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For operators of warehouses, distribution centers and logistics yards

Warehouses and logistics yards: the hours nobody is there, and what covers them

What kind of theft is your warehouse or yard actually exposed to?

The FBI separates two main kinds of cargo theft. Straight theft takes cargo that is left unattended, including in yards, drop lots and parked trailers. Strategic theft uses fraud, such as fictitious pick-ups and fraudulent carriers, to have a load handed over. Watching a yard bears on the first. The second is stopped by confirming the driver, truck and trailer at pick-up.

Straight theftCargo left unattended

Where
Wherever cargo is left unattended: the FBI names drop lots, parking lots, truck stops and rail yards. It counts warehouses, freight distribution facilities, storage facilities, platforms and depots, and trailers and intermodal containers among cargo theft’s locations.
When
While a load sits with nobody there.
What stops it
Someone who sees the yard. The FBI’s prevention points include never leaving loads unattended, high-security rear door locks, and landing gear locks where a load has to be staged or dropped.

Strategic theftFraud at the gate

How
Deception: fictitious pick-ups, identity theft, double brokering and fraudulent carriers. The FBI also names cyber-enabled theft, and pilferage through altered bills of lading.
When
When a load is handed to a driver at pick-up.
What stops it
Confirming the driver, truck and trailer at pick-up, with a secure pick-up number. Watching the yard does not.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, ‘Cargo Theft’, page updated 7 November 2024. Accessed 5 October 2026.

Someone watching your yard is an answer to straight theft. It is not an answer to fraud at the gate, and we don’t offer it as one.

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When the yard stands exposed

A warehouse yard is most exposed while loaded trailers and goods sit in it unattended. Drop-trailer programs can leave loaded trailers waiting days to be unloaded; one surveyed receiving yard held them up to three days. Some seaports’ surcharges on peak-hour pick-ups and drop-offs push deliveries to nights and weekends, often when the warehouse may be closed, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau names holiday weekends as cargo theft’s most frequent timing.

An example week at one site. The dock is open on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.; two trailers arrive after it closes.
  • Dock open, people on site
  • A loaded trailer in the yard, nobody there
  • Closed, yard empty
Wednesday night
A trailer dropped at 9 p.m. waits loaded until the dock opens at 6 a.m.: 9 hours.
The weekend
A trailer dropped at 10 p.m. on Friday waits until 6 a.m. on Monday: 56 hours. Monday’s first hours on the strip are that trailer.
The week
In this example the yard holds a loaded trailer with nobody there for 65 hours, more than the 60 hours the dock is open.

An independent security consultancy reports, in its published guidance on trailers at warehouses, that drop trailer and drop-and-hook programs leave loaded trailers outside the warehouse for extended periods. At one facility it surveyed, inbound trailers could sit as long as three days in the receiving yard before they were unloaded. Some seaports place surcharges on trailers picked up or dropped off at peak hours, which pushes deliveries to nights and weekends, often when the warehouse may be closed. In the yard, a trailer can be broken into, or driven off whole with the thief’s own tractor.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau lists holiday weekends and the fourth-quarter shipping season as cargo theft’s most frequent timing, and distribution centers and warehouses among its most common locations. Trucks and cargo, it says, are most vulnerable when sitting idle.

Source: National Insurance Crime Bureau, ‘Cargo Theft’. Accessed 6 October 2026.

An industry cargo-theft reporting network’s analysis of the Labor Day holiday periods from 2021 to 2025 (273 theft events) found Friday the busiest single day, with 55, against 24 on the Saturday, 28 on the Sunday and 27 on Labor Day itself. Its earlier analysis of the same holiday suggested the Friday peak reflects loaded trailers left unattended as workers start the holiday weekend, and noted that such thefts may go unnoticed until business resumes.

What a diagnosis of the yard checks

A diagnosis of a warehouse yard checks the fence and a clear zone along it; whether vehicles enter only through controlled gates that log tractor, trailer and seal numbers and the driver; yard and gate lighting, and how even it is; cameras over the yard and at the gates that can read plates and trailer numbers, and how long recordings are kept; whether trailers are backed against a wall or each other; and trailer locks. The measures below are an independent consultancy’s recommendations. TAPA, the freight industry’s security association, sets its own requirements for several of the same items in its Facility Security Requirements, shown separately under each.

In the order you would walk the yard. Each measure is recommended in an independent security consultancy’s published guidance on trailers at warehouses (undated; accessed 5 October 2026). Lines marked TAPA FSR 2026 are TAPA’s own requirements.

  1. Fence and clear zone

    A fully fenced trailer area: a fence at least eight feet high, with a clear zone of at least ten feet on both sides.

    TAPA FSR 2026 A physical barrier enclosing the yard, at least 6 feet (1.8 m) high along its whole length (level A).

  2. Gates and the gate log

    Vehicles in and out only through controlled gates, staffed by a security officer during operating hours, with the tractor, trailer and seal numbers and the driver’s name logged in and out, and the driver’s license checked.

    TAPA FSR 2026 Yard gates manned or electronically controlled (level A); every driver identified with government-issued photo ID and a driver log kept (all levels).

  3. Lighting

    At least 1 foot-candle across the yard and 10 to 20 at the gates, evenly spread: a uniformity ratio (average to minimum) no greater than 4:1.

    TAPA FSR 2026 Lighting adequate to see loading and unloading at night and to support camera images good enough for an investigation, stated as what the light must let you see rather than as a light level.

  4. Cameras

    Cameras over the whole yard, plus dedicated gate cameras that capture plates and trailer numbers, recorded at 15 frames per second or more; all recorded video kept at least 90 days.

    TAPA FSR 2026 Cameras viewing all yard traffic, entry and exit included, with vehicles and people recognizable (levels A and B); recording at no less than 8 frames per second per camera, kept at least 30 days where local law allows (all levels).

  5. How trailers are parked

    Backed against a solid wall so the rear doors can’t be opened, or else against a fence or back to back.

  6. Trailer locks

    Locks on loaded trailers stored for long periods: king-pin, glad-hand or landing-gear locks.

TAPA’s standard, and what it is

TAPA’s Facility Security Requirements (FSR) are its standard for secure warehousing and storage: the baseline requirements for a site seeking TAPA certification, set at three levels, A, B and C. The current edition, FSR 2026, took effect on 15 September 2026, and its text is published. The lines marked TAPA above are its requirements; every other figure on this list is the consultancy’s. TAPA also publishes Guarding Security Requirements (GSR 2023).

Sources: TAPA, ‘Facility Security Requirements FSR 2026’ (published September 2026), accessed 6 October 2026; TAPA APAC, ‘Standards’, accessed 5 October 2026.

Do you need a night guard, or is there another way to have someone there when the site is closed?

Security guidance for warehouse yards recommends at least one officer on duty while a site that closes is closed, because someone has to be there to see and act. A night guard is one way. Someone watching the site’s cameras live, who can speak over its speakers and call the police, is another. Neither stops a load released to a fraudulent driver; that is stopped at the gate check.

That is an independent security consultancy’s published guidance on trailers at warehouses: security officers at all times at a site that runs around the clock, and at a site that closes, at least one officer on duty when the facility is closed.

OptionSomeone there while it happens?What happens nextUnattended yard or fraud at the gate?
A security officer on duty while the site is closedWhat an independent security consultancy’s published guidance recommends for those hours.Yes, on the site.The officer sees it and can act.Unattended yard: yes. Fraud at the gate: no. That is the pick-up check.
Cameras that record, reviewed afterwardsNo. Nobody sees it while it happens.The footage is looked at after the fact.Unattended yard: afterwards. Fraud at the gate: no. That is the pick-up check.
A camera trailerIn one public discussion among lot owners, an owner of retail lots hit by smash-and-grabs was choosing a solar camera trailer for monitoring and deterrence, and a company running six trailers it had bought watched them itself, having refused a seller’s mandatory monitoring.Only if someone is watching it. Monitoring is sometimes optional.Deterrence and footage; with monitoring, someone who sees it.Unattended yard: yes. Fraud at the gate: no. That is the pick-up check.
Someone watching your existing cameras liveWhat Blinkless doesYes. An operator looks at the live video.The operator speaks to the people there over two-way audio. The people your plan names are told while it is happening, and the footage and an incident report follow.Unattended yard: yes. Fraud at the gate: no. That is the pick-up check.

Free · no site visit

A free written plan for your site

We assess the warehouse, distribution center or yard remotely, from satellite imagery and the list of cameras already up. Nobody needs to come out.

Then we write down what gets watched (the yard, the gates, the docks, the trailers), from where and in which hours, what happens when someone is seen and who is told. The plan is yours to keep whether or not you go further.

  1. Send the address and your camera list. The cameras already up, and where they point.
  2. We look at it remotely. From satellite imagery and your list.
  3. You get the written plan. What gets watched, from where and when, what happens when someone is seen, and who is told.

Request the plan for your site

The address and the cameras already up are enough to start.

Or call (212) 470-2511.