Don’t rely on others to cover costs
A common mistake is to assume that a ship’s insurance cover would extend to cover all the damage caused to a port if, for example, a ship collided with a quay crane or came to grief in the approach channel.
“Often you get the comment, these ships are insured so we will claim off them – which is all fine if there is no claims limitation, but if the ship has limited liability then you are in real trouble,” says Miller Insurance Services’ Stephen Clarke.
He quotes the example of a vessel which was tied up alongside when a gas canister exploded on board. There was considerable damage to ship, quay and port equipment. The ship had limited liability to the equivalent of £300,000; the repair costs for the port were more than £1m and there were business interruption costs arising from the incident too.
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