Policy & Compliance
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Your BIFA Membership – annual renewal reminder Following the issue of the Company Declaration to all BIFA Members in late 2022, the annual subscription invoice, for 2023 membership, was sent in January. If you have not yet made payment, you are reminded that your remittance is now overdue. In order to continue to benefit from the protection afforded to your business under the BIFA Standard Trading Conditions 2021, it is essential that your membership is renewed promptly. If you have a query relating to membership and your renewal, contact Sarah Milton, Membership Supervisor (s.milton@bifa.org).
• Lighter composite construction materials that lead to greater payloads per container, reducing the overall number of trips required. For insurers, there are also potential benefits, from the ability to quantify the exact volume of each type of unit on risk at any given time, including condition, through to real-time visibility of container numbers and volumes in the path of a windstorm. The availability of this type of data has the potential to reduce burdensome and often lengthy correspondence. From a claims handling perspective, post- incident, having an audit trail and therefore the knowledge of the seat of a fire, or being able to readily identify a potential liable party at an early stage, would be beneficial. This might reduce lengthy expert investigations or provide early corroboration of findings, both targeting and containing associated costs, whether handling a first-party claim for the container equipment, a counterparty claim for damage to a cargo therein or a third-party liability assertion. Recognising that ownership of freight containers is widely dispersed – not only amongst container lessors and the diverse range of shipping lines (global, regional and niche), but also certain
NVOCs (particularly tank container operators) and beneficial cargo owners, there is the need for interoperability and standardisation in order to maximise the potential benefits. Organisations are working to develop such standards and resolve the challenges to ensure connectivity to enable monitoring on board containers With well in excess of 20 million freight containers currently in circulation, it will clearly be some time before the entire global fleet becomes smart. Issues will be caused by fragmented ownership and use will be compounded by differing replacement and fleet management strategies. While the cost of the technology continues to reduce, retrofitting existing fleet units might not be an attractive proposition for now. However, many in the industry believe that the container will be digitalised and that in the long term it will bring benefits by increasing information flows and improving safety. However the question remains, who will pay for this significant investment and will the associated costs outweigh the benefits? BIFA would like to thank the TT Club for allowing the publication of this edited version of its original article.
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March 2023
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