The TT Club, the leading international transport and logistics insurance provider, today announces its financial results for the year ended 31 December 2013, maintaining its A- (Excellent) rating by agency AM Best for the 8th consecutive year.

Shipping Containers have been the target of thieves since they first started circling the globe with many shipping lines conceding through gritted teeth that an amount of 'natural wastage' or 'mysterious disappearance' is an inevitable part of doing business in certain areas of the world.

Having experienced the consequences of mis-declaration, and poor and incorrect cargo packing throughout its history, the TT Club thoroughly welcomes the international attention towards improving practice through the supply chain.

Returning to the topic of trade terms covered in TT Talk 178 in September 2013, this article aims to clarify the concepts of risk and property (or title to the goods) and explain how the use of the Incoterms® affects the transfer of risk and property. Further, the article sets out how the transfer of risk in intrinsically linked to the issue of who can sue for loss or damage to goods.

News of settlement of a particularly nasty road accident in the US is a timely reminder that ship operators continue to be exposed to extreme liabilities, even where they have largely divested themselves of chassis fleets.

Specialist freight transport insurance provider, TT Club is reinforcing its presence in Dubai. The move, which aims to support the Club's existing claims team in the UAE, underlines the insurer's commitment to what is a dynamic region and provides an additional service level to both Members and brokers in the Middle East.

The overwhelming majority of insurance claims analysed by TT Club have showed that costly damages and loss, as well as serious bodily injury can be prevented or significantly minimised by sensible and concerted risk management efforts.

As the container capacity of ships increases, it is time to consider the resultant volume of ship's gear (lashing bars and twistlocks), and how they are handled and stored. Commonly, the operation for fitting twistlocks has moved from the container top to the quayside, necessitating the transfer of the requisite gear from the ship to the quayside before discharging or loading can commence.

The 'safety first' message seems to be getting through. At industry conferences, TT Club has often felt alone speaking about safety - and the subject itself has frequently been accommodated at the end of the schedule. In that context at least, safety definitely did not come first. Happily, the culture in operations and at conferences seems to have changed.

While attention, not unreasonably, has centred on the number of containers that fell overboard from 'Svendborg Maersk' during extremely heavy weather, it should be recognised that identical forces were exerted on the cargo packed within the containers that remained on board. ICHCA, supported by the TT Club, is launching an awareness campaign under the slogan 'PACK IT IN'.