Insurer identifies top five causes of cargo losses

Are you dealing with high rates of cargo loss and damage and wondering where to focus your prevention efforts? TT Club, a provider of insurance and related risk management services to the international transportation and logistics industry, can tell you what to watch for. The London-based mutual insurer has found that just five causes accounted for about 66 percent of the claims it handled over the past five years. The analysis was based on approximately 7,000 claims recorded between 2010 and 2014, with a total value of $425 million. Claimants included freight forwarders, third-party logistics companies, container shipping lines, intermodal operators, and ports and terminals.

According to the insurer, the five most frequent causes of insurance claims during that period were traffic accidents (23.0 percent); handling equipment collisions (13.6 percent); theft (12.9 percent); poor cargo packing (12.6 percent); and fire (4.4 percent).

Although importers and exporters were not included in the survey, they are not entirely off the hook. TT Club says that 65 percent of cargo damage can be attributed in part to poor or incorrect packing—an area where shippers, forwarders, and carriers all bear some responsibility.