Report: Goods tracking market to swell to $5.6B in 2021

June 8, 2016
Companies look to technology as a way to combat increasing rates of cargo theft

As incidents of cargo theft continue to rise in the U.S. and around the globe, an increasing number of companies are turning to goods tracking technologies as way to clamp down on the crime. In fact, a new report from ABI Research estimates that the market for goods tracking products, which was worth $3.6 billion in 2016, will swell to $5.6 billion by 2021.

Sophisticated goods tracking technologies mitigate cargo theft and play a key role in the recovery of stolen assets by detecting the location of stolen premium goods that are prized by thieves, such as pharmaceuticals, electronics, jewelry, tobacco and alcohol, cash, and retail products. These solutions also provide additional security by enabling companies to track and recover stolen shipments, even when those shipments are reloaded into a new container or trailer, which is not being tracked.

“These solutions are covertly placed into product packaging so that they can continue to ping its location in real-time, enabling companies to track and recover stolen shipment and apprehend criminals,” Raquel Artes, industry analyst at ABI Research said in a statement. “This is particularly suitable given the market’s complex ecosystem wherein products are handled and transferred among a handful of different players and the risk of theft is high.”

The compact, portable, and rechargeable goods tracking devices utilize satellite and/or cellular networks to obtain a shipment’s location. As the devices are relatively small, they can be covertly hidden inside the product, packaging, box, or pallet and then monitored via Internet, making them difficult for cargo thieves to detect.

However, thieves are adapting as new technologies emerge. Many are revolutionizing their stealing techniques by committing cybercrime, GPS and cellular jamming, GNSS spoofing, and deceptive pickups. The new threats are reshaping tracking requirements, according to ABI. For instance, if a thief attempts GPS jamming, the goods tracking device will send real-time alert of possible theft via cellular technology, enabling companies to act immediately. GNSS and cellular technologies are standard features of goods tracking devices.

Additionally, ABI said that new cellular network technologies will also reduce connectivity costs to drive further adoption. Goods tracking solutions will migrate either to EC-GSM, an extended coverage version of 2G, or leverage the more network efficient LPWA LTE technologies in LTE Category 1, LTE Category M1, and LTE Category M2.

Click here for more information about the report.