Briefing: Underwriter seeks to haul clients into tackling cargo crime with pricing incentive

By Jon Guy

Specialty cargo insurance firm Fiducia MGA has taken a proactive stance around the need for a more secure transportation of goods process by establishing an index of “approved” transport companies last month (February 2023).

The MGA worked with claims investigation, loss adjusting and risk management company Twenty51 to build a database of firms that have pledged to take basic steps to make transportation more secure – if policyholders subsequently opt to use a firm featured on Fiducia’s list, then the MGA will look to offer them a premium discount.

The steps Fiducia MGA are demanding are basic, but the underwriter said that if transport firms follow this outline, it will significantly enhance the chances that cargo will reach its destination unmolested.

Companies have been asked to pledge that:

• Loaded vehicles are not being parked overnight in insecure locations.
• Loaded decoupled trailers are not parked in insecure depot yards.
• High value loads are shipped in hard sided trailers instead of curtain sided trailers.
• Shipments are not subcontracted to other hauliers that may not meet these standards.

Breaking the impasse

Fiducia MGA has been campaigning for greater security for lorries for years.

In July 2021, Fiducia MGA chief executive Gerry Sheehy and Paul Langan – chief executive of Twenty51 – jointly wrote to former transport secretary Grant Shapps to urge the government to do more to provide secure parking for lorries travelling on the UK’s roads.

This plea fell on deaf ears and now Fiducia MGA has decided that it needs to take unilateral action to address the problem.

“There are significant business advantages for hauliers [that] can differentiate their secure services ahead of competitors [that] cannot,” explained Sheehy.

“We are seeing large UK companies and owners of iconic branded goods moving shipping contracts to alternative providers [that] can commit to providing a secure service.

“The wider logistics and insurance industry are fully aware of the problems we face with cargo on the road.

“All too often, due to [a] lack of secure lorry parking facilities, drivers park up with loaded trailers in motorway service stations or on the side of public roads to take overnight sleep breaks in their cabs. They wake up the following morning to discover the curtain sides of the trailer have been cut and a large proportion of the load has been stolen.”

Fiducia MGA’s new index is an effort to break the impasse and get hauliers and policyholders thinking about cargo safety - but the rewards in terms of fewer claims has the potential to be significant.

It will be interesting to see if fellow underwriters follow suit - if not for road transportation, then for crime issues in other industries and sectors.

Timing is everything and in a continued hardening market, the lure of premium discounts may be irresistible.