The UK P&I Club is committed to safety. Its high-level loss prevention programme - the most extensive in the industry - aims to offset rising claims and maintain quality amongst Members.

Ship Visit Programme

A new approach

Mutual insurance is insurance at cost. Owned by its assureds, and designed not to make a profit, the cost of mutual insurance to its Members is directly linked to its claims. Therefore anything which reduces claims will directly impact on a member’s contributions (premiums).

Since 1987, the Club has focused heavily on using its experience of handling shipping liability claims to raise awareness of what goes wrong and to get that information to those at the sharp end. Much of this has been done in the form of contemporaneous advice on current claims trends, posters, videos, cargo loading advice etc.

Whilst that activity will of course continue, we feel that we need to focus additionally on ways to help Members prioritise risk within their own fleets, in order to assist them in reducing their costs and their insurance premiums – especially in the present economic climate.

Following the well-known definition

RISK = FREQUENCY x CONSEQUENCE

the Club has analysed the number and value of the Club’s claims to prioritise high risk areas and determine what the THREATS are that cause these claims. Then, with the aid of those at the sharp end – our correspondents, surveyors, claims executives and underwriters and last but not least important, our crews – we have sought to determine what CONTROLS – be it engineered, procedural or managerial – have mitigated such claims, or would have done so if they had been in place.

Those threats and controls can then be targeted for assessment, either with the help of the Club’s own risk assessors, or by Members themselves in conjunction with their crews.

Download the full document in the link below.