Shipowners’ P&I Club has published the changes to its Inland Policy for 2018, effective for all policies incepting as from February 20th 2018.
Shipowners’ Club offers the Inland Policy to European inland trading vessels only and for Members entered via the Euro P&I fixed facility.
Some of the changes include:
Cargo: Cover for cargo where CMNI is applicable remains as wide as previously. A deletion simply ties in with the reference to CMNI now being rehoused under ‘Cargo’ in the ‘What is not covered’ section.
Diversion Costs: A change clarifies the categories of expenses allowable. The Club said that it occasionally received requests for reimbursement for loss of hire as a result of diversion, which was more properly characterised as a loss of profit rather than an expense. Loss of hire could represent a very large risk not contemplated within P&I cover. Members can buy loss of hire insurance. Delays … caused by waiting for crew replacements has been deleted as cover for expenses for diversion was considered adequately provided for.
Fines: This aspect of cover has been removed as it was considered potentially ambiguous and therefore might lead to uncertainty. To ensure Members were not punished and to put them in the best possible position, Shipowners’ has added a new general condition, ‘Discretionary Claims’. In effect, the Club said, this was its plain language version of the ‘Omnibus Rule’, which is available to Members on Rules based cover.
Within Mitigation Costs the word ‘incident’ has been replaced with the wider term ‘event or matter’ to ensure all mitigation costs were captured and to clarify that the trigger point for Members to take steps to mitigate losses was upon the happening of any event or matter.
Under Cargo the section has been expanded to ensure that claims are excluded in case of incorrect description of the cargo and also delivery of cargo to a place or to a person in breach of the contract of carriage. This section was also updated so as to allow for paperless trading, so long as agreed by Managers. Shipowners’ Club said that this was in recognition that electronic trading was set to continue as an increasingly important feature of international trade.
Other changes and explanations can be accessed via the link below.