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Percentages without a scale of the absolute value aren’t that easy to interpret.

Sure, you’re telling me the slope is steep compared to being flat, but is it the side of an ant hill or the Himalayan mountains? Both can be very steep, relatively.

I agree! I had to drill down into the article a little and found this:

https://www.cargonet.com/news-and-events/cargonet-in-the-med...

To quote their media announcement:

CargoNet® has recorded 692 events across the United States and Canada in the third quarter of 2023, a 59% increase when compared to the third quarter of 2022. Like in the second quarter of 2023, much of the increase is due to ongoing shipment misdirection attacks, a kind of strategic cargo theft in which actors use stolen motor carrier and logistics broker identities to obtain freight and misdirect it from the intended receiver so they could steal it. In total, thieves stole over $31.1 million in shipments in the third quarter of 2023.

Here are some concrete numbers for Q2 2023 - https://www.cargonet.com/news-and-events/cargonet-in-the-med...
"Commodities such as food and beverage goods, electronics and household goods are top targets of thieves."

Why bother with low value products like food and beverages?

Is food truly considered a low-value product today? In my country, it's one of the most marked-up items, second only to printer ink. For instance, farmers receive $2-3 per ton of potatoes, yet these are retailed for $3-10 per kg, over triple what they were just 3 years ago. Despite the general tripling of food costs (just for basics, processed things have increased even more heavily), the earnings of farmers and others in the supply chain, except for supermarket executives and shareholders, remain unchanged. This price inflation, driven by greed, results in significant profits for those who can bypass the system. For example, if one could acquire a ton of potatoes and sell them at farmers markets for $2/kg, undercutting supermarkets, they could make a substantial profit quickly. However, buying directly from farmers is not an option as they are typically bound by strict contracts with major grocery store chains, this leaves theft which has the added enticement of yielding even higher margins than doing things properly.

Now, a truckload of luxury goods like avocado as given as an example of cargo stolen in the article? I imagine you'd be set for a year of a single heist with less risk than robbing banks and less exploitation than 'honest' work.

Freight trains can be 3 miles long. Apprently the locks are hilariously weak, and they are generally staffed by 2 people. Responding to a break in can take 30 min - hour, and the train companies dont really care because they have insurance.

It's likely that the ID on the outside of the car is vague enough to imply that there may be high value goods like detergent or alcohol inside. Once the thieves break into a car, they would generally not have time to pick another.

Some alcohol is fairly high value, and easy to sell on the black market.