Why are controls so imperative in the food and perishable produce business?

Simply because there exists an unquenchable demand for the product and an unending number of unscrupulous buyers.

Here is a short story recently posted on a popular social media site (“confessions”) by a delivery driver who says that he maintains a steady and profitable income through stealing products from his deliveries and selling them to buyers in the black market:

“I am a truck driver and have been stealing of the company truck and selling it on the Black market for the past 8 years

 

I drive for a mega carrier, and I make stops at a grocery chain that has countless locations all throughout the country.

When I deliver to these stores, I end up stealing some very expensive meats like prime steak, oxtails, shrimp, lobster, crab legs, seafood, fine wine, and scotch, you name it, I've pretty much stolen it.

Since it's a mega carrier, there's no supervision among the drivers whatsoever and the grocery employees that are supposed to be supervising the trucks being unloaded don't even care because a lot of the time, they don't even unload it because they're too lazy to do it, so while I'm unloading their truck for them, I'm checking to see what's on the truck to steal and that's when I set a lot of things aside and take them right off the truck when I'm ready.

I'm quite sure the people running the restaurants that buy all this stuff from me know that it's stolen, but none of them could care less. They just want to make some profit. which has been a real eye-opener. For example, I can barely keep any oxtail in stock because the Jamaican restaurants buy it all from me very quickly. always asking me if I have anything in stock. The same goes for Chinese food restaurants, always asking for shrimp and beef. Especially wing shops. They pay big money for an entire box. An entire box contains 10 big racks of wings. You do math.

 

It's extremely easy to steal off the truck because I know where the sensors are, and a lot of the trailers are old as dirt, and they don't even have security on them. I make around $70,000 a year driving the truck, but once I add in all the stuff that I steal, I make around $135,000 a year, so that's about $65,000 or so that I steal off the truck every single year. And I only work 4 days a week. I've been doing it for so long that I know how everything works in the company. I mean, there are so many drivers at the company that a lot of people don't even know I really exist because I don't say much and I keep my head down and stay quiet. This is the way.”

 

What are the key takeaways?
 

• If your company relies on technology for its controls (video cameras, thumbprint sensors, security alarms/secured entry/exit, etc.), make sure that the technology is maintained, works as designed, and that you’ve considered loopholes. In his story, our truck driver knew where the sensors were located, how to bypass them, and realized that the older the equipment, the weaker the technology. In a situation where I conducted an audit, whilst the company had a secure entry/exit system to their warehouse, they neglected to change the security codes when employees left. An ex-employee was able to gain after-hours access to the facility by simply using his old entry code.
   

• If your company relies on physical control, ensure that the employees performing the control functions (inventory counts, unloading deliveries, etc.) are trained, incentivized, and independently supervised. Our intrepid truck driver made it a point to unload the deliveries himself, deliver short deliveries, and steal products. He was banking on lazy, unsupervised, and lowly paid supermarket clerks not performing their jobs, not being adequately supervised, for him to successfully bypass their “control”. 
   

• Perform detailed analysis, get out of your office, investigate, and make sure you have adequately manned the function supposedly controlling the function. In our story, the supermarkets (customers) should have been performing monthly inventory counts and performing investigations into shortages. Obviously, that was either not happening or (as in most cases) the shortages were simply adjusted at month-end without further review. A company that I was with performed daily inventory counts using the A-B-C system (frequency of counts based on value); Yet shortages were simply “written off” without further investigation. Why? Because in its zeal for shortsighted cost-cutting, the company decimated the security department to one person to secure a multi-million-dollar operation. Short-sighted decisions like this cost businesses millions of dollars in losses in very short periods.

 

Summary

 

Operating a company is a time-consuming and onerous task made immeasurably harder when it comes to trying to remove the temptations to steal. Our Inn Tech Consultants team members have years of experience in dealing with the problems that plague your business. Contact us for a free, 30-minute consultation and let us help you secure your business success.