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WHO CALLS THE TUNE?
IT IS SOBERING to reflect that not only do incidents involving dangerous goods continue to occur with unnerving frequency but that a considerable proportion of what goes wrong is entirely preventable. This should be all the more vexing in the context of the last 40 years, with the phenomenal changes in business practices, particularly the advent and widespread adoption of electronic records and communications. TT Club, founded more than 50 years ago, is a specialist insurer of the risks arising from
At its core, insurance is about taking a share of risks that an individual or entity does not want or cannot afford to retain. Almost inevitably, cover is provided for defined risks generally within a range above an excess or deductible and subject to a financial limit. Assuming another’s risk is based on understanding, which requires full and frank disclosure to build and maintain trust. HIDDEN COSTS Pondering these simple tenets should already
However, since TT’s mission includes making the industry it insures safer and more secure, it seeks to generate insights from incidents that it incurs. This is supplemented by publicly available information, which is delivered back to the industry in specific and general risk mitigation programmes, collaborating with other industry leaders to bring about change. Allied to the fragmented and partial incident experience held by insurers, it is worth drawing the distinction between ‘insured’ and ‘economic’ losses. When any type of mishap occurs, there are a host of direct and indirect costs or overheads that an entity incurs, such as reputational damage, the need for emergency supplies, increased inspections, revised training and procedural introspection. Perhaps the most intangible is the loss of management time, diverting them away from productive activity; at the lowest
all kinds of actors in the global supply chain, with particular emphasis on unitised transport. As a result, TT is well placed to provide some perspectives on the ‘state of the nation’ and progress over the decades. Nevertheless, it is worth rehearsing some insurance theory and fallacies.
reveal the twin fallacies that insurers are both paymasters and holders of all types of relevant data – and that is before remembering that insurance itself is as fragmented a market as anything else seen in the supply chain. There is currently no complete, standardised and shared data matrix covering the risks in question.
level this might be mending counterparty relationships, but could equally be full-on crisis management, responding to investigative or enforcement agencies, handling media and much more. One study by the UK Health & Safety Executive reported that every £1 of insured costs ‘hid’ between
SAFETY • PEREGRINE STORRS-FOX, RISK MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR AT TT CLUB, LOOKS BACK ON THE ADVANCES MADE IN MARITIME SAFETY OVER THE PAST FOUR DECADES
HCB MONTHLY | JULY 2020
