Cargo Insurance
The cargo insurance (or freight insurance) is a contract agreed with an insurance company in which they assume all unexpected material damages and losses on the goods during land, air or marine transportation, on the risks specifically hired. This insurance can be hired by any person that has an interest on the transported cargo (private or public companies and individuals).
The cargo insurance can include different modes of transportation (separate or together) such as:
- Sea: cargo insurance during the vessel navigation.
- Land: cargo insurance during transportation via truck and/or railroad.
- Air : cargo insurance during transportation via aircraft.
On the cargo insurance, the policy is the primordial document and given the purely formal character that the insurance contract represents, it is necessary its existence for validity. On the insurance policy, insurable risks are hired by the insured, on which the insurer is obliged to compensate the damages or losses caused to property during normal transport, by means of a determined premium payment, according to the general, particular or special agreed terms.
The compensation is the fundamental characteristic for the cargo insurance. The principles of compensation are based in that nobody can pretend higher compensations than the suffered damage or loss. Additionally the insurance cannot be a cause of profit of benefit for the insured. The compensation from the insurer must not present an advantageous situation as if the sinister would not happened.
The insured value must correspond to the value of goods at destination place, in the moment of the end of the voyage, according to the following basis:
- Value of goods
- Freight charges
- Duties
- Clearance fees
- Packing
- Other expenses related to transportation
Some factors must be considered on cargo insurance so that the insurance company can determine the insurance premium: type and size of cargo, means of transportation, route, intermediate transshipments, storages, shipping dates, insured claims history. In the case of the route, if goods are damaged outside of the route, compensation will not be effective.
For the cargo (freight) insurance, it is possible to cover a great amount of merchandise such as:
- wood
- security equipment
- clothes
- footwear
- grocery
- diesel
- construction material
- furniture
- medical equipment
- cleaning articles
- fertilizers
- bottled tequila
- calcium carbonate
- coffee
- honey
- bottled and piped alcohol
- agave syrup
- paint
- metal poles
- metal structures
- concrete structures
- steel coils
- grains and/or cereals
- carcass
- meat cuts
- seafood
- sausage
- turkey
- chicken
- dairy products
- perfumes
- cosmetics
- toner
- lead oxide
- chemical products
- fruits and vegetables
- jewelry
- machinery (industrial
- agricultural
- construction) and spare parts
- calendars
- stationery in general
- promotional items and consumables
- machinery and equipment peripherals
- automobile batteries
- electronic equipment
- printers
- scanners
- copy machines
- computer peripherals
- hardware material
- electric and electronic material
- computer and printer spare parts
- computer consumables
- medicine
- canoes
- kayaks
- bicycles
- protection equipment
- weight equipment
- ski equipment
- wave runners
- jet ski
- camping equipment
- climbing equipment
- diving equipment
- etc.
Están excluidas del seguro de transporte algunas mercancía como lo son:
- watches
- cash and securities
- artworks
- antiques
- metals or gemstones
- bank or phone cards
- weapons
- explosives
- perishables
- cotton
- blood
- semen
- towed goods of any kind
- transportation of boats
- planes
- or any motorized vehicle
- bank documents
- promissory checks
- vouchers
- and/or any bank document
- fishmeal
- jute and copra
- asbestos
- animals
- rejected material
- scrap
- wines and spirits
- copper
- among others.
The insurance company will not compensate on any of the following cases:
- Gross negligence or willful acts from the insured, his dependents or representatives.
- Delay on the transport mean or delivery, for any reason.
- Bad stowage, packing insufficiency or deficiency, spills, losses, breakage, fermentation, corruption, overheating, temperature influence, auto combustion, oxidation, rainwater, inherent defect of the insured goods.
- Sanitary or disinfection measures, insect or woodworm gnawing.
- Smuggling, prohibited trade, embargo, apprehension or confiscation by judicial or administrative ruling.
