Frequently asked questions

Classic cargo theft is a violent break-in — for example slitting the tarp at an unsecured rest area. In cargo diversion the opposite happens: the goods are handed over entirely voluntarily, because the offenders successfully posed as a legitimate carrier.

That is exactly why this form is so hard to recognise — there is no break-in, no traces, no moment when something obviously looks wrong. The loss only shows when the goods do not arrive at destination.

A fake carrier — a company that does not exist as presented. Offenders either steal the identity of a real forwarder or found a shell company with forged documents. The sequence often follows the same pattern:

1. Preparation: steal an identity or build a shell company
2. Job hunting: on freight exchanges, target high-value or easily sold goods and slightly undercut the market price
3. Deception: company name, contacts, plates and vehicle data are forged — or a real carrier appears who was given a completely different destination
4. Collection: the truck appears at the loading point; outwardly everything fits
5. Disappearance: once the vehicle has left the site, contact usually breaks off at once

A job is accepted but not driven. Instead the contractor posts the same job again under their own name on a freight exchange and awards it at a slightly higher price to a third party. That party collects the goods in the ordinary way. Before or during the transport the delivery address is changed — delivery is made in good faith to the offenders or a foreign warehouse.

Criminals need not stand behind it. Genuine carriers also pass jobs on without control. Whoever delivered is left empty-handed; the originally contracted forwarder is usually liable to their customer. The longer and less controlled the chain of subcontractors becomes, the more you lose control of the load.

From several places at once — a single feature proves nothing; several together are a clear signal:

• Plates: if the announced plate is not on the insurance confirmation, that is an alarm. Country and region must also match the registration.
• Domain: lookalike addresses where a small “l” is replaced by a capital “I”, or “.de” becomes “.com”.
• Email: free-mail addresses or company names with an extra letter.
• Phone: area code does not match the stated seat, or there is no extension — practically impossible for a larger operation.
• References: replies within minutes, lavish praise, addresses with the wrong domain ending.
• Price: an offer well below market.

Very serious. A vehicle change shortly before the loading window is among the most common alarm signs of all. The reasons always sound plausible: the vehicle is not empty at the last unloading point, an accident en route, illness of the driving staff, a technical defect — followed by the prompt relief “but we have organised a replacement”.

The problem: the replacement vehicle is usually not on the insurance confirmation and often cannot be tied to the country, the region or this carrier. Time pressure in dispatch is exactly what is exploited. Stop the job until it is cleared.

No — and that is the most insidious pattern of all. In the so-called trust trap the first and second transports run entirely correctly; there is even a genuine invoice. Then the supposed carrier asks about further opportunities and happens to have a vehicle available exactly where you need it. The third or fourth consignment disappears.

Every new job deserves the same care as the very first.

• Call rather than write — writing takes too long.
• Have the consignment note and job papers ready; note all of the carrier’s contact details.
• Delete nothing, including emails. What looks irrelevant today is tomorrow’s evidence.
• File a police report — with a full description of the facts, evidence and a coherent loss statement.
• Notify your insurer and observe the time limits (see the next question).

For cross-border transports the CMR applies:

• Article 30: notice of loss for outwardly visible damage must be given immediately on delivery; for hidden damage within seven days.
• Article 32: claims generally prescribe after one year, or after three years in case of intent or gross negligence.

Missed time limits mainly weaken your position towards the insurer — even when the actual offender is no longer reachable. This is not legal advice; a lawyer belongs in the concrete case.

Legally yes, economically almost never. As a rule it is a shell company without assets, a stolen identity, a straw man who disappears after the act, or a company abroad that is in practice no longer reachable.

A claim against a debtor you cannot find, or who has no money, is worthless. Civil pursuit is not a safety net you may rely on.

Do not rely on it. More and more forwarding insurers take cargo diversion — fraud by pretended identity — entirely out of cover, or insure it only against much higher deductibles, because loss numbers and sums are rising across the industry.

Check your own policy on two points: is cargo diversion as a cause included at all, and how high is the deductible for this type of loss? Also consider the statutory CMR liability cap of about 8.33 special drawing rights per kilogramme of gross weight — for electronics or pharma often only a fraction of the actual loss.

Every scan runs all four modules: Company data, Documents, Vehicle data and Operational data. Register and licence data of the carrier, the papers presented, plates and fleet, and prices, timings and operational history are matched. Missing documents count as a possible risk.

From that comes the cp-score between 100 and 600 points — low is good. See the full check path

An honest boundary matters more to us than a promise that will not hold in a loss:

• We cannot check official authority data — they are not open to private companies. We work with the sources available to us: a complementary layer, not an official extract.
• A clean result means no anomalies were visible at the time of the check. It is not a credit or insurance undertaking.
• Stolen identities of existing companies are the hardest case. There the Documents, Vehicle data and Operational data modules — and reports from the network — carry the check.

No. A high score is not proof of fraud intent, a low score is not a guarantee. The cp-rating is a decision aid for dispatch that complements your own check and does not replace it — and the last physical control still takes place at your dock.

Usually under a minute. You upload a transport offer, freight papers, correspondence or a full email; OCR reads the data; they are matched against available sources and scored under the rules of all four modules. The report is then ready as a PDF with specific comments and stays in the account.

No — and you are expressly meant to check the same job more than once, from first contact through to immediately before award.

Between first enquiry and award, messages arrive, papers are added, the vehicle is changed at short notice. Checking only at the start scores a snapshot that no longer exists at award. Monthly plan quotas are designed for that — even Base includes 250 scans a month. How a check runs

Yes. After sign-up you have 5 scans free. If you give your EU VAT number, which identifies you as a business, it is 20 — enough to try the path on your own jobs. You need neither payment nor card details, no sales conversation.

Only when you book a plan does a payment method come into play — access is then unlocked at once as well.

There are four plans that differ in scan volume, number of user accounts and extras. Monthly quota runs from 250 scans on Base to 5,000 on Professional. All include the full check path; yearly billing saves two months. Payment is by card via Stripe. To the pricing overview

Contract term follows the chosen plan and is one month or twelve months. It then renews automatically for the same duration — unless you cancel up to one month before term end. (This matches what is published on the pricing page; the Terms page is still an outline pending counsel.)

That does not apply to the free trial — no plan is booked for it. To the pricing overview

The series “Stop: cargo diversion” has five episodes of about ten minutes each. From Standard it is included at no extra charge. Without a plan or on Base, access is a one-shot 79 € plus VAT. The in-app Training area exists; the public media library is still being published.

Each episode has a short test. Those who pass receive a certificate of attendance. The five episodes at a glance

Every uploaded file is first checked for malware. It is then processed for the check. What flows from a check into scoring of future enquiries is anonymised and does not identify your house.

Uploaded papers are stored for three years and then deleted. Processors that receive document content are listed on the subprocessors page.

Details of legal basis and your rights are in the privacy policy. Privacy policy

Yes, and it helps. Every method is run more than once before it is exposed — a report saves the next dispatcher from the same handover. You can report with or without a loss having occurred, anonymously if you wish.

A report is not a public accusation: we publish neither the reported name nor your details. To the reporting desk

Then write to us — we reply in person and will take the question up here when it comes up often enough. To contact