Dear Valued Unique Customer,

The below pictures were sent to us from our Taiwan office with regard to MSC Joanna.  As picture is often worth a 1000 words, it is a good reminder to check on your existing cargo insurance.

 

Did you know that ULI-ATL offers cargo insurance for air/ocean shipments?  Are you currently protecting your valuable overseas product with cargo insurance?

 

If you answered “No” to either of these two questions, you should consider the following as it relates to cargo that does not have a separate cargo insurance policy:

 

1)             The general provision under any air, ocean, warehouse, or trucking bill of lading is limited liability.  Generally, the maximum exposure for claims, shortages, and damages is limited to usd500 per customer shipping unit.   Thus, if the shipping unit is classified as an ocean container and the value of your cargo is $50,000, the most you would receive in a total loss is $500 or 1% for ocean, $20.00/kg for air or $0.50/lb with a $50.00 max for LTL domestic trucking.

2)             Due to the complexities of international cargo and multiple parties involved, there are often multiple claims filed to the perceived responsible parties involved in a claim.  The average time for processing and concluding a claim is 10-12 months.

 

If your company does not have cargo insurance, ULI-ATL would strongly recommend that you obtain cargo insurance either through ULI-ATL or under your own policy.  Having cargo insurance will limit your company’s exposure to the common pitfalls described in items #1 (money) and #2 (time) above listed. If your company carries your own cargo insurance separately, then your insurance company should be contacted in the event of a claim.  Otherwise, you will be subjected to items #1 and #2.

 

Here are some of the advantages of carrying cargo insurance on your international air/ocean shipments:

 

a)             Claims are processed within a shorter time frame.

b)            Coverage includes the freight, commercial invoice value (the purchase cost from vendor/export value declared at origin), customs duty, and a 10% residual value.

c)             Cost is less than 0.50% (half percent).  Thus, cost of carrying insurance will only add less than usd0.005 to the cost of any imported commodity.

 

With the advantages of having cargo insurance compared to the risk of not having cargo insurance, it makes sense to carry cargo insurance on all your international transportation transactions.  By personal comparison, would you not insure your home or car?  Why should your cargo be any different?

 

We wish to remind all our customers of the liability protection rendered on shipments moved Unique Logistics International cargo services.

 

The law requires all international carriers to have liability protection of the following amounts:

 

OCEAN CARGO

US$500.00/package or other customary freight unit (e.g. box, crate, pallet , carton, ocean container, etc. as delivered to our designated offices)

 

AIR CARGO

US$9.07 per lb ($20.00 per kg)

 

It is important to note that the above is our complete limit of liability and therefore the maximum to be expected under any freight claim.

 

We also would take this opportunity to remind our customers it is strongly recommended that all claims be submitted directly through your respective insurance companies.  Unique Logistics International will continue to file all claims immediately upon notification but the legal liability claim process we must follow can be quite lengthy.  We find it is very common for our customers to receive more immediate results directly from their own insurance companies and/or separate cargo insurance policies due to differences in coverage.

 

ULI-ATL can assist you to protect your investment through our buying power of cargo insurance.  Please feel free to contact any of our qualified sales executives to discuss getting your company enrolled in this value-added service.

 

Thank you for your support of Unique Logistics International (ATL) Inc.

 

 

 

9,000 teu MSC Joanna ※too big§ to be fixed in Tianjin