The Baltic ice season is almost upon us, and voyages through the Baltic Sea will be in breach of the International Navigating Conditions, the Nordic Plan and other insurance clauses.

The associated insurance admin, and increased uncertainty over a vessel’s insurance protection, can create a headache for shipping companies, insurance brokers and insurers. During the ice season, as vessels enter and exit regions such as the Gulf of Finland, the Queen Charlotte Islands or White Sea, insurance managers have the job of obtaining additional insurance protection, declaring per vessel ice breaches, and reconciling additional premium invoices with their internal teams and charterers.

 

Connected ice breach cover and how technology can help

Technology is available to manage this better. Live, auditable vessel tracking data, connected to digitally mapped ice zones, removes the need to manually notify entry and exit. Connecting this data to insurance contract rates and premium calculation rules, removes the need to manually calculate and invoice additional premiums. No more manual declarations, no more disputes or confusion over coverage or premium due, and no more broad cover wordings to compensate for poor data.

 

The value of a connected insurance experience and how Insurers can help

Assureds get improved cover certainty, as their cover isn’t as dependent on a chain of manual, error prone events. They also should get an improvement in the correlation of their cover and their actual exposure.

Why shouldn’t assureds pay for their actual exposure, i.e., from the minute they cross into an ice zone to the minute they leave the ice zone? And that is where insurers come in. Where increased data granularity creates potential for cover exactly matching exposure, product innovation is needed to incorporate these new data points in a way that helps the assureds.

Finally, the convenience factor is significant. Removing manual tasks, and the associated effort and cost, frees up capacity for everyone – insurance managers, brokers and insurers. Connecting insurance buyers, brokers and insurers to a live feed of asset, exposure and policy data enhances insights in an ever-evolving risk landscape. It creates the space to do more with less.

However, none of this will stop a white walker…

What could this look like for you? Find out more about a connected insurance experience here.