Whether you import goods, export your products and components to overseas destinations or only send consignments within the UK, freight insurance is a good idea. Without it, you are exposing your company to a significant degree of business risk. Few firms would not want some form of public liability cover or insurance that protects their business premises, so why would you leave goods in transit to mere chance? The answer, quite simply, is that you shouldn’t. What is freight insurance and why is it so beneficial?
Understanding Freight Insurance
Freight insurance is something that you can arrange to cover all your consignments or shipments on a case-by-case basis, as you prefer. Talk to your freight forwarding company, if you have one, about which might suit you. According to an Essex-based freight forwarding firm with experience in all sorts of international shipments by sea, air and courier, Barrington Freight, obtaining adequate insurance will cover your goods when they are on the move but also when they are on a port’s dockside waiting to be loaded onto a truck or a container vessel. End-to-end insurance means that you get protection for the full journey of your shipment, not just accidental damage or theft when the goods are on the road or at sea, for example.
What’s more, freight insurance doesn’t just cover containerised goods. You can have any class of goods – so long as there is a legal trade in them – covered under this sort of insurance policy. Even drop shipping businesses that might place one-off orders for individual consumer goods can get all the cover they need for damaged or missing items they order. This means that customer refunds for undelivered goods won’t have to be written off. It is well worth remembering that small but sometimes valuable goods are targeted by professional criminals so purchasing a freight insurance policy is really about protecting your business against such actions and being able to continue to deliver a high level of customer service to your clients.
The Benefits of Freight Insurance
Freight insurance has numerous benefits that your business will enjoy. Typically, these will include:
- The ability to protect your firm against business losses that result from theft in transit.
- A lower level of business risk from items that are damaged en route to your clients.
- Protection against partially delivered orders that you have already paid for but which do not arrive in full.
- Avoid arguments with suppliers about refunds by simply claiming against your insurance instead.
- The ability to make financial plans for the future of your business since the chance of one-off unexpected costs is reduced.
- Cover goods that are on their way to you as well as those you have shipped to your customers under a single policy.
- Sort out any claims you may need to make quickly and easily – many freight insurers offer online service portals for simplified claim management purposes, for instance.
- Obtain coverage that suits your business needs at rates that are sustainably affordable year on year.
