E-commerce has created many opportunities for businesses in recent years, but the Internet has been equally prosperous for thieves. Claudia Milocevic, general manager with Transcore, says the Internet has been a “great enabler” for organized criminals and that trucking companies should do extensive due diligence before entering into a business agreement with another company -especially if the connection was made online.

“Don’t take anything at face value over the Internet,” Milocevic warned at a seminar on protecting yourself from organized crime at this year’s Ontario Trucking Association convention.

Milocevic said Transcore itself conducts thorough background checks on any company that wishes to use its online load matching service. She said Transcore asks a new carrier to provide: CVOR documentation; their DoT number; a cab card (“You’d be surprised how many people that have CVORs and want to go pick up freight that don’t own a truck”); insurance certificate; business registration; and articles of incorporation.

Then, the company reviews all the paperwork to ensure there are no inconsistencies (ie. Does the address appear the same each time it’s referenced and is the address legit, or does it lead to a UPS store?)

Milocevic also suggested taking special precautions when doing business with a new carrier, since organized criminals will start a company and then commit their crime almost immediately.

She recommended a free program called Google Desktop, which is a PC indexing system that may trigger some alerts if someone you’ve had previous dealings with turns up at another company. She also suggested to: find out how they found out about you; ask for references and call them; and order credit reports from multiple providers and compare them closely.

“You can’t afford not to spend that extra 10 minutes to review and check everything,” she said.

She also warned to be skeptical of rates that seem “too good to be true.” •