Marine & Cargo
Marine cargo insurance covers goods in transit by sea, air, road, or rail, from the manufacturer's warehouse to the final delivery point. For importers, exporters, and logistics operators, it's one of the most exposed lines in the business.
We place marine cover across specialist insurers familiar with trade routes, commodity types, and the specific risks of the shipping lanes your business uses.
Cover
What this typically covers
Cargo in transit
Your goods from the moment they leave until the moment somebody signs for them, by whatever combination of ship, plane, truck and warehouse gets them there.
Goods while being transported (sea, air, road, or rail) including loading, unloading, and storage in transit.
Stock throughput
One policy instead of three. It follows the goods from the supplier through every leg of transit and into your warehouse, which closes the gaps that open where one policy ends and the next begins.
Single policy covering goods from supplier premises through transit to your warehouse and into stock.
General average
An old rule of the sea, and a shock the first time it happens. If cargo is sacrificed or costs are run up to save the ship, every owner on board contributes, including those whose goods were never touched, and nothing is released until security is given.
Your share of losses deliberately incurred to save the vessel or voyage, payable under maritime law.
Delay & business interruption
The shipment is late and the loss is commercial rather than physical. It matters most for seasonal or perishable goods, where arriving late is the same as not arriving.
Lost profit when transit delays affect trading, especially for perishables or seasonal goods.
Marine liability
Your goods cause damage on the way: a leak into the rest of a container, a spill in a hold, a load that shifts.
Third-party liability for damage caused by your goods during transit.
Specialist commodities
Project cargo, valuables, anything that has to stay cold, anything classed as dangerous. These are underwritten on their own terms because a general cargo wording does not describe them.
Project cargo, valuables, temperature-controlled, and hazardous goods, with wording built for the commodity.
Limits
What this will not cover
Packing that was not up to the journey
Insufficient or unsuitable packing is excluded in every standard cargo wording. The container may be somebody else's, but how the goods were packed into it is yours.
Inherent vice and ordinary loss
Fruit that ripens, steel that oxidises, liquid that evaporates. Where the cargo does what that cargo naturally does, it is not damage.
Late notice to the carrier
Claims against a carrier fall away quickly, and losing that right of recovery can prejudice the claim against the policy. Note the damage on the delivery documents before signing them.
Delay on its own
Unless delay cover is bought specifically, loss caused only by a shipment being late is excluded, even where the delay was caused by something the policy otherwise covers.
Claim
When you claim
Note the damage before you sign for it
Endorse the delivery note, photograph the packaging, and put the carrier on notice in writing. Time limits for claiming against a carrier are short and unforgiving, and losing that recovery can prejudice the insurance claim behind it.
Have it surveyed before it moves again
A surveyor is appointed to establish what happened and where. Keep the goods, the pallets and the packaging exactly as delivered until they have been seen, however inconvenient that is for the warehouse.
General average is a different animal
If the carrier declares general average, your cargo is held until security is provided, whether or not your own goods were damaged. That security is what the policy provides, and it is the clearest argument for insuring cargo at all.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
No. A carrier's liability is limited by convention, usually by weight rather than value, and it is a liability rather than insurance. On most consignments it settles for a fraction of what the goods were worth, and only where you can show the carrier was at fault.
Three standard levels of cover. A is all-risks; B and C name the perils they respond to and get progressively narrower. Most commercial cargo goes on A, and the cheaper letters earn their saving only on a limited set of commodities.
Usually warehouse to warehouse: from the moment goods leave the supplier's premises until they reach yours, subject to a time limit after discharge. That is broader than the Incoterms transfer of risk, which is where the two get confused.
If the ship or the voyage is saved at the expense of some of the cargo, every cargo owner contributes proportionally, including those whose goods were never touched. Your consignment is held until security is provided, and providing it is one of the clearest arguments for insuring cargo at all.