News / TAPA and EU want a common standard for secure truck parking as crime rises

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The Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) wants to work with the EU to create a common standard for secure truck parking, in a bid to prevent cargo crime that has reached record levels this year. 

TAPA launched its Parking Security Requirements (PSR) – a tiered certification programme for parking operators – a year ago, giving members an online planning tool so they can select secure sites, as well as providing crime intelligence along the route.  

The EU has come up with a similar strategy, a list of secure parking places and an action plan with certification framework, as well as funding opportunities to boost existing capacity. The EC’s Safe & Secure Truck Parking Audit will be available later this year and offer a one-stop website for parking place owners, auditors and audit entities.  

“As a result of the proactive actions taken by TAPA and the EU, we now see a unique window of opportunity for a significant step change in secure parking in Europe,” said Thorsten Neumann, TAPA chief executive.   

 “Having already collaborated with the EC study, we are keen to take this to the next stage and see how we can further leverage TAPA’s partnership with the EU to bring the most robust secure parking programme across the continent.

“We will continue to move forward with our own PSR security standard while our discussions with the EU continue, but we can see a lot of common ground to align our respective programmes and provide a solution to satisfy the high demand for all levels of secure truck parking.” 

Recorded cargo thefts in the first half of the year in Europe, the Middle East and Africa amounted to more than €55m, or some €305,000 a day, in 4,198 incidents, making it a record year and up 5.1% on last year. However, TAPA said the number was “only a fraction of the full impact”.  

“The vast majority of crimes still are not being reported to us, but we and other associations we are engaged with estimate the true loss to be billions of euros every year in our region,” said Mr Neumann. 

In the second quarter, the top ten countries for recorded losses were France, Germany, the Netherlands, UK, Spain, Russia, South Africa, Belgium, Romania and Italy – accounting for 91.8% of all incidents added to the TAPA IIS database.

In product categories, the highest losses were in tobacco products, food and drink, furniture and household appliances, clothing and footwear and cosmetics and hygiene goods. The highest-value loss in the quarter involved the theft of €10m in cash from the cargo hold of an aircraft at Tirana Airport in Albania on 9 April. 

But the majority of cargo losses were from trucks, mostly when parked in unsecured or unclassified locations. In the second quarter, theft from vehicles represented 57.4% of the total, with 61% from trucks in unclassified parking locations.