How Yearly Cargo Insurance Policies Work
Usually, international high-volume shippers are guided to cargo insurance yearly policies by their insurance brokers as a part of a larger package. There is nothing wrong with annual policies. The average yearly policy is one lump sum payment for cargo insurance for all shipments based on an estimate of what and where you will be shipping that year.
The upside of a yearly policy is it’s a once a year set it and forget it transaction.
The downsides are the once-yearly payment may not be affordable, shipping volumes can be unsteady, and it isn’t very easy to tie the expense of cargo insurance accurately to any one shipment.
There is an Option
If you are one of the many shippers’ yearly policies are not a good fit for, TJO Cargo can offer and additional option that is the best of both worlds. ‘Direct Reporting’ is TJO Cargo’s answer for shippers that a yearly policy does not fit.
How Direct Reporting works is, TJO Cargo negotiates rates and terms on your behalf. We work for you, not the insurance company. Once rates and terms are approved, the insurer agrees to insure all your shipments on a month to month basis. At the end of each month, you provide your spreadsheet of all shipments, and the insurance company issues one cargo insurance certificate for all of those shipments, there is an invoice sent, and it is on to the next month.
Advantages
There is no large upfront expense. Invoicing is a ‘pay as you go’ monthly expense.
Your cargo insurance expense is based on consumption, not a guess at the beginning of the year, what your volume will be. You only pay for what you use. If your shipping volume didn’t meet expectations, why pay for cargo insurance on shipments that never occurred?
You will have the ability to quickly tie the cost of cargo insurance to a specific shipment, or group of shipments, and accurately measure it as a direct expense. Your cargo insurance expense will also match your revenue levels. That comes in handy for P&L monthly expense ratio measurements.
There are no lengthy contracts or long-term commitments. We know your contracts are not guaranteed to go on forever. In the event your shipping volume suddenly drops, there is no penalty or hoops to jump through to stop your cargo insurance.