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.