What Happened When LOG-IN CZ Thought it was a Victim of a Fake Carrier Incident?
At the end of October, Patrick Freitag, Head of Sales & Security at transport specialists LOG-IN CZ, reached out to industry colleagues over social media after fearing the company had fallen victim to a fake carrier.
A quick, proactive, and thorough investigative response by the LOG-IN CZ security team ultimately confirmed this not to be the case but the experience, and lessons from it, are something Patrick has offered to share with TAPA EMEA members, who might otherwise find themselves facing a similar situation.
We asked Patrick to tell us more…
Q1: What alerted you to this being a potential fake carrier situation?
One of my good colleagues and friends, Niels van Berkum from H. Essers, saw a suspect truck and trailer combination with our LOG-IN CZ logo and called me as he drove past it in the Netherlands. As soon as I saw the pictures and the plates, I recognised that this was not one of LOG-IN CZ’s vehicles. My immediate concern was that this could be a fake carrier using our branding to steal goods under our name from loading places in the Netherlands.
Q2: What was your immediate response?
I shared the pictures on LinkedIn to raise awareness of my concerns and to seek help. And , of course, we warned our clients and asked them to alert their security gatehouses in case they saw this truck and trailer arriving for loading. If they did, we asked them to alert us and the police straight away. My social media contacts helped to share the message, but I received no reports in the first 24 hours.
Q3: Did this end up becoming a cross-border investigation?
I checked with different partners, including our external security partner, SeCompanion Rosenheim, about the best next steps to take. As a Czech company, one option was to contact our national CZ police, but they told us that without any proof of a direct crime having taken place, there was no case for them to handle.
The license plate on the trailer with our branding suggested a Moldovan connection, so I contacted the Embassy of the Republic of Moldova with an explanation to seek their assistance. After some 14 days and some reminders, their reply suggested I contact the Republic of Moldova – National Auto Transport Agency. I did so and a day later they forwarded carrier details and contact information to us.
The Moldovan company confirmed to me that they owned the truck and trailer, having acquired it in Romania in 2022 with the colour and branding it had since retained. We agreed to remove LOG-IN CZ branding as soon as the vehicle returned to Moldova.
Q4: How long did it take to confirm this wasn’t a fake carrier incident?
It was 16 days from the moment I first received the photo from Niels and his concerns about the truck and trailer. It was, and felt like, a very long time but without police assistance, we had to manage the investigation ourselves.
Q5: So, what had actually happened?
As I am now 21 years in LOG-IN – firstly based in Germany and, since 2010, in the Czech Republic, I know a lot of our operating history. So, ultimately, I was able to determine that this trailer was most likely operating by a former Polish subcontractor of ours under our previous ownership. Today, we install all our required security systems into our own trucks and subcontractors rent our LOG-IN security trailers from us but, in this earlier time, a subcontractor was allowed to operate their own trailer on some domestic lanes in Poland.
When this cooperation ended, it appears that this trailer was uninstalled from our security system but the truck and trailer’s branding was not removed as it should have been, and this requirement was not checked. It retained the branding after the trailer was later sold in Romania, where the new owner had been operating it for several years without our knowledge. It was just a coincidence that the truck was seen on the highway in the Netherlands and the situation was brought to our attention.
Q6: What are your key lessons from this?
For us internally, of course the lesson is to ensure the removal of all vehicle brandings prior to the sale of any equipment to avoid such cases or misunderstandings in the future. I feel this is also good advice for all transport operators that could face a similar situation.
For clients, the advice is to make sure they have all the necessary checks in place for their gatehouse process and to ensure the truck arriving to collect goods is the correct vehicle planned before allowing access to their site.
Q7: What advice can you offer to other fleet operators in the TAPA EMEA membership?
Check regularly all your processes, perform self-audits – and, in general, THINK the UNTHINKABLE. We hope our experience in this case will benefit other operators.
