Regular security audits and tamper-evident technology can save you time and energy over time.
Cargo theft in the last year has increased in numbers never seen before. Not only that, but losses for companies are often more significant in a volatile economy, as they lose not only money but customers.
Beyond the current trends for cargo theft, shipping and delivery processes are becoming increasingly precarious for multiple high-value industries, and these dangers will generate even more of these issues.
According to Business Insurance, with data from New Jersey’s Verisk Analytics Inc.’s CargoNet®, estimated cargo theft losses in the United States and Canada reached over $19 million in the first quarter of 2022.
This is a worrying 73 percent growth over the 2021 last quarter, even as the number of reported thefts remained unchanged at 319, with most incidents occurring during Memorial Weekend.
High-value products are not the only target for thieves that are looking for household goods as well as vehicles and electronics.
To ensure products being shipped from factories reach vendors and customers safely, you should start doing security audits.
Learn here what a security audit is and how it can help you to protect products from being stolen, damaged, or tampered with as they go from your facility to the consumer.
What is a security audit for shipping products?
A security audit for packaging and product tracking is a process where you can track and preserve information about the integrity and efficacy of packages from the point of manufacture to final delivery.
The audit monitors potential security breaches within the security cycle, which is divided into four stages:
- Product ordered
- Product packed for delivering
- Product shipping
- Product delivery
It differs from cyber audits because it uses a physical element, tamper-evident tapes (TET), and layers to leave a trace of whether or not the package was tampered with before final delivery.
With the increasing number of delivery processes being held up or slowed down for many economic, climatic, and post-pandemic consequences, using a security audit allows those receiving the goods to be on the lookout for changes that people may not notice until too late.
Benefits of performing a security audit with tamper evident tapes
Not only will tamper-evident tapes help you keep packages safe during an incident, but they will also provide you with important information during the shipping process:
- You’ll be able to cross with incident trends within the security cycle discussed above.
- Empower yourself with sufficient data to know and act on tampering, theft, or counterfeiting situations and trends.
- You’ll save significant money by applying a TET that allows you to make long-term decisions.
- With tamper-evident tapes, it’s harder for tamperers to change or counterfeit your products.
- After assessing accidents, you can be proactive and warn customers of potential shipping dangers and suppliers about safety failures within the supply chain.
Not only that, as technology for shipment security advances, so does tamper-evident tape technology.
If this simple and cost-effective packaging technique already hinders product crime, it can be optimized to improve their security within the supply chain effectively:
- Changing the void message within the tapes will help to reduce counterfeits at a much more rate.
- Try to update the surface and subsurface print designs at least annually. This can also help marketing since you can differ significantly from competitors while keeping branding intact.
- Modifying tamper-evident labels and tape colors will confuse counterfeiters and empower you to control packaging with different segments your company only understands.
Unfortunately, product theft, counterfeiting, and tampering won’t stop soon. However, you can increase shipment security and minimize vandalism by assessing your products and keeping them well-stored and tracked.
Even though theft may be on the rise, your goods don’t have to suffer any crime.
At Secure Applications, we believe we can assure maximum supply chain security by using the best tools in the industry, including the most technological tamper-evidence tapes on the market right now.
Contact us today and learn how we can help you protect your packages.
