The Transported Asset Protection Association (Tapa) presented a compelling case for road hauliers to fight cargo crime through incident reporting and the intelligent advantages of big data accumulation during a well-attended conference at Emperors Palace last Friday. The CEO and president of Tapa’s Middle East and Africa region, Thorsten Neumann, said despite having the “biggest database of cargo crime” in the world, the organisation remained underrepresented in terms of local membership. “South Africa is one of the hot spots of cargo crime in the world at the moment yet we only have eight members.” Backed by a strong presentation and solid stats from Tapa’s Information Incident System (ISS), Neumann explained how in one region between Poland and Germany road freight pilferage had been brought down 80% thanks to collaborative work between law enforcement agencies of both countries using insights gleaned from ISS. Such has been Tapa’s success in providing a solid information service on cargo crime, its membership in Europe over the last 13 years has mushroomed to more than 410 companies, with its country tally going from 14 to 28. Of the 24 big pharmaceutical companies of which Neumann is aware, 18 have joined Tapa, and that’s just one sector of high-value cargo. Yet South African road hauliers, despite the violent environment in which they operate, appear to be dithering when it comes to joining an organisation that has become a world leader in providing its members with useful information. “On average R30 million is lost through cargo crime in South Africa annually. This year alone 3000 incidents were reported in the first quarter alone. Currently we’re standing on around 3900 incidents in total.” And that picture, Neumann emphasised, was not a true reflection of what was really happening because a lot of local cargo crime was underreported. “I’m in South Africa,” he said, “to convince local law enforcement authorities to work with us in gathering information – to form a data front to road freight theft that’s already used in the Netherlands, with countries like Denmark and Sweden also cottoning on.” I’m in South Africa to convince local law enforcement authorities to work with us. – Thorsten Neumann
