Remote yard monitoring in Chicago

Local and live

Where six railroads and the expressways converge

Chicago is the busiest freight rail hub in North America: the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning says about 25 percent of the country's freight trains and half of its intermodal trains pass through the metropolitan area, which handled more than 7.8 million intermodal containers in 2016, more than Los Angeles, New York or Seattle. On the Southwest Side, the Belt Railway of Chicago's Clearing Yard spans 786 acres across Chicago and neighbouring Bedford Park, and BNSF and Union Pacific also run large intermodal terminals in Cicero and in the Will County rail yards south of the city. O'Hare International Airport adds to that load as one of the country's largest air-cargo hubs, and trucks move the freight on I-90, I-94, I-290, I-55 and I-57.

That much freight moving through one place draws thieves. The National Insurance Crime Bureau's 2025 count, released in March 2026, put the Chicago area third among US metros for reported vehicle thefts at 24,299, and Verisk CargoNet separately ranked Illinois third among states for cargo theft that same year, behind California and Texas. For a yard or distribution site in the city, that means loaded trailers, tractors and equipment left outside overnight are a target, whether the site sits near a rail yard, an expressway on-ramp or an industrial corridor.

Sigma's agents watch every camera on a Chicago site at once, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including nights, weekends and holidays. AI person and vehicle detection flags anyone moving through the yard after hours, an agent checks the live video and gives a live, instant talk-down through the site's speakers, and police are called with video evidence when someone won't leave. Agents can also run the gate for scheduled arrivals and keep a record of trucks and trailers moving in and out.

Also covering Cicero, Berwyn, Oak Park, Evanston, Evergreen Park, Calumet City, Elmhurst, Skokie.