Lack of proper procedures challenges underwriters

FROM AN insurance point of view, airfreight consignments to Zambia are considered a better risk to underwriters than roadfreight. This is not, however, always economical for clients and therefore consignments by road can be insured as well. Zambia can be a challenge to insurance underwriters due to the lack of proper procedures being followed when cargo is delivered. Losses are often not documented when cargo arrives at the destination or delivery documents go missing. The exporter is then only informed weeks after delivery that the cargo did not arrive intact at the destination. This may cause problems as underwriters rely on the documents to indicate at which point the loss occurred. Salvage operations are also neglected and often the cargo is abandoned and a replacement demanded without any attempt to minimise the loss But fortunately all is not lost. Susan Bester, Prestmarine marine marketing manager, says “being a developing country, we anticipate huge volumes of cargo movement into Zambia, especially in the mining industry.” And Prestmarine is optimistic about the future. “African business has always been one of our strongest growth points and we have secured cover on huge mining contracts as well as truck fleets operating in Zambia. The challenges are there, but we have the experience and network of service providers to handle it.” Prestmarine specialises in marine insurance (insurance of cargo transported by road, rail, sea and air), commercial insurance (warehouse of customer’s cargo, company assets, motor vehicle fleets etc), personal lines insurance (personal household goods, private motor vehicles etc) as well as specialised liability lines. The company deals with both imports and exports and insures all types of products. It arranges insurance on several different types of commodities to and from Zambia. On northbound loads the cargo includes building and construction materials, fertiliser and fuel and southbound it consist mainly of copper and ores.