Cargo theft costs the trucking industry $18 million a day according to the American Trucking Association, with vehicle transport companies increasingly victimized by hackers looking to exploit the rising value of cars and trucks.

Indeed, it’s more than simple car theft. Auto shipping companies are losing loads of money to thieves and fraudsters using sophisticated methods.

“This isn’t the like out of the movie type of scene where like guys jump out of the woods and take cars. These are guys that are sitting behind computer screens and they are using a network, often unknowingly, to members and participants of the network that are moving cars to certain locations, and then before you know it, the car is out of the country and it’s not coming back,” Matt Bradley, CEO of auto transport platform, Super Dispatch, says in an interview.

In a report on auto transport trends, Super Dispatch found the volume and value of such thefts has increased. Specifically:

The number of vehicles stolen per incident this year has grown from one at the start of 2026 to three in the past three months.

The median value of a stolen vehicle is approximately $80,000.

Three out of every four stolen vehicles are model year 2024 or newer, indicating “criminals are intentionally pursuing newer, higher-value vehicles moving through the transportation network.”

Thieves aren’t being as obtuse as simply........

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