Auto transport fraud is a growing concern across the vehicle logistics chain, and Central Dispatch is confronting it with new biometric security measures. Speaking with FreightWaves, Lainey Sibble, AVP at Cox Automotive, explained how the platform is applying advanced identity verification and a new Secure Vehicle Transfer process to safeguard vehicles at pickup and in transit. The multi-layered approach pairs real-time tracking and geofencing with measures designed to keep the workflow efficient for carriers and shippers.

Central Dispatch, the auto transportation marketplace owned by Cox Automotive (whose automotive businesses also include the Manheim auction operations, Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader), is extending biometric identity verification beyond platform access to the physical moment a carrier takes possession of a vehicle — a step the company calls Secure Vehicle Transfer. The initiative targets what the company describes as a persistently manual and vulnerable stage of the auto logistics chain, one that bad actors have increasingly sought to exploit.

The scale involved is considerable. The platform listed more than 20 million vehicles last year, making it the largest auto transportation marketplace in the country. Yet despite broad digitization elsewhere in the transport workflow, the vehicle release process has continued to rely on paper documents, phone calls, and inconsistent provider-specific procedures — leaving a gap that fraudsters have identified and targeted. The backdrop extends beyond any single platform: the National Insurance Crime Bureau counted more than one million vehicle thefts in the United States in 2023, the highest annual total in more than a decade.

Under the new system, a shipper — whether a dealer, broker, or auction — authorizes a specific carrier to pick up a vehicle. The carrier then receives a digital credential inside the same mobile app already used for vehicle inspections and electronic bills of lading, so no separate tool is required for the check. The credential is non-transferable, meaning it cannot be screenshotted or forwarded, and it is revocable if the shipper reassigns the load. Critically, it is geofenced: the credential only becomes accessible once the carrier is within a defined radius of the pickup location, at which point the releasing location scans it to confirm authorization. The entire pickup verification process is designed to take approximately 90 seconds. Geofencing is already widely used in freight and trucking software for arrival detection and detention-time tracking; binding a release credential to a specific location extends the technique to authorizing physical possession of the vehicle.

Speaking about the rollout, Sibble emphasized that the success of the system will depend on more than the underlying technology: “This is really about establishing a new standard for vehicle release that hasn’t existed previously. The technology is great. I love the technology. But that is not what’s going to make it successful alone. It’s going to hinge on everyone doing their part and that behavior change so that we make sure the vehicle ends up in the right hands,” said Lainey Sibble.

Secure Vehicle Transfer is the second phase of a broader security initiative. The first phase — biometric identity verification for platform access — was already rolled out this year. Central Dispatch has also added a carrier scorecard that surfaces key information about a carrier before a shipper engages with them, along with a carrier mobile app featuring mandatory real-time tracking that cannot be disabled from pickup through delivery.

On the market outlook, the Central Dispatch representative said platform volumes are at an all-time high, driven in part by dealers and commercial shippers expanding the geographic range from which they source and sell vehicles. Carrier-side pressures — rising insurance costs, fuel prices, and additional regulation — remain a challenge, but new carriers continue to enter the marketplace. Central Dispatch also offers an AI-driven pricing tool, launched roughly a year ago, that returns a predicted price, a price range, and an estimated dispatch time for any given move based on origin, destination, and vehicle specifics.

Sibble acknowledged that no single technology will solve vehicle theft in transit, pointing to the need for industry-wide behavior change alongside the new tools. “We’re committed to leading the way on this,” Sibble said. “Our ask is really just for partnership across the board so that together we can ensure that ongoing safe and secure transportation of vehicles.”

Central Dispatch is now deploying the geofenced, non-transferable digital credentials across its marketplace, with the roughly 90-second pickup verification running inside the existing carrier mobile app — an approach the company frames as strengthening the release process for carriers and shippers without adding friction.

Source: FreightWaves