Southeast Recycling Group manages high-value, non-ferrous shipments which are usually worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. After experiencing costly copper theft and insurance claim denials, SRG turned to Tive for real-time visibility and control.
HIGH-VALUE GOODS Southeast Recycling Group (SRG) manages high-value, non-ferrous shipments which are usually worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. After experiencing costly copper theft and insurance claim denials, SRG turned to Tive for real-time visibility and control . Before implementing real-time tracking, SRG had no shipment visibility, which left them exposed to increasingly sophisticated instances of cargo theft. Products used : Tive Solo 5G, Premium Platform Tier According to Mike Sordi, co-owner of SRG, “We weren’t tracking shipments, and that was the problem. We thought it couldn’t happen to us—until it did.” After two stolen loads, neither of which was fully recoverable through insurance, SRG realized that traditional safeguards weren’t enough. Fine print insurance exclusions such as “voluntary parting of cargo” left them financially vulnerable, forcing an operational shift toward proactive risk mitigation. SRG adopted Tive quickly, deploying trackers at scale across high-value copper shipments without a prolonged trial period. After speaking with Tive, SRG made the decision to buy 50 Solo 5G trackers, and currently uses 75 a month to monitor their high-value shipments. Unlike alternatives such as basic Bluetooth trackers, Tive’s real-time location and condition visibility—coupled with an extremely hands-on onboarding process—stood out to the team at SRG. The ability to monitor shipments live, and get hands-on help from day one, drove rapid adoption across the organization. With Tive, SRG has been able to switch from reactive loss management to active theft intervention. “The whole reason we found out that a recent load was stolen was because of Tive. The platform alerted us that the cargo was moving west—but the truck was supposed to be heading east,” reported Sordi. “It turns out that the cargo had been transloaded onto a different truck.” SRG tracked this stolen load across multiple states overnight, coordinating in real time with brokers and law enforcement. The result: a successful recovery and arrest. The financial impact of real-time shipment visibility was immediately clear to SRG. Had they not had a Tive tracker on that stolen shipment, it is unlikely insurance would have protected them. SRG’s ability to track and respond in real time prevented a six-figure loss, demonstrating clear ROI in a single shipment. The metals recycling industry is fraught with instances of cargo theft, but Sordi believes Tive can help change that. “We shouldn't be bragging about two months without a theft,” he said. “It should be two years, three years without a theft.” “Tive is the first line of defense. I’d recommend it to anyone shipping high-value goods.” “This is an epidemic in our industry. A lot of people check IDs and numbers, but you don't know until an insurance claim gets denied that you're not covered.” “The volume of cargo theft in our industry is huge, but solutions like this can help drive those numbers right down.” “Out of four trucks stolen that night, from four different companies, we were the only one that recovered our load—and that is because we were the only ones using Tive.” MIKE SORDI Co-Owner at Southeast Recycling Group tive.com/customer-stories Peace of mind at every mile.