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Mr Buffett’s investments in jewelry and furniture companies had been having a bad time of late, but the executive jet leasing business was soaring, he said.With planes priced from $6m to $50m (£4m to £35m), entering the exec jet leasing market is beyond the reach of most private investors. But for Mr Buffett, NetJets is proving a nice little earner in the economic bad times. The company sells partial stakes in jets, allowing people to have access to a private jet all year round, without the expense of owning a whole one. As dot millionaires cut costs, NetJets offers a more economical way to maintain a big business lifestyle.”I’ve been buying more planes than shares,” Mr Buffett said “The slowdown hasn’t hit NetJets. I expect there will be thousands of [NetJets customers] in Europe 10 years from now.”Reporters after more information on this fantastic investment opportunity were invited to join Mr Buffett at Farnborough airport, where part of NetJets’ fleet was available for inspection. On arrival, the British press corps found not Mr Buffett, but the French media, who had also been promised an audience with Mr Buffett.With the Sage’s sales lunch taking longer than expected, the Buffett media entourage was left to play around in the corporate jets.

Two hours later, the legendary investment guru was declared a no-show.Meanwhile, Mr Buffett’s guests had presumably discovered that there was no such thing as a free lunch.. The problem of illegal immigrants slipping into the European Union aboard ships, trucks and trains is attracting plenty of attention. The problem of illegal immigrants slipping into the European Union aboard ships, trucks and trains is attracting plenty of attention. But a much bigger problem is not what cargo is added to these forms of transport but what is taken out. Cargo crime losses around the world are running at between £21bn and £35bn a year. In Europe, the figure is thought to be about £7bn and in Britain £56m, says the US National Cargo Security Council.
Theft of goods travelling from manufacturer to customer attracts little publicity, partly because companies do not want to appear vulnerable but also because there is little interest in what is often characterised as a victimless crime. And yet the problem is so prevalent that covering losses incurred in this way is said to add 10 per cent to the cost of information technology products, one of the most popular targets of such criminals.Several factors make cargo crime attractive.

First, bank robberies are in decline because banks use increasingly sophisticated security systems and ­ because of purchasing with cards ­ they typically hold less cash than they used to. Second, globalisation of business has led to an increase in overland transportation of high-value cargoes. Third, border controls are relaxing as much of Europe moves towards a single market without a corresponding increase in cooperation between national police forces.Europol, the over-arching police force for the Continent, has freight crime excluded from its remit. This means that, for example, a truck could be hijacked in one country and driven into another, taking the perpetrators out of the jurisdiction of the authorities where the crime was committed, and significantly increasing their chances of success.”In the past three years there has been a growing trend of organised crime targeting freight as an easy option,” says Peter Vyvyan-Robinson, who believes he can reverse that trend. As managing director of a young company called TRI-MEX, he is at the forefront of technology said to be able to combat this activity by monitoring loads every step of the way, from their starting point to their destination.Many businesses use what are known as “track and trace” satellite systems to follow parcels around the world. The parcel company Federal Express and the online retailer of books and related products Amazon use this sort of approach to let their customers know goods have left warehouses and to enable them to check their progress.The Norwegian company Telenor has a satellite tracking operation attracting a lot of interest in central and eastern Europe where the disappearance of train carriages and transport trucks is increasing. The company has bought the Dublin-based Satellite Tracking Systems, which specialises in the wireless tracking of ships as well as trains, trucks and containers, and has built up a presence in South Africa, where the issue is also causing concern.

Exel, the UK logistics company, uses similar technologies in its global freight tracking system MSAS, and various airlines have air freight tracking systems, either on their own or in collaboration with others.TRI-MEX claims to be different because it offers a continual monitoring process, rather than merely ensuring a cargo reaches and passes certain points. This means that if, for instance, a truck is hijacked, an emergency procedure is activated. As soon as a shipment deviates from a set route, there is an amber alert. Staff at the company’s control centre in Oslo begin following the consignment closely and ask the owner of the cargo to contact the driver.

If a reassuring message is not forthcoming, the situation moves to a red alert and the police are contacted. The technology ­ which links advanced satellite, GSM and UHF radio technology with sophisticated “watchdog” sensors on the cargo ­ can guide the police to where the truck has been taken.Police forces across Europe are signing up to TRI-MEX, companies are seeing it as a more cost-effective way of ensuring cargoes get through than hiring escort patrols, and insurers regard it as a method of keeping a lid on claims from the transport industry. Cargo insurance claims exceed those for personal injury, property, collision and pollution by number and by value, and a recent International Union of Marine Insurers conference was told that as much as 30 per cent of all cargo claims could stem from crime.One organisation in the insurance industry has formed an alliance to promote the service to its contacts in insurance and also invested in the company. Bruce Kesterton, commercial director of Thomas Miller, a niche insurance company in the transport sector, says the company could see great potential in what Mr Vyvyan-Robinson and his colleagues were doing, not just in combating crime, but also in handling perishable goods and hazardous materials.