Speaking at a conference this week, TT Club’s Phillip Emmanuel drew attention to the wide-range of causes leading to insurance claims by transport and logistics operators. “While these causes are varied; ranging from theft and poor maintenance of equipment to bad cargo handling and packing and clerical error; they share in common the fact that through good training, the employment of best practices and detailed monitoring and checking procedures, the vast majority are avoidable,” emphasised Emmanuel.

As a leading freight transport insurer, TT Club is in a prime position to both identify the causes of risk in the supply chain and to proffer advice on how such issues can be managed to ensure a reduction.  Such action, of course not only saves staff from injury and assets from damage but reduces insurance overheads, maintains operational efficiency by minimising interruptions and delays and keeps customers satisfied.

In making the presentation Emmanuel, who is TT Club’s Regional Director, Asia-Pacific utilised a claims analysis carried out by the Club on data received over the past seven years. Including bodily injury, property and liability, over 2,600 claims from transport and logistics operators were analysed. A low percentage, just 5%, were caused by the weather with a quarter being due to poor maintenance of property or equipment and a large proportion, some 66% down to failures in some facet of the operation.

Emmanuel was at pains to highlight the lessons to be learned from analysis of these operational issues in particular. “Here we found that over a half of incidents involved the internal systems and processes of the operator and another quarter were due to theft. These types of claim are most assuredly to be placed in the category of preventable,” he said.

Transport and logistics operators are strongly urged to employ effective monitoring and checking procedures, a regular training regime and maintain industry best practice for safety and security. The conference presentation exemplified a number of situations were cargo which was badly stowed, packed, loaded incorrectly or otherwise poorly handled caused damage and injury. Examples of mis-communication of information about refrigerated cargo, mis-declaration of hazardous cargo and load weights, inaccurately drafted contracts with sub-contractors and a lack of IT security were all discovered in the analysis.

As a result TT Club can, and frequently does, offer effective advice on loss prevention and risk management as Emmanuel concludes, “Prevention is a combination of safe and physically secure facilities and equipment; rigorous checks and double-checks on paperwork and information flow combined with well-trained, well-motivated employees and trusted partners.”

In recent years, CMA CGM has shipped its containers aboard Danish carrier Maersk Line’s vessels under an agreement between the two companies. Both partners reviewed their agreement, turning it into a Vessel Sharing Agreement (VSA); now one out of four vessels on the St. Lawrence service, a weekly service between Europe and the Port of Montreal, will be the Antje Wulff, a 2,700 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) container ship owned by CMA CGM.

“CMA CGM is a longstanding European partner of the Port of Montreal, which welcomes the world’s leading marine carriers. Our business relations are promised a bright future thanks to the new free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union that will promote trade on both sides of the Atlantic,” stated Sylvie Vachon, President and CEO of the Montreal Port Authority.

Founded in 1978 in Marseille, CMA CGM ranks third in the world and first in France in marine container shipping. The Antje Wulff is expected at the Port of Montreal at the end of April. It will provide freight transportation on the Montreal – Halifax – Rotterdam – Bremerhaven – Antwerp – Montreal service. 

These diesel hydraulic shuttles are one-over-one models and have a lifting capacity of 50 tonnes.

Since its official opening in September 2012, BEST’s performance has been appraised in line with the highest standards: it has achieved a Vessel Operating Rate of more than 220 moves per hour and a sustained annual average Gross Quay Crane Rate of over 38 moves per hour, one of the highest in Europe.

BEST currently has eight super post-Panamax quay cranes, 36 automatic stacking cranes (ASCs) and 26 shuttle carriers operating along a 1,000 metres berth with a draft of 16.5 metres. It deploys the HPH in-house developed Next Generation Terminal Management System (nGen).

The next phase of the terminal’s development, which is scheduled to be fully operational in less than a year, will increase equipment numbers to 11 super post-Panamax quay cranes and 54 ASCs with a 1,500 metres berth and a draft of 16.5 metres.

Commenting on the latest development Guillermo Belcastro, General Manager of BEST said “This expansion is deigned to extend the current successful semi-automatic operations, being the only port in the region with five deep-sea berths having all of the quay cranes capable to service ultra-large container vessels.

The terminal has one of the most modern entry/exit gate complexesin Europe and one of the largest rail terminals at a container port with an eight-track railway facility with mixed gauge (Iberian and UIC), connecting BEST daily to many different destinations in Spain and Southern Europe.

Barcelona Europe South Terminal (BEST) is the first semi-automated terminal in the HPH Group and the most technologically advanced port development project in Spain.

ERL’s objective is reproducing in France a similar scheme to that developed with Belgium to manage the flows – especially the French ones – while fostering the dispatch of consolidated lots from the Paris area to Le Havre, via a future river solution between the port of Gennevilliers and HAROPA terminals.

According to Karim Chami, General Manager, ERL France: “This decision meets our will to set up under our own name on the Seine corridor, and especially, in Le Havre which succeeded in making the necessary efforts to improve its service offer. It also meets the expectations of our customers looking for quality improvement and environmental performance.”

Created in 2009, European Roro Lines is settled in Africa on the main platforms of vehicle distribution. The group now has three vessels in operation (MV CARIBBEAN, MV MODERN LINK and MODERN EXPRESS), thus raising global transport capacity to 3,000 CEU (Car Equivalent Units) on average.

The kind of cargo carried is as follows: rolling stock of all types, civil engineering and agricultural machinery, conventional on MAFI’s (carrying up to 70 tonnes of cargo).

The first call is scheduled in mid-April at the Europe terminal.  It will be operated by the stevedore ‘Générale de Manutention Portuaire’ (GMP), which is AEO certified.