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TT Club Stresses Ongoing Efforts to Prevent Container Losses at Sea

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TT Club Stresses Ongoing Efforts to Prevent Container Losses at Sea

Container losses at sea remain a persistent challenge, often exacerbated by severe weather conditions. TT Club, a leading international freight insurer, continues to collaborate with the container industry to mitigate these incidents.

Read also: Neglecting Container Seals Undermines Cargo Security, Warns TT Club

The World Shipping Council’s annual survey highlights a record low in container losses for 2023, with 33% of lost units later recovered. Despite this positive trend, TT Club’s analysis points to weather as the most significant factor behind these losses, emphasizing the complexity of the issue.

TT Club has been actively involved in the MARIN TopTier Joint Industry Project, which brings together over forty industry and governmental stakeholders to address the causes of container loss. The project has already provided crucial guidance on mitigating risks like parametric roll.

Peregrine Storrs-Fox of TT Club underscores the importance of responsibility across the entire freight supply chain, from accurate cargo weight verification to proper load distribution. Discrepancies in stow planning and environmental factors like wave period also play critical roles in container stability.

Innovative technological solutions are being explored, including enhanced monitoring systems and redesigned lashing mechanisms, to better predict and manage container movement.

As container losses cannot be entirely prevented, TT Club continues to advocate for safer practices and technological advancements to reduce risks and enhance the overall safety of global logistics.

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Fraud is the Biggest Threat to Cargo Losses

Criminal fraud in its many and various manifestations within the global supply chain is seen by International freight transport insurer TT Club as a primary and growing threat.  Carrier fraud in particular is a dominant occurrence. Renewed vigilance is required and encouraged by the insurer.

The almost exclusive use of online facilities to process business transactions allows a myriad of fraudulent pursuits to find opportunities within the complexities of the global supply chain. These have many manifestations; from payment fraud that involves existing mandates and impersonation of executives to procurement fraud featuring false invoicing.

Carrier fraud, in which criminals imitate hauliers and other sub-contractors, including drivers with falsified documents, accounted for 84% of TT claims involving fraud or deception in 2022. TT is eager to pinpoint these risks and offer advice to industry on how to not just identify potential fraud but to minimize and avoid losses through them.

TT has produced significant resources* to assist operators to shield themselves from fraudulent activities as it sees 15% of its cargo theft claims arise from fraud or deception.  Specific examples include the intentional submission of false invoices purportedly from an established supplier but actually generated by a fraudster infiltrating the online payment system and duplicated or inflated invoices. Other cases, falling into the category of mandate fraud, experience criminal deception by manipulation of bank transfer details by a fraudster pretending to be an organisation paid regularly by the operator by hacking into the victim’s email traffic and imitating a genuine supplier alter bank transfer details for payment of a legitimate invoice.

TT found however that carrier fraud dominated its claims of this type last year.  There are instances of fake carriers intercepting haulage instructions from forwarders or shippers and posing as the authentic carrier; also falsifying cargo pick-up or delivery documentation to steal loads.

One common tactic is where fraudsters pose as a forwarders using a freight exchange site and provide false instructions to a driver. They match a legitimate haulier to a shipper, facilitating the movement of goods. The fraudster then acts as a ‘middle man’ between these two legitimate companies, arranging the collection and directing the driver. Once the trucker has collected the goods, the fraudster provides new instructions to deliver to an alternative address where the cargo is stolen.

These are but samples of the various modus operandi employed by those intent of defrauding supply chain businesses. TT is determined to maintain a flow of information designed to help the industry combat such practices and to underline both their extent and devious nature in order to reduce financial losses and further disruption to fragile supply chains.

About TT Club

TT Club is the established market-leading independent provider of mutual insurance and related risk management services to the international transport and logistics industry. TT Club’s primary objective is to help make the industry safer and more secure. Founded in 1968, the Club has more than 1,100 Members, spanning container owners and operators, ports and terminals, and logistics companies, working across maritime, road, rail, and air. TT Club is renowned for its high-quality service, in-depth industry knowledge and enduring Member loyalty. It retains more than 93% of its Members with a third of its entire membership having chosen to insure with the Club for 20 years or more. www.ttclub.com

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TT Club Highlights Long-Term Changes to Supply Chain Risk Profiles

Disruptive economic, societal and geopolitical influences are altering global supply chain risk profiles. Erosion of traditional buffer mechanisms to ensure continual supply of goods demands a new assessment of potential risks.

The challenges inherent in today’s international trade and the supply chains that service it are painfully obvious – higher prices of energy and food, shortages of and delays in delivering manufactured goods, dynamic changes in markets and sourcing regions. The on-going effects of the pandemic, with its associated lockdowns and the war in Ukraine are proving catalysts to ignite underlying economic and environmental trends that will continue to fuel long-term changes in the pattern of global supply and demand.

As a specialist in providing insurance and risk management services to the international transport and logistics industry, TT Club is convinced that a thorough understanding of the practical risks is vital in mitigating the dangers to safety and security that are a consequence of these dynamic factors.

In her presentation, Jilli explained in detail some of the prevalent risks that operators face in this changed environment. Abandoned cargo is more prevalent with delays through port congestion and lockdown closures meaning the incidence of consignee bankruptcy or goods being unwanted due to loss of markets is higher. This is particularly concerning when dangerous good are left in storage for excessive periods as the tragic incidents in Beirut last year and in Chittagong more recently attest.

TT sees the correct use of data to analyze these trends as being of crucial importance and is utilizing its own claims experience along with theft reporting agency information to maintain and expand the all-important industry awareness of the evolving dangers. This, in addition to the developing technologies to support the supply chain and offer predictable and resilient sourcing without the geopolitical risks of foreign suppliers and other disruptions, is seen as a primary mitigator in the management of the developing, modern, longer-term risk profile.

About TT Club

TT Club is the established market-leading independent provider of mutual insurance and related risk management services to the international transport and logistics industry. TT Club’s primary objective is to help make the industry safer and more secure. Founded in 1968, the Club has more than 1100 Members, spanning container owners and operators, ports and terminals, and logistics companies, working across maritime, road, rail, and air. TT Club is renowned for its high-quality service, in-depth industry knowledge and enduring Member loyalty. It retains more than 97% of its Members with a third of its entire membership having chosen to insure with the Club for 20 years or more.

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TT CLUB SUPPORTS CONTAINER LINE MOVES TO PUNISH “MIS-DECLARERS”

The international transport and logistics industry’s leading provider of insurance and related risk management services is applauding a number of container lines for recently announcing measures to discourage shippers from mis-declaring hazardous cargoes, which is a practice strongly suspected as being either the cause of, or at least contributory to, a spate of recent container ship fires.

TT Club says it welcomes such initiatives by liner operators as the international transport insurer has growing concerns about the lax cargo packing practices and erroneous, sometimes fraudulent, declaration of cargoes. Under the banners “Cargo Integrity” and #Fit4Freight, TT Club has been collaborating with stakeholders through the freight supply chain to highlight ongoing risks, including severe ship fires, arising from poorly packed and declared cargo.

“Clearly, the shipper has primary responsibility to declare fully and honestly so that carriers are able to take appropriate actions to achieve safe transport,” explains Peregrine Storrs-Fox, TT Club’s Risk Management director. “Since this is not always the case, carriers have to put in place increasingly sophisticated and costly control mechanisms to ‘know their customers,’ screen booking information and physically inspect shipments. Equally, carriers have the opportunity to review any barriers to accurate shipment declaration, including minimizing any unnecessary restrictions and surcharges.”

Penalizing shippers where deficiencies are found should be applauded, contends Storrs-Fox, who adds that “government enforcement agencies are encouraged to take appropriate action under national or international regulations to deter poor practices further.”

 TT Club’s Cargo Integrity campaign seeks not only to promote awareness of good practice but also to reveal the plethora of influences from both direct and indirect stakeholders within the supply chain that result in behaviors leading to dangerous incidents on land or at sea.

 “A key element of the campaign is to identify levers–both sticks and carrots–that are available to improve a safety culture in container transport,” Storrs-Fox says, “including considering unintended consequences inherent in trading arrangements or fiscal/security interventions and the possibilities presented by technological innovation.”

FIATA Announces “Young International Freight Forwarder of the Year” Regional Winners

Four regional winners for this year’s “Young International Freight Forwarder of the Year” awards were officially announced this week by FIATA, which serves as a collaboration between the TT Club – the competition’s sponsor,  and International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations.

Regional winners of this year’s award were determined based on dissertation topics addressing specific and complex processes within the supply chain while demonstrating logistics-based knowledge in successful implementation of the processes.

FIATA President Babar Badat announced this year’s regional winners and made the following statemen:

“Encouraging more young professionals to join the FIATA community has always been a priority for me. I am encouraged again to see these excellent candidates presenting dissertations that cover a wide range of logistic subjects, which demonstrate the challenges that forwarders face every day and the customized solutions they are able to offer.

“My sincere congratulations to the four regional winners who are ….”

Europe – Mrs. Evgeniya Khokhlova Russia (FAR)

Africa/ Middle East – Mr. Enos Chapra Zimbabwe (SFAAZ)

Americas – Ms. Rachael van Harmelen Canada (CIFFA)

Asia Pacific – Mr. Phillip Burgess New Zealand (CBAFF)

“In the current challenging global trade environment, where supply chains are under increasing pressure to adapt quickly to regulatory, political and economic pressures, we at TT Club believe the training and professional advancement of young freight operators must be paramount,” added Mike Yarwood, TT Club’s Senior Loss Prevention Executive and Chairman of the Award Steering Committee.

Among the four regional winners is the final winner of the Young International Freight Forwarder of the Year Award (YIFFYA) 2019, which will be determined and announced during the FIATA World Congress in Cape Town from October 1-5.

This year’s prize will focus on academic training including one week at TT Club’s London, Hong Kong or New Jersey regional centres in addition to a week at the company’s head office in London. All four regional winners will receive a year-long subscription to the International Transport Journal (ITJ).