Equipment theft costs mid-size Canadian operations an average of $18 million annually

Samsara's 2026 State of Connected Operations (SOCO) Asset Theft & Loss Report, Quantifying the Hidden Cost of Asset Invisibility, finds a surprising source to a massive problem for business owners.

The report found that equipment theft and loss is bigger than just a replacement-cost problem — it's a CAD $18M annual operational drain for mid-size organizations (majority between CAD $340M and <$1.4B annual revenue) that don't utilize asset tracking. 

Small assets require tracking, too

The surprise in the report is what types of assets are driving the losses. While heavy machinery theft makes headlines, 72 percent of those operational costs come from disappearing assets valued under $14K: tools, sensors, generators, and specialized parts that operations depend on daily. 

The proprietary study, based on insights from 1,500 financial executives — majority mid-size operations between $340M and <$1.4B annual revenue — across construction, logistics, field services, utilities, and similar industries in Canada, the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, and Germany, puts a precise number on a problem the industry has long felt but never been able to quantify. 

Despite 71 percent of operations experiencing equipment theft every quarter, and 25 percent of new equipment budgets going to replace what's been stolen or lost, the hidden damage runs far deeper: project shutdowns, emergency rentals, idle labour, and contract penalties compound the direct loss into millions in operational costs. 

"Before deploying Samsara, a single missing piece of equipment could delay a job, idle a crew, and force emergency procurement — all without ever knowing where the asset actually was," said John Chaccour, director of Technology at Total Safety. "With real-time asset visibility, we expect a 100 percent reduction in unreturned assets, a 90 percent reduction in days outstanding, and our teams spending time on safety and customer service instead of searching for tools. All told, this could add up to millions in recovered operational costs." 

Key findings in the report: 

• Equipment theft is a quarterly reality, not a rare event
• 71 percent of operations without asset tracking experience equipment theft every quarter
• 25 percent of new equipment budgets go to replacing stolen or lost assets
• Small equipment is a hidden driver of losses
• Operations without tracking lose an average of $18M annually from direct and indirect costs of missing equipment
• 72 percent of those operational costs come from missing assets valued under $14K, like tools, sensors, and specialized parts
• The "death by a thousand cuts" from disappearing small gear is where the real financial drain occurs
• Missing assets drain productivity and halt projects
• 98 percent of organizations say searching for assets is a daily or weekly occurrence
• At more than a third (38 percent) of Canadian organizations without real-time visibility, employees spend more than 10 hours per week searching for missing equipment — equivalent to more than 520 hours per year, or one full-time employee doing nothing but searching for three months a year
• 82 percent of Canadian operations say a missing critical asset caused a significant shutdown or delay in the past 12 months
• 39 percent of Canadian organizations have been forced to pay for emergency rentals to keep operations moving
• Without tracking, the average time to locate a missing asset is 25 days, and 68 percent of organizations in Canada can't recover even half of their stolen high-value equipment, a failure rate significantly worse than the global average (54 percent)
• Asset tracking reduces recurring costs and operational disruption
• 35 percent of Canadian organizations have successfully lowered their insurance premiums by implementing asset tracking, helping reduce recurring overhead
• 66 percent of Canadian organizations report a direct reduction in project shutdowns and delays after implementing asset tracking 

 The gap between organizations with and without asset visibility is not merely operational; it's financial. Companies investing in tracking are not only recovering assets faster, but they're also preventing the secondary costs that compound long after the initial loss.  

Designed to give organizations real-time visibility into their assets and operations across every site, Samsara helps close this gap with the Samsara Asset Gateway, Asset Tag, and Asset Tag XS — a family of tracking devices built for tough conditions and powered by Samsara's industry-leading network of millions of connected devices.