Fraud Prevention Using Innovation, Communication, and Collaboration

Having been in the freight market for almost 30 years, we at Truckstop know about the highs and lows of the freight lifecycle— and everything in between. Thanks to the detailed data we have collected along the way, we are constantly leveraging our learnings to prioritize customers’ business, profits, and safety against fraudulent activity.

The rapidly changing market in 2023 brought an influx of bad actors, working to exploit vulnerabilities at every turn, resulting in historic fraud levels. As a result, we doubled down on our fraud mitigation, successfully preventing thousands of fraudulent entities from accessing our trusted network, resulting in the most secure freight marketplace in North America.

Tapping Into Expert Insights

Cargo theft has seen a significant surge across the industry, disrupting the supply chain and costing the trucking business millions of dollars. This devastating trend leaves brokers and carriers feeling vulnerable and unsure how to adequately protect their hauls.

Truckstop has continued its longstanding partnership with law enforcement, such as the FBI’s Major Theft Program (MTO), to bring you a first-hand analysis of the current cargo theft landscape, emerging trends and tactics used by thieves, and ways you can partner with the FBI to strengthen your defense.

These include:

• Ways criminals plan and execute traditional cargo theft
• How MTOs defeat security measures
• Cyber theft strategies

The FBI’s multi-pronged approach to combat fraud includes opening key cases, working closely with other law enforcement, training new agents in the field, and forging partnerships with industry leaders like Truckstop to gain essential insights into the quickly changing landscape.

Reinforcing RMIS

Evolving online security scams create unnecessary risks for everyone in the logistics industry. Thieves impersonate carriers and brokers to create misplaced trust, potentially resulting in stolen cargo or significant financial loss.

Fraud is a major headache for brokers, with 78% of brokers spending valuable time tackling it, according to a Truckstop survey. Lost productivity (65%) and legal hassles (25%) only add to the burden. Truckstop’s RMIS, the industry-leading carrier onboarding and monitoring solution, provides the tools brokers need to combat fraud. RMIS leverages proven, scalable technology to help you onboard high-quality carriers and secure your business.

We further enhanced our powerful security measures to verify carriers’ identities and prevent imposters from accessing your account, building trust and peace of mind throughout the platform.

Upgraded Security Measures

Identity verification. Proactively preventing unauthorized users out of your network protects the freight community. Identity verification compares an individual’s government-issued ID with a real-time photograph. RMIS carriers are required to undergo this process annually or if their government-issued ID expires.

Enhanced multi-factor authentication (MFA). More than 80% of confirmed security breaches are a result of weak or stolen passwords or those used to log in to multiple accounts. MFA is a security protocol that mandates users to present two or more distinct authentication factors to confirm their identity before gaining access to a system, application, or account. Detecting potentially compromised credentials provides smooth access across both the Truckstop and RMIS platforms and creates a trusted and reliable network.

We will continue to examine RMIS from all angles to keep your data secure and mitigate any potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited by fraudulent players.

Securing Carrier Selection

In the past year, Truckstop implemented eighteen product enhancements to help combat freight market fraud. This included a partnership with Carrier Assure, the first performance scoring software that anticipates how a carrier will transport goods for full truckload interstate shipments. Carrier Assure’s data is now available as an integration in the RMIS platform as an additional vetting tool brokers and shippers can use when selecting and managing their carrier networks.

Creating Customized Networks

Creating a trusted secure network helps you safeguard your business. That’s why Truckstop’s acquisition of capacity and network management technology, FreightFriend, aims to build customized and reliable networks that contribute to business stability and growth. It effectively enhances the ability of logistics service providers to meet and exceed the expectations of their shipper customers.

Prioritizing Education

Truckstop also initiated Fraud Prevention Friday – a weekly series to empower those in the freight transportation industry with the tools they need to help combat fraud in their business. Some hot topics covered in nearly twenty blogs were fuel card security, ways to recognize double brokering, and safeguarding cargo.

Truckstop is committed to equipping the freight transportation industry with the tools to combat fraud and increase trust in freight through education, informative resources, strategic partnerships, and product enhancements.