Road freight crime is an international problem that is estimated to cost the economy close to £1 billion each year. In 2006, of the 3423 large goods vehicles that were stolen across the UK, nearly half were never recovered.
Intelligence suggests that organised criminal networks are stealing a significant number of vehicles purely for the loads that they are carrying. Road freight crime is organised, increasingly violent and market-driven. Criminals respond to demand, travelling the length and breadth of the country. The most commonly stolen items include easily disposable household goods such as computers, mobile phones, clothing, cigarettes and alcohol.
In response to the problem, numerous private sector partners from manufacturing, logistics, haulage and insurance have joined with the police to establish TruckPol, a national road freight crime intelligence unit. TruckPol is based within the ACPO Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service.
TruckPol is an intelligence unit which collates, analyses and disseminates national data and intelligence on road freight crime across the UK. It is the only national unit of its kind and provides a strategic overview, reporting back through the Home Office, Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).
TruckPol also maintains a unique, comprehensive national stolen lorry load database. In 2006, over £8 million of stolen property was recovered and identified directly through searches conducted on the database, despite attempts by criminal gangs to evade detection by moving stolen loads across police boundaries, often from one end of the UK to the other.
2007 source
With TruckPol closed, who will investigate crime?
Since the closure of TruckPol earlier this year, the Road Haulage Association has been working hard to address the gaping hole.
RHA head of security Chris Rampley says that a three-way approach between itself, a private analytical service and the police is the most likely model to be adopted.
Rampley also says, on the policing side, that Nottinghamshire Police force has offered a lifeline to hauliers with the decision to establish a specialist freight crime division under its National Business Crime Forum (NBCF). The NBCF is a cross-sector initiative launched in October last year, bringing together the police, the private sector, the Home Office and other key industries to tackle the impact of crime on businesses.
Sergeant Richard Stones is leading the operation and is urging UK hauliers and police forces to report any freight crime to ensure a constant data record is kept, and RHA is keen to play a greater role in the fight against freight crime, providing a link between hauliers and police.
see: National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS Freight)