3PL recap: The best way to get on prime of cargo insurance coverage conundrum

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Educating brokers on correct protection for shippers’ high-risk, high-value cargo.

DETAILS: Mark Vickers is government vice chairman and head of worldwide logistics for insurance coverage firm Reliance Companions. Vickers spent years on the 3PL facet dealing with high-value and high-risk shipments throughout the U.S. and to and from Mexico. Vickers spoke with FreightWaves reporter Grace Sharkey concerning the frequent errors brokers make when evaluating completely different coverages, particularly for high-risk, high-value shipments.

BIO: Vickers spent seven years with Complete High quality Logistics, a big North American brokerage. He then joined MacroPoint, a cargo visibility supplier. In 2017, he based Borderless Protection, which supplies corporations with automated entry to all-risk shippers’ curiosity cargo insurance coverage. From 2017 to 2021, Vickers labored at Sedlak Provide Chain Consultants, the place he centered on distribution middle design and provide chain optimization. He joined Reliance after it acquired Borderless Protection in February 2021.

Key quotes from Vickers:

“Visibility is troublesome into Mexico. There are plenty of arms, there are plenty of actions, and it’s very scary.”

“Near 99% of cross-border shipments go uninsured. There isn’t any cargo insurance coverage in any respect. Shippers are self-insuring these shipments at their full worth and are taking a really massive deductible.”

“A number of brokers will not be getting the precise worth of the [shippers’] freight, particularly with LTL. And they don’t seem to be wanting on the LTL’s cargo insurance coverage coverage.”

“The way in which to mitigate this whole subject is implementing a shippers’ curiosity, all-risk cargo insurance coverage program that may be valued all the way in which as much as $2 million and provides flexibility on the commodities lined. That was once virtually unimaginable domestically, and it wasn’t potential to get that form of insurance coverage in Mexico.”