White paper · Part 4 of 4
Ten best practices against freight diversion
The short version, for the people who actually charter. Ten rules, each one drawn from a pattern observed in real diversion cases.
Ten rules
- Use freight exchange platforms with great vigilance. Avoid them for sensitive and high-value loads. Check how long the carrier has been subscribed to the platform — a recent registration is a signal — and cross-verify registered email addresses and phone numbers whenever contact moves outside the secure channel.
- Prohibit cascading sub-chartering. Require a control protocol at the loading site: not only the load reference and the plates — which can be fake or stolen — but verification of the carrier’s identity and the name of the driver who actually shows up. Does it match?
- Cross-check against official registries. Run an in-depth verification against the source registers. Do not verify documents visually alone.
- Treat consistency as a primary signal. Cross-document mismatches are strong evidence.
- Never verify a document using contact details printed on that same document. Source verification contacts independently, from the issuing authority’s or the insurer’s own official website.
- Treat mid-conversation changes as high-risk by default. A change of plates — particularly shortly before loading — a change of payment details, or a contact person introduced mid-conversation should always trigger independent confirmation through a previously established, trusted channel. Never through the channel that introduced the change.
- Document your verification process. Identify the weaknesses of your current process, address them, and define the risk indicators that should trigger enhanced due diligence — for example a recently established company combined with a disposable email domain and only a mobile phone number. Then write the process down.
- An abnormally low price should always raise questions.
- Re-verify; don’t just onboard-verify. Licences lapse, insurance expires, ownership changes, and sanctions listings happen after the relationship begins.
- Share intelligence. Compromised carriers are frequently reused against multiple victims; siloed knowledge helps no one but the criminal.
Adapted from the Vectys white paper “Preventing freight diversion”, August 2026.
Provided for informational and guidance purposes only. It outlines general principles, best practices and potential risk mitigation approaches, and does not constitute legal advice, compliance advice, or a guarantee of fraud prevention, regulatory compliance or operational risk elimination.