TYPE OF CLIENTS
We welcome any type of Charterers business. The majority of our business concerns tramp chartering, both voyage and time charters, conducted by operators or by commodity traders, who are chartering vessels to carry their own cargoes. We also provide specialist covers for any other Charterers, either cargo or non-cargo carrying. We have no restrictions to size, age, type or territory.
Do not underestimate the risks
Chartering a vessel can be a risky business – you expose yourself to a number of serious legal and contractual liabilities. That means that the last thing you want is to be inadequately insured.
What liabilities do I face?
The key risks you face as a charterer include:
- Loss of, or damage to, the chartered vessel (including damage caused by stevedores, an unsafe berth, the cargo or use of the wrong fuel)
- Problems with cargo (including loss, damage, late delivery or delivery to the wrong port)
- Other marine liability risks (including death, injury or illness suffered by the crew or third parties, collision, pollution, salvage or fines).
Depending on your role in the logistics chain, and the type of Charter Party you have signed, you may also face other liabilities. If, for example, to help you avoid liability, you appoint your own agents and stevedores, or hire your own superintendents to monitor loading and unloading, this may actually bring additional liabilities. The same applies if your name is on the Bill of Lading, or if you sign it yourself.
Do I really need cover?
Taking out Charterers’ Liability Insurance to cover your liabilities is not mandatory: you are, of course, free to take the risk yourself. But there are a number of reasons why you would be well-advised to protect yourself with an appropriate Charterers’ Liability Insurance. For example:
- You cannot exclude your liabilities by inserting a clause to that effect in the Charter Party: any such clauses are worthless in practice.
- Relying on the operational excellence of others is no guarantee that you will not one day be exposed to extremely expensive claims.
- Even if, in a particular case, you are not liable, defending yourself against an erroneous claim can prove very expensive.
Why should I choose RaetsMarine Charterers’ Liability Insurance?
We tailor all our insurance to meet your precise requirements, so you can be confident of sound cover – whatever your circumstances. When you deal with RaetsMarine, you are dealing with a company that is:
- Experienced – We have more than 15 years’ experience of insuring charterers of all types, and currently serve over 1,000 charterers, including traders, operators, NVOCCs and others chartering vessels.
- Expert – Our underwriters and claims teams are skilled in the fields of marine liabilities, and keep up to date with the latest developments through our in-house learning centre, RaetsAcademy, and our extensive knowledge database.
- Open-minded – We accept any type or size of charterer, cover both time and voyage charters, and place no restrictions on the age of the vessel, the bills of lading issued, the kinds of cargo, or the trading area involved.
- Secure – We provide transparent financial security, with cover up to USD 500m, backed by a high-ranked corporate insurer.
- Comprehensive – We provide cover for a wide range of situations (including ‘back-to-back’ agreements and sub-charters involving several parties), and offer additional insurance to cover specific risks.
- Cost-effective – We work with fixed premiums, and take a flexible approach to policy limits – where possible, negotiating lower limits to save you money.
- Service-oriented – We work with you to minimise your risks, our Support Desk is always ready to advise you and find solutions to your problems, while our claims handlers work with you to settle claims quickly – and as favourably for you as possible. We will also help you draft and check Charter Parties and Bills of Lading, if required.
Most important of all, we make sure you are properly covered for the risks you face. Accordingly, to cover specific additional risks, we can extend your Charterers’ Liability cover with any of the following:
- Cargo Owners’ Legal Liability Insurance
- Marine Defence Insurance (Freight, Demurrage and Defence
- Bunker Insurance
- Charterers’ Piracy Trade Disruption Insurance
- Detention InsuranceFreight Insurance
- Kidnap and Ransom Insurance
- Shipowners’ Liability (SOL) Insurance
- War Risk Insurance
- Fringe cover
Insurance for charterers
At RaetsMarine, our aim is always to provide you with the highest quality service. As a company, we are aware that we are responsible for performance under the insurance policy, and we ensure that whatever happens at sea, your financial security is protected. For this reason, we focus particularly on the fields of risk and loss prevention, and claims servicing.
Tailor-made approach
P&I (Protection and Indemnity) Clubs – mutual associations of shipowners –often position themselves as insurance providers for charterers, but taking out a policy with such a group can have a number of disadvantages for charterers. At RaetsMarine, we operate in a very different way, enabling us to offer you better service, clearer legislation and a more supportive framework. We offer you fixed premiums and never impose general increases and supplementary calls. We judge every account based on its own record and insurance, so you can be sure that you are never paying over the odds to cover someone else’s risk. And, because we understand that every account is different, we also tailor our comprehensive insurance packages specifically to meet your needs.
Key insurance packages
Our insurance packages cover the following areas:
- Charterers’ Liability Insurance
- Cargo Owners’ Legal Liability Insurance
- Fringe Cover
- Marine Defence Insurance (Freight, Demurrage and Defence)
P&I Clubs
A P&I Club is typically an association of shipowners set up to provide mutual protection and support against a range of different risks and liabilities, including personal injury to passengers and crew, damage to or loss of cargo and third-party insurance. Although P&I Clubs are typically intended for shipowners, charterers are also able to join. Before you do so, however, you should consider the following:
- P&I clubs are primarily intended for shipowners. Given that by statute, a club can only accept a limited amount of fixed-premium business, it seems likely that shipowners will often take precedence over you and other charterers.
- If both you and the vessel you have chartered are covered by the same P&I club, there is a possible conflict of interest.
- Policies drawn up by P&I clubs are typically based on the club rules, which tend to emphasise both the shipowner and mutuality, and cover is often discretionary. As a result, you may find that the level of protection you receive is rather uncertain – particularly as the final decision is often made by the Board of Directors, all of whose members are shipowners.
- The rules of a P&I club do not typically cover the liabilities of a charterer in respect of damage to the vessel. As a result, separate insurance has to be found through the club, which can make putting together a comprehensive insurance package both time-consuming and expensive.
- As a condition of cover, all P&I clubs require compliance with International Safety Management (ISM) and International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) regulations. As a charterer, you have no control over a shipowner’s compliance with these regulations.
