Freight Broker Training - Contingent Cargo Insurance

Contingent Cargo Insurance, I've heard of it, but what is it? Contingent Cargo Insurance is an insurance policy usually carried by Freight Brokerages as a customer-based protection plan. Why does a brokerage need it since the Carrier has to have insurance? When would a brokerage need Contingent Cargo Insurance?

First of all, there is no law that requires a Freight Brokerage to carry contingent cargo insurance. They DO NOT have to carry it. But, most shippers won't deal with a brokerage that doesn't have it. Why? Most shippers feel they can sue the broker or collect from the brokers Contingent Cargo Insurance if a load is hijacked or once delivered, is damaged or missing pieces. But, this is not true. That falls under the carriers insurance. A Brokerage does not personally load the freight, count it, inspect it, nor haul it.

And a lot of times the carrier does none of this BUT haul it. Yet the carrier takes possession of the load and is therefore responsible for it. If it is hijacked, damaged, or is missing pieces, the carrier and/or receiver goes back to the shipper, NOT to the Brokerage. Then the carrier and shipper work it out or the carrier, shipper and receiver work it out. The Brokerage is truly the intermediary, but, YES, there are times when he/she can be held responsible.

Below are the only two reasons I know of as to when a Brokerage would be better off in carrying Contingent Cargo Insurance.

(1) Plain and Simple: If the Brokerage signs an agreement with the Shipper stating that he/she will take responsibility if something goes wrong.

(2) If the Brokerage fails to check out the Carriers insurance and something does goes wrong. This can hold true if a Brokerage is exceptionally busy or chaotic one day and he/she forgets to check the Carrier insurance. Maybe the Brokerage has decided to take on Agents or has hired some new Agents and out of nervousness, they forget to check the Carrier insurance. Or Maybe the Brokerage has done business with the Carrier before and doesn't think he/she needs to check the carrier insurance again. Then, all of a sudden while in route, the Carrier wrecks and a whole load of eggs are broken. No problem, the Carrier's insurance will cover it. WRONG! The Carrier had forgotten to pay his insurance premium that month and it was cancelled three days ago. But the Broker didn't know this because he/she forgot to check the Carrier's insurance. Having Contingent Cargo Insurance would have surely saved the day here.

Can a Broker Really Benefit From Using an Aggregator Service

This month, James Harrison of Insurancewide urged brokers to embrace aggregator technology and include it within their customer quotation systems. He suggested that brokers could use an aggregator solution to improve their customer experience and give the customer what they needed.

Now most brokers are opposed to aggregators, as really, they are direct competitors to their own businesses. But is there some middle ground where an internet savvy broker could use an aggregator relationship to earn extra income, provide additional products and services and keep his customer happy?

Firstly, let's look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of aggregators

Advantages

Aggregators have usually access to a wider panel of insurers than brokers, for example, Confused have over 60 Motor partners, over 40 home partners and over 30 travel partners. They use a panel of both direct insurers and brokers.

Aggregators can offer a wider selection of niche products alongside standard Insurers. Some panels include specialists in insurance for over 50s, ladies only and vintage cars.

An aggregator service provides a real time quote, the customer fills in one form and results can be displayed immediately.

Aggregator software can give your site much needed interactivity.

Aggregator services can provide your clients with lots of secondary products that you can earn an income from that you don't offer yourself; savings accounts, current accounts, cash ISAs are just a couple of examples.

Disadvantages

Using an aggregator means you could be passing lots of your core business away and earning less income if you don't use it correctly.

Using an aggregator means in commission terms you are getting a cut of a cut. So you would not want to put all your business through an aggregator.

You feel out of control of what your users will do once they visit the aggregator pages.

So Can You Use On Your Website?

Firstly, I would like to state that simply having an aggregator plonked on your homepage is not something I would suggest you do.

Having said that, you can have a working relationship with an aggregator at key points in your site processes or use to create new areas of your website that the user will find of benefit and could be an additional income earner for the broker.

For example, if you have a customer dropping out of your site during a quote process, why not pop up a small window, with an aggregator quote form, so they can search the market. You could find that the very next destination for that user would very well be an aggregator service like this anyway, so why not try and monetise it yourself - And help your user get what they want.

You can also identify drop out pages on your site, where visitors come in and go straight back out again that you could plug with a popup window if they leave the site at that point. The key is to make the popup relevant to the page that they are on.

Having a car insurance quote form on the back of travel insurance pages isn't going to do you any favours, nor will it improve conversions. Also make sure that you brand the popup in your look and feel so the user knows where it has come from and looks like an extension of your services. This will improve any conversion rates.

You could also add secondary product using aggregators. You could have current accounts or Cash ISAs or in fact just about any of the services they provide. In this way, you are widening your appeal and having these services on your site will enhance your website and site income.

It also shows that you are giving your customer what they want, when they want it.

Tips For Using And Implementing Aggregator Services

You must get a white label version - this means the services are provided in YOUR site look and feel, with your navigation and everything. From a customer point of view the process is seamless.

Cloak the aggregator url - You must tell the customer you have a relationship with an aggregator using a "Powered by X" statement but you can hide the URLs so the user looks like he is staying on your site. You would be surprised how many people will revert to the original url and cut you out of your commissions given the chance. There are lots of different ways to cloak urls.

Please note this is not to deceive the user in anyway just to simple protection your commissions

Get direct product or quote engine links - Do not just get a single link to an aggregator homepage. You want to control exactly what the user sees when he visits the aggregator.

Summary

In summary, I believe there is room for adding aggregator services to a broker website and done in the right way, it can be a win-win. Having worked in the aggregator space for the last 8 years, I can say that the technology used by aggregators work very well and can provide you with much need interactive content.

It can also add a much needed additional revenue stream to your broker business quickly and easily.

If you do decide it is for you then drop me a line as I have working relationships with most of the major aggregators and have direct contacts with their partnership teams.

Get Your Automotive Insurance Online

Getting automotive insurance was a time-consuming and arduous task in the past. One usually had to either visit or telephone car insurance companies individually to get quotes. This took time and effort but there was no other way of doing it. Luckily the process is much quicker and easier these days as you can now get automotive insurance quotes online. Oh, and there's a good chance that your phone bill will be lower because you won't need to phone any companies to get quotes!

But before you apply for any quotes online, you need to establish what your insurance needs are. There are many automotive insurance packages on the market nowadays in a variety of combinations. It is important that you know what you might find in these packages and whether they will suit your needs or not as it can be quite confusing to receive a bunch of insurance quotes all specifying different things. This is like comparing apples with pears and makes it difficult to choose the most suitable quote. So if you don't know anything about automotive insurance, now is the time to do your research. Insurance companies often advertise on radio and television so you might already know the names of some of them. If you do not know the names of any insurance companies for whatever reason, you can always ask your friends and family if they can recommend any reputable companies or you can search for insurance companies on Google. You can find out about more about car insurance and what you might need in terms of auto insurance when you visit their websites.

Once you have researched different kinds of car insurance packages and have established what your needs are, you can begin getting quotes. If you have been searching online you will most likely have noticed that you can apply for quotes individually from insurance companies via their websites or you can use an insurance company that will get you a number of quotes (sometimes as many as nine) from various companies in one go. The advantage of using online insurance companies that will provide you with a number of quotes at one time is that you only have to enter your details once, on a single website, and the various insurance companies will get back to you. Furthermore, it is often cheaper to use online insurance companies that offer you lots of quotes at once because they can get bulk rates on their quotes and will pass this saving on to you.

The insurance companies will ask you a number of questions when they get back to you and this is when having made a list of your insurance needs will come in handy. For example, an insurance company may ask you whether you use your car for personal or business use. If you are someone who doesn't drive a lot, you may want to tell them at this point and enquire if they have a pay as you drive package if this is what you want. You may also want to pay a higher excess in order to keep your monthly premium low or to insure your car at retail value so that it retains its value. You will need to tell the insurance representative these things while they are compiling your quote, so as to ensure that the resulting quote will be according to your needs.