Transportation Business Resources

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A podcast host sits at a cluttered desk on the left, with a bar of icons above: Sirius XM, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TikTok, and X. On the right is the Logo: What the Truck? above a list titled: Today's Show. The list includes: On Deck. Rehman Khan at Travelers. Transportation Cyber Risk Management. Rate the Strap Work. W.T.T. gear.com. The On Deck line is highlighted. Below there is a bar with the What the Truck logo on the left, and a QR code and the Logo: Nikola, on the right. At the very bottom is a runner titled: Headlines.

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TIM DOONER: Let's get us Travelers, Assistant Vice President Cyber Risk Management, it is Rehman Khan. Hello, sir. How are you doing today?

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The host's video splits with Rehman Khan's video, and the Rehman Khan at Travelers line in the Today's Show list is highlighted. The What the Truck logo in the top right turns into the Travelers logo with a red umbrella.

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REHMAN KHAN: I'm doing fabulous, Dooner. Thanks for having me again. It's always a pleasure connecting with you and attending the show, so thank you for having me.

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TIM DOONER: Well, as you saw, I kicked off the show. We went through the top issues in trucking according to carriers. And I went off that health and theft weren't on there. But here's one for you. Cybersecurity wasn't on there either, and it's Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

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Text: Rehman Khan. Assistant Vice President, Cyber Risk Management, Travelers.

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REHMAN KHAN: Yeah, that speaks volumes. And at Travelers, cybersecurity, even as a product and as our customers are dealing with this more and more, and, naturally, we are also concerned. And

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Headline runner text: LTL survey: Daylight Transport number 1 overall, Old Dominion top national carrier - Daylight Transport was named the top overall less-than-truckload carrier in Mastio & Co.'s annual value and loyalty survey. Old Dominion Freight Line again received top honors among national carriers, a Tuesday report revealed.

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public-facing knowledge dispersion is definitely something that we take a lot of pride in. At Travelers, we actually also conduct a annual risk survey.

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The Transportation Cyber Risk Management item in the Today's Show list is highlighted.

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And the risk survey is around business concerns, what organizations are seeing, and what they're concerned with, and how, let's see, how do they respond. So if I may share some stats.

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With our recent publication of the survey, business leaders across different industries responded. And 62% of the survey respondents say that they worry about some sort of cyber incident occurring.

To make this conversation more in context, in preparation of the call, we dug in and we found out that there were 99 respondents from transportation industry. And they, too, echo the concern that cyber risk is definitely something that's going to be more and more relevant and more prevalent.

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And as we get into it, I'll share some more stats on what they have seen and what the transportation industry is dealing with in terms of cyber-attacks.

TIM DOONER: Well, yeah, I mean, I look at the data myself, and you hear the new reports, and they always get worse and worse. So none of that really surprised me. I was more surprised they just weren't on that top 10 list. That's what I was surprised about. What did you find out, though? What do you got for me from what you guys were looking into?

REHMAN KHAN: Yeah, yeah.

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So what we were seeing is basically, first of all, the index that we create, the risk index, that is trying to capture all concerns, whether it's HR, personnel shortage, artificial intelligence, technology, what have you. So we see everything.

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And, basically, cyber, last year, on that list was number six. This year, it climbed up one. So this year, it came back number five.

What we are seeing is that 65% of the respondents within the transportation industry basically said that cyber is a major concern for us. And we acknowledge it, and we are trying our level best to deal with it and put in the controls.

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This is actually 9 points higher than reported in 2023, because last year, it was reported at number six and only 56% of the respondents said that they are very concerned about it in a serious fashion.

64% of the respondents also said that we are concerned not just with cyber breaches or cyber-attacks, we are also concerned with improper disclosure or disclosure of business-relevant or very business-critical information to non-authorized personnel. And that is typically pointing towards the human element within the business organization. So we are concerned that we might have an insider threat.

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Headline runner text: ATRI survey: Drivers and carriers see top issues in trucking differently - The 2024 survey of the top issues in trucking, undertaken each year by the American Transportation Research Institute, once again finds that what drivers think are the big issues aren't the same as those of the industry as a whole.

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So this is very promising, and this is definitely headed in the right direction, adding to the fact that 27% of the companies that responded said that they have been, unfortunately, a victim of the attack over the last 12 months. And this has doubled. So I echo the feeling that cyber should have been on your list.

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The 27% respondents saying that they have been victimized over the last 12 months, this has doubled, by the way, from the previous year, where only 13, 14% said that, hey, we have been part of a cyber-attack. So I think the overall industry recognition of cyber concerns over time will definitely grow and it will mature. But

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the fact that 65% of the respondents said very loud and clearly, we see it, we understand, it is a concern, and we would like to do more about it, is definitely promising.

TIM DOONER: Yeah, some of these scams are pretty obvious. You can call them out usually. Right before I came on air, I got a text saying my UPS package, they needed me to update my information. Obvious kind of scam. But what are you seeing? Give us the inside scoop. What should we be looking out for?

REHMAN KHAN: So that's a great question. And what's surprising to me, someone who deals with a lot of your black hat hacking, and advanced technology, et cetera,

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Text: Rehman Khan. Assistant Vice President, Cyber Risk Management, Travelers. Headline runner text: Boeing to sunset 767 freighter program, slow 777X rollout amid strike - Boeing said Friday afternoon it will stop production of the 767 freighter in 2027, sooner than expected, and won't have the next-generation 777 dash 8 freighter ready for commercial use until 2028, at least a year later than previously scheduled, as the company looks to stem financial losses amid a month-long machinists strike.

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depending on how you look at it, fortunately or unfortunately, the attack vectors, how they're victimizing victims and industry, those attack vectors are still very manageable. They're very easy to recognize.

For example, some of the patterns that we are seeing are business email compromise. Someone sends you an email, you end up clicking on it, or you end up playing into the idea that, hey, I am so-and-so. I am trying to reach the finance department. Here's an invoice. I have not been able to reach your CFO, but could you please help me out because we are struggling on our end. We would like to pay our bills. Could you please pay this invoice? And finance department would end up paying that invoice out.

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Headline runner text: Impacts from Hurricane Milton waning - After Hurricane Milton, combined with various retail pushes, generated consumer demand, truckload volumes have retreated over the past week. There shouldn't be much cause for concern at the moment as imports continue to flow into the ports, especially on the West Coast. Even with the decline over the past week, tender volumes are holding on to year-over-year gains, which should be viewed as a positive sign as 2025 approaches.

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So business email compromise. Second one is social engineering fraud or social engineering attacks. This is basically someone reaching out with ill intentions, naturally, and saying that, hey, could you please forward the funds or transfer the funds. And we are more than welcome to verify our identity. Go ahead and give me a call at this number. Here's my cell number.

And people would mistakenly call the cell number instead of calling an established chain of command or communication path, pre-established, pre-vetted, that, hey, I'm going to send you an email. Could you respond to it, like how we occasionally see our OTP when logging into our bank accounts. That one-time password would always come to your cell phone, instead of you providing at the time of authentication, that, hey, can you send me a one-time password?

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So the attack vectors remain very basic. Now, regardless of the industry, globally, we are seeing advents and deepfakes, which is basically artificial intelligence. So an attack vector that is starting to emerge more and more on the scene is called the deepfakes.

And deepfakes is basically, for instance, imagine you and I are talking. We have met before. You know what I look like, what I sound like. All I need to do as an attacker is record Dooner or Rehman and type out a script and tell artificial intelligence to replicate the voice, and the face, and the expressions, and the way the face moves, et cetera, and be able to replicate a human being, but totally command and drive how they respond.

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Headline runner text: Roaring volume has Port of Los Angeles eyeing $1 trillion in imports - The busiest U.S. ocean container gateway could soon be handling $1 trillion worth of imports in a single quarter amid a roaring economy and resilient consumer spending. Record volume of 954,706 TEUs in September, 70 27% year over year, helped drive all-time high volume of 2,854,904 million TEUs in the third quarter, according to data released today by the Port of Los Angeles.

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TIM DOONER: Yeah.

REHMAN KHAN: In real-life scenario, what we are seeing is a CFO or CEO of the company being replicated. They call their CFO, their finance person, and simply say, hey, listen, I'm on a trip. Could you please transfer the money? I need it. I need you to do it. I authorize it.

Now, the respondent could turn around and say, could you turn your face camera on? I really want to identify who you are. OK, sure. Meet me on Zoom. All right. And from that point on, that whole AI factor kicks in. The facial replication kicks in, and that's where the deepfakes are just taking over the whole hacking scene, where--

TIM DOONER:
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We're in big trouble, Rehman. They can just take this podcast, man. They already got us recorded. They got some video. Now, we're running short on time. I only have about 90 seconds, two minutes left, so tell me about some of the coverages, though. How can I protect myself?

REHMAN KHAN: Yeah, for sure. So some of the things Travelers offers is-- I'll just basically bucketize these things in three different buckets and simplify the conversation. We have pre-breach. If you're a customer, you have a policy, pre-breach is basically before you get into any kind of trouble.

We offer cyber readiness assessments. So you reach out, you talk to me, one of my colleagues, my peers within the organization,

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we also will walk through your program and we'll confirm what those security controls are, the efficacy of those controls, and, basically, whether they're effective or not.

We have a security coach line. You can call us at any time as a policyholder. We will talk to you. We'll tell you exactly what you have in coverage and how best to get through a situation if you do get into any kind of trouble in the future. We have cyber security awareness training so you don't have to pay someone to come in and train your employees, we have those training videos ready for you to grab them and plug them into your learning management system.

TIM DOONER: Excellent.

REHMAN KHAN:

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Text: Rehman Khan. Assistant Vice President, Cyber Risk Management, Travelers.

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Post-breach, in the event you have been breached, we have legal counsel and defense services. We have digital forensics teams that will come in and basically walk through your environment, tell you exactly how it happened and how to prevent it in the future.

And crisis management, which is, in the event you have an issue, who should be talking to the press? Who should be talking to legal? Who do you call? Someone with a clear head and a very good understanding of the ground reality and they will walk you through.

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And last, but not the least, we have this thing called the betterment coverage, which is basically, in the event you are breached, the coverage will basically provide a one-time improvement of your current systems. As part of the coverage, we will come in and we'll say, hey, this system was weak to begin with. We would like for you to be improved.

TIM DOONER: Everyone go to travelers.com. Go check out this coverage. Thank you so much for your time today.

REHMAN KHAN: I appreciate the opportunity. Always a pleasure meeting you. Take care.

TIM DOONER: Take care.  

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A man sits at a desk and speaks into a microphone. A sign on the front of the desk, What the Truck? Champions. A hat, a pair of shoes, dolls, a toy truck, a toy airplane, and various other items sit on the desk around the host. Text, What the Truck? Sirius XM.. Logos of YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, iTunes, TikTok, and X. Text: Unisys. A list to the right of the man at the desk. Text: Today's Show. Nooner with Dooner. National Truck Driver Appreciation Week. Spot Market Sputters. On Deck. Craig Leinauer at Travelers. Headlines scroll at the bottom of the screen. Craig Leinauer joins the host on a video call. Text: Travelers.

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TIM DOONER: But right now, Craig Leinauer, Inland Marine Corporate Claims over at Travelers. Craig, good to have you back on the show, and this really ties in nicely with what I did last week with overhaul about this drastic rise in cargo theft and some of the commodities we'll talk about today is going to be covered in that.

CRAIG LEINAUER: Yeah. Absolutely. It's great to be here again. It's nice to see you.

TIM DOONER: Yeah. So today, we're talking-- we're gonna get a primer on some of the more challenging commodities that trucks have to haul. Set the table here.

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A new list. Text: Today's Show. Challenging Commodities. Red Bull Goes Intermodal. W T T Gear dot com. Nilay Parikh at Arvist. Warehousing AI.

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CRAIG LEINAUER: Yeah. So certain commodities, though lucrative to haul can be challenging, for sure, for a lot of reasons.

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Text: Craig Leinauer, Inland Marine Corporate Claim, Travelers.

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TIM DOONER: Well, what are those reasons? What makes it challenging?

CRAIG LEINAUER: Yeah. So when we talk about challenging commodities, we really put them into two categories. There's of everyday things that you probably don't think are challenging, and then there's high exposure things that you probably already know are gonna be challenging.

So we'll talk about a few of the everyday things first. So produce, for example-- and this is stuff like lettuce and bananas-- this can be landmine. So you've probably heard about the challenges that bananas present because they have to be transported between 56 and 60 degrees, or they're going to be rejected.

To really successfully haul produce, you're going to need a few things going for you. You're going to have to have good equipment. You're going to have to have staff that's trained on using the equipment and to maintain it. And then, as we've talked about before, you're going to have to load the trailer correctly to make sure there's enough air flow, over and around for the return error to happen, or you're going to have to precool the trailer.

So basically, inexperience here in this space is going to lead to loss or damage. So insurance, of course, covers breakdowns, but insurance covers the accidental and the unexpected. It really doesn't cover user error. So you really have to have your staff up to speed.

And then also in the everyday space, we can talk about auto parts. And you might ask, hey, what's challenging about auto parts? But what's challenging about auto parts is that the manufacturer usually has discretion contractually because of fear of latent defect to reject the load.

So you might not expect, for example, engines or transmissions, which are very substantial auto parts to get easily damaged during transportation. They're very, like I said, robust and substantial. But even a minor road incident or a hard braking can trigger this fear of latent defect that'll get the shipment rejected.

TIM DOONER: Yeah. Hey, look, produce makes sense. I've dealed with produce on the operations side. You have not only spoilage, there can be damage, there can be-- it's a theft commodity that people go after. But you said something interesting. You said auto parts. How about automobiles themselves, like the auto haulers we see?

CRAIG LEINAUER: Yeah. Absolutely. New cars. So this is challenging because we all know that as soon as a new vehicle leaves the lot, it becomes old. And it depreciates, Usually, on the average $6,000 to $9,000, I think is what a depreciation is for a car, as soon as it's not deemed to be new anymore.

And so just like with auto parts, you can have very little discretion over the scope of damages. And the car manufacturer can call the new automobile a total loss just because of some minor damage. And then even in the event that it's deemed repairable, you're going to have to pay for the cost of repair plus the diminution in value.

In terms of the everyday stuff, I should talk about food, and transporting any discussion of food entails discussing the difference between fear of loss and actual loss. And so if a food shipment is sealed, which they often are, and the seal is broken, this can indicate that the food's been tampered with.

And this can create this fear of loss. But the fear of loss means that the shipment might have been contaminated. But the problem becomes is that you have to legally show a change in the condition of the food for there to actually be contamination. So many times, you're going to have a contract, and that contract will make you liable. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be covered by insurance, because insurance covers you for actual loss only, but not a fear of loss.

So you see a lot of this in the food space and that can make it challenging.

TIM DOONER: OK, wait. So hold on. So the most everyday items are the most challenging. What about things with exceptions? What about the ones that we would consider challenging?

CRAIG LEINAUER: Yeah. Well, I'm not even going to touch on something that you mentioned here a moment ago, which is lithium ion batteries. We all know and are aware of the dangers there and I think we may have spoken on this before. And it sounds like you may have an upcoming segment on that, so I'll skip that one.

But there's some other stuff that's worth talking about, specifically pharmaceuticals, I think, electronics. And believe it or not, seafood, I think, is worthy to consider here.

TIM DOONER: Yeah. Compound on that.

CRAIG LEINAUER: Let me talk about-- I'm sorry. Let me talk about pharma first. So pharma is temperature controlled. So it's going to be just like produce. And this is stuff like vaccines and antibiotics. And these can really be big losses for you as a carrier. This can be $1 million loss, so you really have to make sure that you have adequate insurance to cover this stuff.

And unlike damage to cars that we just talked about, you may not be able to see a damage to an antibiotic or to a vaccine. So really to protect yourself from claims, what you have to do is you're going to have to show temperature was adequately maintained and that the cargo remained in the proper chain of custody.

So you're going to need, just like with food and produce, you're going to need an experienced team of drivers, you're going to need seal integrity, and your equipment has to be well maintained. And in the event, the unfortunate event, that you wind up in litigation related to a pharma shipment, then it's the care, custody, and control that's going to win the day for you.

TIM DOONER: And how about electronics and seafood? There's actually been a number of stories. There's actually one that was even published today about seafood theft, especially in Northeast. There's a lot of that happening right now. Philadelphia area, I've been hearing a lot about it.

What's the challenges, though, with electronics and the seafood?

CRAIG LEINAUER: Yeah. So I'll talk about seafood first. So the thing about seafood that can sneak up on you is you have to remember that the price per pound can be like $20 compared to beef or chicken, which is maybe $2 to $3 a pound.

So you really need to pay attention to temperature control, seal integrity, and make sure that you have an experienced team. And then you also need to check your insurance limits, because you have to make sure you have adequate coverage in the event that you have a loss.

And believe it or not, some of these losses that I've seen $250,000 may not be enough to cover you for a trailer full of, for example, lobster. So it's very expensive stuff. And then, in terms of electronics, talking about things that have circuitry in it-- in them, so computers, servers, CPU towers, stuff like that, it's going to be critical that these are loaded the right way.

And why is that? Because these are exposed just to normal vibration and shaking in the course of transit, and when that happens, the circuitry can come loose. And there can be big losses if you don't handle these the right way. So you may be required to use an air ride trailer or also tip and tail stickers or shock watches on the shipment.

And these, of course, let the receiver know at delivery if the shipment was exposed to some kind of rough handling. But this can also result in rejection when triggered. So that can be challenging as well.

TIM DOONER: Any advice for shippers and brokers to get ahead of this on what we've been talking about?

CRAIG LEINAUER: Yeah. Foremost is to understand your exposure, know about the cargo that's being hauled. And then secondly is to make sure your equipment is well maintained and that your team is well-trained. And then it goes without saying, you should understand the insurance that you have, make sure you have adequate limits.

And then if you can and you're a carrier, you should think about limiting your liability contractually, release rate valuation, that kind of thing, because without limiting liability you can easily get hit for a monster amount. And if you don't have enough insurance, then you're going to be in it for the delta.

TIM DOONER: Craig, hey, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for shining a light on how these everyday products can be just as tough as the one with exceptions.

Everybody be safe out there. Go check out travelers.com. Thank you so much for your time today.

CRAIG LEINAUER: Thank you.

TIM DOONER: All right. Take it easy. By the way--