BIFA and TAPA EMEA join forces in fight against freight crime
The British International Freight Association, BIFA, is developing its collaboration with TAPA EMEA, the Transported Asset Protection Association, as momentum continues to grow in the fightback against freight crime.
The move sees the two organisations exchange associate partner memberships, and they will now work more closely together on the exchange of information, insights and cargo security solutions to help protect supply chains against efforts by criminals.
The announcement came shortly before the second reading of Rachel Taylor MP’s Freight Crime Bill in the House of Commons, which is scheduled for this Friday 28 November.
TAPA EMEA cites a report by the all-party parliamentary group for freight and logistics, which estimated that freight-related crime cost the economy £700 million in 2023.
In the two years to 30 September 2025, the organisation says its TAPA EMEA Intelligence System (TIS) has recorded over 137,000 cargo crime incidents across more than 110 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including 5,865 in the United Kingdom.
While actual loss values were only recorded for 9 per cent of the UK-based incidents, this still represented more than €72 million lost from supply chains. Meanwhile the average UK loss for major crimes (classified as those over €100,000 in loss value) was €775,736.
“Freight crime is a major concern for TAPA EMEA members in the UK, which consistently ranks in the top five countries in our Europe, Middle East and Africa region for recorded cargo thefts,” said Harry Hughes, TAPA EMEA’s UK regional lead.
“We are, therefore, greatly encouraged by the increased collaboration between UK freight, logistics, road haulage, and law enforcement bodies to find effective ways to prevent these types of incidents from occurring, and to reduce freight crime’s significant financial impact on individual businesses, consumers, and the UK economy.
“Working alongside BIFA and other industry partners, TAPA EMEA is part of the solution and we aim to leverage our supply chain security standards, training, and intelligence tools to help freight companies in the UK make their supply chains as secure and resilient as possible against the types of attacks we know are regularly taking place nationwide.”
Steve Parker, director general of BIFA, added: “This cooperation underscores BIFA’s commitment to promoting safety, reducing freight crime, and supporting the authorities in their work.
“Collaboration is key to tackling freight crime effectively and our cooperation with TAPA EMEA comes a few months after we strengthened our sponsorship and work with the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS).
“The collaboration with both TAPA EMEA and NaVCIS will help to ensure that our extensive corporate membership base stay informed about current risks and take proactive steps to protect their operations.
“By working with both organisations, BIFA will be able to help its members implement targeted security measures, contributing to safer and more resilient supply chains.”
TAPA EMEA’s membership community has developed a number of independently certified security standards, including Facility Security Requirements (FSR), Trucking Security Requirements (TSR), Parking Security Requirements (PSR) and Cyber Security Standard (CSS).
The membership comprises more than 1,100 companies including global manufacturers and shippers, logistics service providers, insurers, operators of parking facilities, security service providers and law enforcement agencies.
TAPA Standards now help to increase the security of supply chains in 67 countries across the EMEA region, says the organisation, while its TIS database also enables its members to see when, where, and how cargo crimes are occurring, the modus operandi used by criminals to target facilities and all modes of transport, as well as the products targeted, and loss values.
