As part of its commitment to the development of its employees’ technical knowledge, several of Aston Charles’ Head Office staff once again headed to the Leeds Insurance Institute’s lunchtime lecture.
July’s lecture was hosted by Jon Cross, Risk Control Manager of Northern Marine Underwriters and Howard Smith, Managing Director of HaulNET.
The lecture started with a hypothetical question:
“Would a Generalist Underwriter insure £250K worth of designer goods, held in a warehouse with no alarms, where the walls were made of canvass and the security guard permitted to sleep on duty”.
This very much set the pace for an informal lecture, which gave a fascinating insight into the murky world of organised cargo crime. Wide ranging topics included, how to reduce the risk of theft by simple measures such as staff education and empowerment, to cutting-edge modern day technology such tracking devices and the HaulNET website. Other points included the extreme and often ingenious lengths that cargo crime syndicates go to secure their quarry.
It seems that, in comparison to their European counterparts, the UK’s hauliers suffer particularly from this blight, a fact compounded by the scarcity of secure truck stops, relative attractiveness to crime gangs from the Continent, due to the lack of armed police officers, and apathy of the courts to impose sentences in line with other serious crimes. This last point is particularly worrying, as it is alleged that cargo crime fuels other nefarious industries such as the drugs trade, people smuggling and terrorism.
For those of us from a general commercial or personal lines background, the world of specialist Marine Insurance can sometimes seem a little daunting. Jon and Howard’s enlightening talk was highly engaging and left us much better informed about the issues facing hauliers, their clients, and of course, their insurance carriers.
For further information on what NMU can do for you and your business, please contact your broker or visit www.nmu.co.uk. To find out more about the haulNET website please contact Howard Smith via howardsmith@brms-ltd.co.uk.
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