pitch. We have compiled the most important figures from TAPA EMEA, IUMI, GDV, BSI/Munich Re, and other authoritative sources into a single reference for logistics decision-makers who need to understand the scale, the methods, and the economics of what is happening.

The Scale: Three Years of Data

The TAPA EMEA Intelligence System recorded 157,421 cargo crimes across 129 countries between 2022 and 2024. Fewer than 6% of those reports included a financial value — and those alone totalled €2.7 billion in losses. That works out to approximately €2.5 million in goods stolen from supply chains across the EMEA region every 24 hours, sustained over three years.

In Europe specifically, reported cargo theft incidents surged 438% in three years. The average loss per reported incident nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023, rising from €107,957 to €206,665. Major incidents — those exceeding €100,000 — averaged €878,525 per theft.

To put a single month in perspective: in July 2024 alone, 1,736 cargo thefts were recorded across the EMEA region, with reported financial losses of €16.2 million. That is €532,000 worth of goods stolen every day of that month. The UK led with 620 incidents (20 per day), followed by Germany (359), Italy (243), France (222), and Spain (114).

These figures represent reported incidents only. TAPA and industry analysts consistently note that actual theft volumes are significantly higher due to underreporting, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.

What Gets Stolen: The Commodity Map

The profile of stolen goods tells you something about how cargo crime has matured. Criminals are not grabbing what is convenient — they are targeting what resells efficiently.

According to the BSI/Munich Re 2025 Cargo Theft Report, the most targeted commodities in 2024 were food and beverage (22% of all incidents), agricultural goods (10%), electronics (9%), and fuel (7%). Pharmaceuticals, while a smaller share by volume, carry outsized risk because of their compact size, high market value, and the public health consequences if stolen products re-enter the supply chain improperly stored.

The economics of scarcity are also driving target selection. When Spain's olive harvest suffered in 2023 due to extreme weather, prices rose 50% — and 56 tonnes of extra virgin olive oil were stolen from a warehouse in Cordoba, valued at over half a million dollars. Inflation has made food and beverage freight a consistently high-value target since 2022.

Even in the Netherlands, where overall theft numbers dropped from 727 incidents in 2022 to 162 in 2023, the average value per individual loss more than tripled. Criminals are becoming more selective, not less active.

How It Happens: Five Methods That Define 2024–2025

The cargo theft playbook has diversified significantly. Here is what the data shows about current methods.

Intrusion (66.5% of EMEA incidents by mid-2025). Cutting curtains, breaking locks, accessing unsecured trailers. This remains the dominant method by volume, particularly at motorway rest areas and unsecured parking. It is the "traditional" method that most security measures are designed to counter.

Hijacking (21% of global incidents in 2024). Armed or forced takeover of vehicles, often in transit. Most prevalent in Latin America and Africa but persistent in parts of Southern and Eastern Europe. Closely followed by outright vehicle theft at 20%.

Phantom carriers (fastest-growing in Europe). Criminal entities that register as legitimate transport companies — sometimes using stolen identities of real carriers — secure freight contracts, collect goods, and disappear. The GDV reports 88 phantom carrier cases in Germany in just the first seven months of 2025, matching the entire previous year. Losses: €18 million in seven months. A full truckload vanishes every three days.

Cyber-enabled fraud. Forged email addresses, look-alike domains, fake insurance certificates, compromised freight platform accounts. Criminal groups are using remote monitoring tools to infiltrate broker systems and redirect shipments. AI is emerging as a force multiplier — generating convincing fake documentation, phishing emails, and even synthetic voice communications.

Insider collusion. TAPA and BSI both flag insider information as a growing factor, particularly for high-value targeted thefts. Employees or contractors with access to shipment details provide timing, routing, and commodity information to criminal networks.

The critical insight is that the fastest-growing methods — phantom carriers, cyber-enabled fraud, identity deception — are all identity problems, not physical security problems. You cannot lock your trailer harder against a criminal who collected your goods legally using a stolen identity.

The Geography: Where Risk Is Highest

Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom consistently top the EMEA incident tables. But the risk profile varies.

Germany faces the highest exposure to phantom carrier fraud — the GDV data makes this clear. The country's position as Europe's largest freight market, combined with its dense network of freight exchange platforms, makes it the primary operating ground for fake carrier operations.

Italy sees high-value targeted thefts, including the €4 million cosmetics theft from a trailer in Lombardy reported in June 2025, and the €3 million cash-in-transit operation. France and Spain face persistent curtain-slashing and rest area thefts, with Spain's position as a gateway to North Africa adding cross-border complexity.

Central and Eastern Europe remains a blind spot. Reporting infrastructure is weak, official statistics are scarce, and phantom carrier operations frequently originate from the region before targeting shipments in Western Europe. Industry analysts consistently warn that the data for this region represents a significant undercount.

The UK, despite no longer being in the EU, is one of the highest-volume markets for cargo theft — 620 reported incidents in a single month (July 2024) illustrates the scale.

The Economics: What a Theft Actually Costs

The sticker price of stolen goods is only part of the damage. The total cost of a cargo theft incident includes the value of the stolen shipment itself, insurance deductibles and premium increases, business interruption and supply chain delays, administrative and legal costs of investigation, customer relationship damage and potential contract penalties, and regulatory reporting costs.

The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) quantified this in a January 2026 report: motor carriers average more than $520,000 in annual theft losses, while logistics service providers average more than $1.84 million annually. The annualised cost to the US industry alone is estimated at $6.6 billion — more than $18 million per day.

European figures are harder to consolidate due to fragmented reporting, but the TAPA EMEA data — €2.7 billion in reported losses over three years from fewer than 6% of incidents that disclosed values — suggests the true annual cost runs well into the billions.

For individual logistics companies, even a single phantom carrier incident can mean €200,000+ in direct losses — enough to wipe out months of operating margin for a mid-sized carrier.

What the Authorities Are Saying

The organisations with the best data are converging on the same message.

IUMI and TAPA EMEA issued a joint statement in February 2026 calling for urgent action. Their specific recommendation: freight exchange platforms must implement robust identity verification and fraud detection protocols, including multifactor authentication.

TAPA's Freight Broker Security Requirements (FBSR) Standard and Cyber Security Standard provide frameworks for carrier vetting and identity verification. GDV has published loss prevention guidelines specifically targeting phantom carrier fraud.

In the US, the Department of Transportation issued a public Request for Information in late 2025 seeking strategies to reduce cargo theft, specifically targeting fraudulent carrier identities and double-brokering scams.

The common thread across all of these: identity verification is no longer optional security hygiene. It is becoming a structural requirement for operating in European freight.

What This Means for Your Operation

This data points to three priorities for logistics decision-makers in 2026.

Reassess your carrier vetting process for identity fraud, not just financial risk. Traditional vetting checks company registration, insurance, and credit. Phantom carriers pass all of these. Your vetting process needs a mechanism that verifies the actual identity of the person collecting your goods — not just the company name on the paperwork.

Demand identity verification from your freight platforms. IUMI has put platforms on notice. If your platform relies on email-based registration and basic login credentials, you are operating on a system that phantom carriers can penetrate. Ask what identity verification is in place at the driver level, not just the company level.

Factor cargo crime into your eFTI preparation. The eFTI mandate will drive rapid adoption of digital freight documentation over the next 18 months. Companies that build identity verification into their digital workflows from the start will be structurally more secure than those that digitise the document while leaving the identity gap open.

The numbers in this briefing are not projections. They are reported incidents from the past 36 months. The trajectory is clear, the methods are evolving, and the industry's current defences are not keeping pace. The companies that adapt their security model to the identity-fraud reality — rather than the bolt-cutter reality of a decade ago — will be the ones that protect their freight.

Sources:

IdentiGate provides cryptographic digital identity for freight — verifying drivers and carriers from 179 countries via biometric passport and NFC. Learn more at identigate.com