MARINE INSURENCE

Marine insurance is the oldest form of non life insurance. It is a contract between insurer and insurd under which the insurer compensates the insured in agreed manner against marine losses. Marine insurance has four broad components: hull insurance, cargo insurance, liability insurance and fright insurance.

Hull insurance is concerned with the insurance of th carrier of the goods and is purchased by the owner of the vechicles (such as insurance of vessel and its equipment). cargo insurance provides coverage for losses that could occur to the goods in transit on sea, road, rail and air. it can cover shipment of inland ship, steamers, boats and crafts; coastal shipment by steamers, sailing vessels; import export shipments by ocean going vessels of all types; and consignment shipped by rail, road, and air. liability insurance is concerned with any kinds of liability hazards that is created because of non- compliance of rules and regulation. fright insurance provides coverage for the losses of the cargo freight due to non- delivery of oods transported.

Types of marine insurance policies

The major types of marine insurance policies are as follows:

1.       voyage policy

2.       Time policy

3.       Mixed policy

4.       Valued and unvalued policy

5.       Floating policy

6.       Blanket policy

1. Voyage policy

  This policy is issued covering the risk of voyage from one place to another place. Under this policy, the rout of voyage specifying the place of departure to the place of destination is stated along with the tim period to cover the risk. the  insurd is compensated if loss occurs during the stated period. the policy is particularly useful for cargo insurance.

2.Time policy

This policy specifica certain time period for insurance to ramin in effect. In other words, the subject matter is insured under this policy for a definition period of time, for examples, from 4A.M. of Chaitra last 2069.It is particularly useful for hull insurance and its covers the risk of both while navigation and while constructing.

3.Mixed policy

It is the combination of voyage and time policy.It contains the elements of both voyage and times policies. This policy specific the traveling route along with the definite period of time and is useful for both hull insurance and cargo insurance.

4.Valued and unvalued policy

Under valued policy, the value of subject matter is pree-agred between insurer and the insured. The loss to be compensated is fixed as per the agreed value. However, the insured value is not necessarily the actual value. It may be total of cost of goods, freight, insurance charge, transportation costs along with certain margin of profit or it may be any agreed value. As opposed to valued policy, vaqluee of the policy is not determined at the time of commencementof risk under unvalued policy. It is determined at the time when loss actually occurs.

5.Floating policy

Under this policy, the insured declares the value or amount of insured goods on the basis of shipmnt documents and the insurer accepts it. This policy is suitable in case of cargo insurance and generally taken for a larger lump sum amount.The cargo owner makes declaration of the shipmnt value at each shipmnt.With each declerations the amount of policy will be reduced until the insured sum is fully declard.

6.Blankt policy

Under this policy, certain policy amount is fixed at the beginning and the premium for the stated policy amount is paid. In th event of loss,the amount of premium is readjusted according to the actual loss. For xamples, if actual loss is greatr than th policy amount, th insured has to pay additional premium to claim against actual loss. If the actual loss is less than policy amount the excess premium is refunded to the insured.