With an insurable interest in excess of 50% of the world’s tank container fleet, freight transport insurer TT Club has an intimate understanding of the sector. Its latest StopLoss guidance for tank container operators in managing risk in this element of the global supply chain contains valuable advice.

London, 18 August, 2020

Tank containers have been used in the international supply chain to distribute cargoes for many years. In March this year, ITCO, the International Tank Container Organisation released their 2020 Global tank container fleet survey. While covering a period prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey highlighted a slowdown in the growth of the global fleet in 2019 (7.88%) versus 2018 (10.81%). This was partially a consequence of the fall in global trading conditions experienced by many sectors of the container shipping industry.

On the positive side however, the fleet continues to expand. This can be attributed to shippers recognising the benefits of shipping their cargoes in tank containers (as opposed to drums or parcel tankers). The survey reported strong growth for Chinese domestic bulk liquid movement, as well as within the intra-Asia trade.

Having such a deep heritage in the insurance of the maritime containers, TT Club has used its experience of working with operators, answering their queries and handling their claims to create a StopLoss document, which can be accessed HERE

The StopLoss advisory follows on from the success of TT’s tank container seminar in late last year and further confirms the Club’s commitment to provide supportive understanding for those businesses entering or on the periphery of the industry as well as established operators. Additionally, TT collaborated with a number of industry and technical experts to produce this new guidance focused on managing tank container risk.

The intention of this publication is to identify and highlight common claims exposures, whether operational or connected with the care of the tank as an asset. The StopLoss provides a platform from which TT can disseminate this analysis output and provide guidance for the benefit of all. In line with other recently published work[1] by IMDG Code Compliance Centre the guidance seeks to bring clarity as to the responsibilities of the various stakeholders.

This practitioners’ good practice guide is aimed at all stakeholders through the tank container transport chain whether operating, filling, discharging, cleaning or handling tanks. Informed by typical incidents, the document is structured in such a way that it follows the natural chronology of the transport chain in order to provide ease of access.

The publication incorporates several pieces of valuable operational insight, with references to applicable regulations. In the interests of increasing the longevity of the tank as an asset, the topical subject of corrosion/pitting is extensively covered within the guidance, likely of interest to tank owners and operators. Those who operate in the tank sector or are considering doing so will find the 13-point checklist, which aids and informs consistent and successful outcomes for tank container operations, of particular interest.

ENDS

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 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

[1] https://www.shashikallada.com/shippers-responsibilities-tank-containers/

Both the extent and pace of growth in container volumes have put strains on a wide range of operational procedures and the physical hardware employed to handle the steel boxes, particularly onboard ships. Attention to numerous factors is needed to avoid repeated casualties.

A webinar organised by the Thomas Miller managed insurance mutuals, container freight specialist TT Club and protection & indemnity insurer, UK P&I Club, revealed the diverse range of factors important to safe container ship operations and the security of the container stacks they carry. ‘Container Casualties – the sum of the parts’ looked in detail at the complex range of moving parts involved in these operations and concluded that each must be considered individually and collectively in order to keep collapse of stow incidents to a minimum.

In chairing the session, UK P&I Club’s Loss Prevention Director, Stuart Edmonston set the scene, “Container loss incidents attract attention. Overall, the industry loses a relatively small amount of roughly one unit per 160,000 carried but each loss has significance to a range of stakeholders, including the ship operators, cargo interests, insurers and, not least to the natural environment both at sea and on shore.”

A review of the webinar proceedings (https://vimeo.com/444176895) highlights the wide range of influences that can impinge on stack collapses on ships and the potential loss of containers overboard. Peregrine Storrs-Fox TT Club’s Risk Management Director took the lead in summarising these. “While adverse weather and the avoidance of it through to considered design and construction of container ships are clearly vital, the ‘moving parts’ of causation range through all aspects of container operations. TT Club is involved in all aspects of the container supply chain, but uniquely concentrates its energies on those factors considered within the Cargo Integrity campaign that have bearing on this type of casualty, such as the correct declaration of cargo mass as well as the safe packing and securing of the freight within the container, together with the container structure and maintenance.”

Ship-board factors run from proper inspection and regular maintenance of deck fittings, locking bars, twistlocks and lashing bridges, to the use of accurate data to predict parametric rolling and other ship motions, and the incidence of a so-called ‘stiff ship’ situation, at the design and construction stage. Neil Gardiner of casualty investigators, Brookes Bell lead the discussion on this area of causation. “In addition to taking into account the bending motions of ships in heavy seas in the design of, particularly, the larger container ships of today, operational prevention of isolated and unnecessarily high stacks coupled with high GMs should be prioritised,” advised Gardiner. “The whipping action that ships often experience can have a significant effect on high and isolated container stacks that may have been left between interim discharge/load ports to avoid restowing.”

From the legal perspective Tom Starr, Senior Claims Director at UK P&I pinpointed the difficulties in establishing causation and liability. “The very nature of the modern container shipping industry, the very large and sophisticated ships and the involvement of numerous parties means that evidencing seaworthiness, proper stowage and the cause of a casualty is a huge challenge,” explained Starr. “Add to this the variable investigation standards of flag states in conducting official investigations; it may be unsurprising that lessons learnt for the future can be speculative.”

From a plethora of audience questions, one was noteworthy: challenging the panel to suggest their most pressing improvement to oil the moving parts driving this issue. “It is a shame that the MARIN report Lashings@Sea was only partially followed through; there are a number of outstanding recommendations,” was Storrs-Fox’s answer. “That study itself was in relation to ships around 10,000 TEU, so less than half the capacity of the largest now in service. A second MARIN type research, picking up the unresolved actions, and drawing on developments in technology and the other factors would be valuable in increasing safety and certainty in shipping.”

For Gardiner more accurate data on the physical forces at play on containers stacks to be used in calculations at the ship design and construction phase and for Starr better communication between all parties. “When these casualties occur and are under investigation, it is only through more transparency about the actions of the moving parts that future incidents can be minimised,” he concluded. 

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 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

About UK P&I Club

The UK P&I Club is a leading provider of P&I insurance and other services to the international shipping community. Established in 1869 the UK P&I Club insures over 244 million tonnes of owned and chartered shipping through its international offices and claims network. ‘A (Stable)’ rated by Standard & Poor’s with free reserves of $505m, the UK P&I Club is renowned for its specialist skills and expertise which ensure ‘best in class’ underwriting, claims handling and loss prevention services.

The UK P&I Club is managed by Thomas Miller, an independent and international insurance, professional and investment services provider.

www.ukpandi.com

Geneva/London, 4 August 2020 – FIATA International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations and international freight transport insurer, TT Club, announce this year’s regional winners for the Young International Freight Forwarder of the Year Award (YIFFYA). For over 20 years, the award has been providing valuable training opportunities for young talent in the freight forwarding industry.

The YIFFYA has again attracted many talented candidates from around the world. Representing their respective companies and national associations, candidates submitted their dissertations earlier in the year, focused on demonstrating their expertise in freight forwarding. The dissertations sought to illustrate complex multimodal shipments of cargoes such as large crane assemblies, locomotives, halal meat and rainbow trout eggs. Many of the candidates this year were able to further demonstrate their expertise through inclusion of COVID-19 challenges, explaining how these were overcome.

TT Club recognises the importance of encouraging new talent in the freight forwarding business and has supported the competition with its sponsorship throughout the 20 years of the award’s history. Mike Yarwood, TT Club’s Managing Director, Loss Prevention and the Chair of the Award Steering Committee, commented “The awards continue to celebrate the achievements of young forwarders and both the Club and FIATA recognise the high standards of professionalism in our industry that must be exhibited in the most challenging of times. Throughout the current crisis – and for some time into the future – forwarders will be critical to the maintenance of an efficient and effective global supply chain.”

This year’s regional winners are:

• Region Europe: Ms Femke Marie Fürst (DSLV – Germany)
• Region Africa and Middle East: Ms Vimbai Loreen Manyumbu (SFAAZ – Zimbabwe)
• Region Americas: Ms Anastasia Gureeva (CIFFA – Canada)
• Region Asia Pacific: Mr Umair Aamir Sheikh (PIFFA – Pakistan)

FIATA President Basil Pietersen added his congratulations to the four winners, “Our award aims to contribute to the development of quality professionals and reward young talent. The entries this year were, as ever, of a high standard and drew from a wide range of dissertation topics. I am heartened by the exceptional work of all the entrants, which demonstrates the complexity of processes carried out within the global supply chain and the logistics skills required to serve it. In addition, they underline the need of forwarders worldwide to adapt quickly to regulatory, political and economic pressures.”

Traditionally, the four regional winners would present their dissertations to the Award Steering Committee at the FIATA World Congress, with final judging and the announcement of the global winner taking place during the event. Travel restrictions being as they are, there will be no congress held this year, so the judging will be completed remotely, with the regional winners’ entries being presented via videocall in October 2020.

Both FIATA and TT Club wish to thank all those individuals who entered this year’s competition and acknowledge their employers and national freight forwarding associations for the enthusiasm and commitment they have shown to ongoing training within the international logistics and freight forwarding sector.

About FIATA

FIATA International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations is the largest nongovernmental organization in the field of transportation. It is the global voice of freight logistics, representing an industry that covers approximately 40,000 freight forwarding and logistics firms, and employs around 10 million people in some 160 countries. www.fiata.com.

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 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

The forum, held via an interactive webinar entitled ‘Drones and autonomous vehicles: The future… now?’, presented the current advances in autonomous transport in the air, at sea and on land. It examined the benefits and limitations of the technologies as well as the accelerating effects on adoption within international supply chains brought about by the current crisis.

The development of drones, autonomous road vehicles and unmanned ships has been rapid in recent years. The benefits of such automation to freight transport infrastructure are often enumerated – sustainability, cost reduction, environmental protection and resistance to disruption. However, the adoption of such technologies has seen a degree of resistance due to concerns over safety, security, levels of investment and variable regulatory regimes.

“To provide a forum at which the pros and cons can be explained and debated was our primary aim,” says TT Club’s MD Loss Prevention, Mike Yarwood. “Some of the concerns about widespread use of autonomous transport methods, safety and security for instance, can be in fact improved in certain circumstances through the technology. At TT Club, one of our fundamental principles is the dissemination of best practice and risk mitigation across all modes. We feel therefore that an understanding of, and debate about, the implications of automation is vital for its responsible development.”

Participating in the forum under Yarwood’s guidance were: Svilen Rangelov, Co-Founder and CEO at Dronamics; Pranav Manpuria, CEO of autonomous truck developer, Flux Auto and Hussain Quraishi, Strategic Innovation Manager at Wärtsilä, a leader in smart technologies for marine and energy markets. Each emphasised the advantages of autonomy on the transport modes in which they specialise.

In the air, most notably Rangelov outlined the flexibility of drones in delivering cargo to smaller and possibly more remote centres of population as economically and as swiftly as larger cities. Speed to market for urgently required supplies, such has been seen during the COVID-19 crisis, was also emphasised.

Taking a broader slice of the supply chain, Manpuria suggested that driverless trucks could be slotted into a transport system that also features automated warehouses, ports and freight terminals. Computer-guided inventory selection, product picking and packing and lift-truck operations can be integrated with optimum road vehicle scheduling to improve supply chain efficiency.

At sea, the near-term benefits of autonomy including increased safety and voyage optimisation have already been realised. The medium-term benefits of reduced crew are expected to impact coastal cargo vessels the most, where crew expense forms a higher percentage of operating costs and where enhanced situational awareness and precise manoeuvrability is at a premium. Wärstilä’s autonomous technology in the marine sector is well advanced across smart sensors, smart routing and smart vessel control. The technology is demonstrable and has been proven to enhance safety and provide operational savings. 

So what of the barriers to more rapid development? “The COVID-19 crisis has certainly acted as an accelerant for change in potential adoption of autonomous technology, as it has in other aspects of supply chain management,” says Yarwood. “But significant barriers need to be overcome. Our panel identified a number of these and responded to concerns from the webinar’s participants around the world.”

As an obstacle, perhaps surprisingly, the level of investment required is not high on the list.  A lack of uniform regulation across national governments and even within countries is a major block to autonomous vehicle and drone deployment. This is an incidence of regulation and certainly international authorities not keeping pace with commercially driven technological advancement.

Environmental hazards such as bad weather, winds and high seas affecting drone operation and autonomous ships, and icy and rain-effected roads are seen as challenges that technology can cope with and the avoidance of human error is generally seen as an asset in improving safety. A vulnerability to cyber-attack that is perceived to increase with the use of computer-controlled vehicles is a strong disincentive to adoption, the forum concluded.

“However, this particular threat is of critical concern across the supply chain in general,” says Yarwood. “And autonomous transport with all its environmentally sound and economically tempting characteristics will continue to progress.”

A recoding of the webinar proceedings can be viewed here – https://vimeo.com/438946190

An overflow of Q&A’s can be found with this link: https://i.emlfiles4.com/cmpdoc/4/9/5/3/files/673720_drone-webinar-qa.pdf?dm_t=0,0,0,0,0

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 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

DRONAMICS

www.dronamics.com

silven@dronamic.com

Flux Auto

pranav@fluxauto.xyz

https://fluxauto.xyz/

Wärtsilä

https://www.wartsila.com/marine

hussain.quraishi@wartsila.com