Cargo insurance, claims support and landed-cost planning
A carrier's liability is capped by weight or by package under the transport conventions, not set by what your goods are worth. We arrange cargo insurance across air, sea, rail and road, run the claim with you if something goes wrong, and build the landed cost of a lane before you commit to it.
What this service covers
Financial and value-added services cover the part of a shipment that is not movement: the risk it carries and the cost it lands with. In practice that is three things. We arrange cargo insurance against loss or damage in transit across air, sea, rail and road. We handle claims when cargo arrives short or damaged, from the first notice on the carrier through to settlement. And we help you build a landed cost for a lane before you commit to it, so duty and import tax sit inside the price you quote your own customer rather than arriving after clearance.
The reason the first of those exists is that carrier liability is capped by weight or by package, not by value. Where the Hague-Visby Rules govern the contract of carriage, a sea carrier's limit is 666.67 SDR per package or 2 SDR per kilogram of gross weight, whichever is higher. Under the Montreal Convention an air carrier's limit is 22 SDR per kilogram. On a CMR road leg it is 8.33 SDR per kilogram. For dense, low-value cargo those figures can be adequate. For a pallet of instruments, components or finished electronics they are usually a fraction of the invoice value, and the carrier still holds its defences, including insufficiency of packing and, at sea, error in navigation. Cargo insurance is what pays the value you declared, subject to the clauses you bought.
We arrange cover as part of the booking rather than as a separate transaction afterwards. The file that holds your commercial invoice, packing list and transport document is the file the certificate is issued from, so the cargo description, marks and numbers, weights and the voyage, flight or train details on the certificate agree with the bill of lading, air waybill, CIM/SMGS consignment note or CMR note. That matching is unglamorous, and it is what decides how quickly a claim moves. We are not the insurer: cover is underwritten by the insurance market and the policy terms govern. What we own is that cover is bound before the goods move, that it is written at the right sum insured and clause level, and that if you have to claim, the documents an insurer asks for already exist.
The landed-cost side is arithmetic, not advice. We work through our customs clearance and brokerage service on HS classification, then build the stack for the lane: ex-works or FOB price, export handling and documentation, freight, insurance, destination terminal and clearance charges, duty, import VAT or GST, inland delivery, and the demurrage and detention exposure if clearance is slow. One detail decides more than buyers expect, which is whether the destination assesses duty on CIF or on FOB value. Into the European Union or India, freight and insurance sit inside the duty base. Into the United States they generally do not. What we give you is an estimate; the binding determination belongs to the customs authority at destination, and where classification or valuation is genuinely arguable we will say so and recommend a ruling rather than guess.
What you get when you book this service
Cargo insurance across every mode we arrange
Cover for physical loss of or damage to goods in transit on air, sea (FCL and LCL), rail and road, including the pre-carriage and on-carriage legs at each end and the transhipment points between them, where handling is heaviest and damage often begins. Cover can be arranged shipment by shipment, or standing for a repeating lane.
Sum insured and clause level set deliberately
We agree the sum insured with you before cover is bound. The market convention is CIF value plus 10 per cent, so a total loss does not leave you carrying freight and charges already spent. We also agree the clause set: Institute Cargo Clauses (A) for all-risks cover, (B) or (C) for named perils, with War and Strikes clauses added where the routing calls for them.
Certificates issued against the shipment file
The certificate is raised from the same documents as the booking, so commodity description, packaging, marks and numbers, gross and net weights, package count and conveyance details agree with the invoice, packing list and transport document. Disagreement between those papers is a common and avoidable cause of a slow or contested claim.
Claims support from first notice to settlement
We help record the exception at delivery, serve written notice on the carrier inside the convention deadline, arrange a survey where the value warrants one, assemble the document pack, and follow the claim with the insurer. We keep the recovery action against the carrier alive in parallel, because the insurer will expect the carrier claim to have been preserved.
General Average and salvage exposure accounted for
If a vessel carrying your container declares General Average, every cargo interest on board contributes to the loss and must post security before the container is released, even when the cargo itself is undamaged. With cargo insurance in place, and subject to the clauses bought, the insurer provides the guarantee. Without it, the deposit is your own cash, and the box waits until it is posted.
Landed-cost build-up for the lane
A line-by-line cost stack for the route you are considering: freight, origin charges, destination terminal handling and clearance, duty, import VAT or GST, inland delivery, and the demurrage and detention exposure. It is built on your HS classification, the destination's published tariff and the valuation basis that country actually uses.
Duty timing through bonded storage
Where cash flow rather than cost is the constraint and the destination's bonded regime allows it, goods can be held in bonded warehousing and cleared in tranches, so duty and import tax fall due as stock is released rather than in a single charge on arrival. We also flag where a valid certificate of origin would earn a preferential rate that is otherwise left unclaimed.
From enquiry to delivery
Tell us the commodity, the value and the Incoterm
Before anything is booked we need three things most freight enquiries leave out: what the goods actually are, what they are invoiced at, and the Incoterm you are trading on. The Incoterm decides where your risk starts and stops. On FOB you carry it from the moment the goods are loaded on board, on EXW from the supplier's gate, and the cover has to match that span rather than the freight leg alone.
Freight, cover and duty quoted together
We come back within one business day with the routing and freight quote, the insurance option priced against an agreed sum insured, and the landed-cost picture for that lane, in the same document. A freight figure on its own leaves clearance, duty and detention to arrive later. Putting the three figures side by side lets you compare on the full cost of the lane rather than on the freight line alone.
Cover bound before the goods move
Standard transit clauses attach cover when the goods first move inside the origin warehouse for immediate loading, so we bind against the confirmed booking rather than after collection. That closes the uninsured window on the pre-carriage leg to the port, airport or rail yard, which on a China origin is often a long road movement before the cargo reaches a terminal at all.
Certificate issued and cross-checked
Once the transport document is raised, whether that is a bill of lading, air waybill, CIM/SMGS consignment note or CMR note, we check the certificate against it and against the invoice and packing list: description, gross and net weight, package count, marks and numbers, conveyance and route. Anything that disagrees is corrected while correction is still straightforward.
Clearance reconciled against the estimate
After entry at destination we send you duty and import tax as actually assessed alongside the figures we forecast, together with the classification and customs value the entry was made on. If the assessment differs from the estimate, you know why before the next shipment is booked, and the forecast for that lane gets better rather than being repeated.
If there is a loss, we run the claim
Exception recorded on the delivery receipt before anyone signs, photographs taken before the cargo is disturbed further, written notice to the carrier inside the convention deadline, survey where the value warrants it, then the document pack to the insurer. We stay on the file through to settlement, and we tell you plainly where the packing or the paperwork is likely to be contested.
When this is the right service — and when it is not
Best for
- High value per kilogram — electronics, instruments, components, branded goods — where the convention cap per kilogram sits nowhere near invoice value.
- Out-of-gauge, break-bulk and project cargo on Open Top or Flat Rack equipment, where handling is heavy, lifts are frequent and a single damaged piece can be hard to replace at short notice.
- Multimodal moves — rail to Europe or Central Asia, sea and road into India, the Gulf or Mexico — where cargo changes custody several times and the liability regime changes with it.
- Buyers importing on EXW or FOB terms, who carry the risk from an early point in the journey and frequently have no cover across it.
- Dangerous goods and shock- or temperature-sensitive cargo, where the exclusions in a policy matter as much as the cover and the packing specification has to stand up to scrutiny.
- Teams quoting a delivered price to their own customer, who need duty, import tax and freight settled before the price is committed.
When another mode fits better
Cargo insurance is not always the right answer, and it is never a substitute for three other things. If the cargo is low value per consignment, easily replaced and moving constantly — routine e-commerce consignments, small LCL top-ups — the premium, the deductible and the administration of a claim can cost more than absorbing the occasional loss, and some shippers sensibly carry that traffic themselves. If losses keep happening the same way, with crushed cartons, chafed cases or pallets collapsing, that is a packing and palletising problem and a policy will not fix it: insurers exclude insufficiency of packing, inherent vice, ordinary leakage and wear, and loss caused by delay, so a recurring failure of that kind is likely to be declined rather than paid. If the risk you are actually worried about is being paid at all, insurance is the wrong instrument, because it covers physical loss of and damage to goods, not a buyer who does not settle; that belongs with your bank and your payment terms. If your supplier already sells on CIF or CIP and has insured to destination, read the certificate before buying a second policy, since double insurance produces an argument at claim time rather than more cover. And on the landed-cost side we are not tax advisers: we build estimates from published tariffs and the classification we agree with you, and where a binding answer is needed it comes from a ruling by the destination customs authority or from a licensed adviser in that country.
Carrier liability caps under the main transport conventions, compared with what cargo insu
rance pays. Figures are in SDR, the IMF Special Drawing Right, whose value against USD, EUR and CNY moves daily. These are industry-general limits and apply only where that convention governs your contract of carriage — the terms on your bill of lading, air waybill or consignment note decide which regime applies, and some contracts limit liability further.
| Mode and regime | Cap on the carrier's liability | Deadline to notify and to sue | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sea — Hague-Visby Rules | 666.67 SDR per package, or 2 SDR per kilogram of gross weight, whichever is higher | Apparent damage: note at delivery. Concealed: within 3 days. Suit: 1 year from delivery | A valuable carton or pallet is capped well below invoice value, and the carrier keeps defences such as insufficient packing and error in navigation |
| Sea — US COGSA, US trades | USD 500 per package or customary freight unit, unless a higher value is declared and paid for | Notice at delivery, in writing within 3 days if damage is not apparent. Suit: 1 year | What counts as a package can be the carton, the pallet or the container, depending on how the bill of lading describes the goods |
| Air — Montreal Convention | 22 SDR per kilogram, the limit as revised in 2019 | Damage: 14 days. Delay: 21 days from receipt. Suit: 2 years | The cap follows air waybill weight, so light, high-value cargo is the worst case for the shipper |
| Road — CMR Convention | 8.33 SDR per kilogram of gross weight of the goods lost or damaged | Apparent: at delivery. Concealed: 7 days. Suit: 1 year, or 3 years for wilful misconduct | Relevant to European and CIS road legs, including the road portion of a door-to-door multimodal move |
| Rail — CIM, under COTIF | 17 SDR per kilogram of gross weight | At delivery; concealed loss or damage within 7 days. Suit: 1 year, longer in limited cases | Applies to the CIM legs of a China–Europe rail move once the consignment enters the CIM regime |
| Rail — SMGS | Limited by the agreement and the consignment note terms; commonly below invoice value | Exception recorded on the consignment note at delivery. Claim periods are short — confirm against the contract | China–Russia and China–Central Asia traffic frequently moves under SMGS or a CIM/SMGS common consignment note |
| Cargo insurance — Institute Cargo Clauses (A) | The sum insured you declare, conventionally CIF value plus 10 per cent | Notify the insurer promptly and keep the claim against the carrier alive. Policy terms set the time limits | All-risks cover subject to the standard exclusions: packing, inherent vice, delay, and war and strikes unless added back |
A shipment we have already run
Equipment was matched to each piece of cargo — standard FCL, flat-rack and open-top according to dimensions — and documentation kept aligned across more than ten separate container movements rather than treated as one bulk shipment.
Read the full case studyFinancial & Value-Added Services — common questions
Only up to a cap, and only where none of its defences apply. Where the transport conventions govern the contract of carriage they limit liability by weight or by package regardless of what the goods are worth: 2 SDR per kilogram or 666.67 SDR per package at sea under Hague-Visby, 22 SDR per kilogram by air under Montreal, 8.33 SDR per kilogram on a CMR road leg. A carrier can also decline liability for insufficiency of packing, inherent vice or, at sea, error in navigation or management of the vessel. Cargo insurance pays the value you insured, subject to the clauses, and the insurer then pursues the carrier itself.
Institute Cargo Clauses (A) is all-risks cover for physical loss of or damage to the goods in transit, and includes General Average contributions and salvage charges. Clauses (B) and (C) cover named perils only and are progressively narrower. All three exclude the same core items: insufficiency or unsuitability of packing, inherent vice, ordinary leakage, wear and loss in weight, deliberate damage by the insured, loss caused by delay, and war, strikes, riot and civil commotion unless those clauses are specifically added back. Which set fits depends on the commodity, the packing and the route. Tell us those three and we will say which cover we would recommend and why.
It is priced as a percentage of the sum insured, and the underwriter sets that rate on the commodity, the packing, the mode, the route and the loss record. We will not quote a rate without those, because a rate quoted blind is not a rate you can budget against. Send the commodity, invoice value, origin, destination, mode and Incoterm, and we will come back within one business day with a figure you can put into a costing.
The market convention is CIF value plus 10 per cent: the invoice value of the goods, plus freight and insurance cost, plus an uplift for incidental costs. The reason for the uplift is that a total loss costs you more than the goods, because freight, origin charges and sometimes duty are already spent and are not recovered by insuring the bare invoice value. Insuring far above a defensible figure does not help either, since an insurer indemnifies the loss actually proven. If your goods carry tooling, certification or replacement costs that a commercial invoice does not show, tell us before cover is bound.
Start at delivery. Record the damage or shortage on the delivery receipt or consignment note before anyone signs, and photograph the cargo and packaging before it is disturbed further; a clean, unqualified receipt is the hardest thing to argue past later. The file then needs the commercial invoice and packing list, the transport document, the insurance certificate, the annotated delivery receipt, photographs, a survey report where the value warrants one, weights and package counts, and a copy of the written claim lodged on the carrier inside the convention deadline. We assemble that pack with you rather than leaving you to work out what is missing.
If a ship suffers a casualty such as fire, grounding or a serious machinery failure, and property is sacrificed or extraordinary expense is incurred to save the voyage, that loss is shared proportionally between the vessel and every cargo interest on board under the York-Antwerp Rules. Your container can be entirely undamaged and still owe a contribution, and it is not released until security is posted. If the cargo is insured, the insurer posts that guarantee. If it is not, the deposit comes out of your own cash at a moment you did not plan for, and the container sits until it does.
Read the certificate before deciding. Under Incoterms 2020 a CIF seller only has to insure to the Institute Cargo Clauses (C) minimum, which is named perils, while CIP requires clauses (A). Then check two further things: whether the certificate is assignable to you as the party with an insurable interest, and where the cover actually ends. Seller-arranged cover often terminates at the port of discharge, leaving clearance, storage and inland delivery uninsured, and those are legs where damage happens. If cover ends at the port, we can arrange insurance for the remaining journey instead of duplicating what you already hold.
We can give you a build-up: the HS classification we would agree with you and declare, the destination's published tariff for that code and origin, whether a preferential rate applies and which document supports it, the valuation basis the country uses — CIF in the European Union and India, FOB in the United States — and import VAT or GST on top. That is an estimate. The determination is the destination customs authority's, and where classification is genuinely arguable we will recommend a ruling rather than a guess. On timing, where the destination's bonded regime allows it, goods can sit in a bonded warehouse and be cleared in tranches so duty falls due as stock is released. Ask us to model both against your lane and we will come back within one business day.
Guides related to this service
Cargo Insurance 101: What It Covers and Why It Matters
Freight liability from carriers is limited by default — cargo insurance is what actually protects the value of your goods.
Read More Customs & Compliance GuidesIncoterms Explained: EXW, FOB and CIF in Plain Terms
Three common Incoterms, and what each one actually means for who pays for what.
Read More Customs & Compliance GuidesA Shipper's Guide to Customs Documentation
Delays at customs are almost always a paperwork problem, not a policy one.
Read More Customs & Compliance GuidesUnderstanding Bonded Warehousing for Import and Export
Bonded storage lets goods sit in China without customs duty due until they actually move.
Read MoreExternal standards bodies and government sources, linked for reference. Transeasy is not affiliated with these organisations.