Freight insurance is an important, time-sensitive component of shipping, and it has a significant impact on a shipper’s bottom line. In an era where supply chains must be nimble to meet increasing demands, the manual processes involved in securing cargo insurance can cost shippers time, and time is money. But protecting a shipment from the costs incurred from damage or loss is necessary. In order to streamline the process of securing cargo insurance, project44 has partnered with Reliance Partners to bring efficient, fast freight insurance.
The Impact of Freight Damage
With thousands of carriers handling millions of shipments on a weekly basis, damage to freight is unavoidable. Shipments are lost, incur weather damage, are crushed during transit—the possibilities for freight damage are vast. Cargo insurance can mitigate these issues, providing coverage regardless of a carrier’s direct involvement. Until now, getting insurance quotes or purchasing insurance has been done manually by working across various websites or systems, then communicating back and forth via email and phone with potential providers. This takes up vital time for shippers’ internal teams and slows down a shipment from the start. It also costs thousands of dollars each year.
While important for any shipper, cargo insurance carries a little more weight in industries with more expensive or volatile products. Expensive electronics, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals are more expensive to replace, therefore they’re more expensive to insure. The margins on securing competitive rates can add up to a lot of money for companies shipping high volumes of expensive freight.
Collaborating on a Solution
Understanding which areas of the shipping process are most in need of modernization—then building and implementing an effective solution—requires domain expertise. The teams at project44 and Reliance Partners have a wealth of shared knowledge about transportation and logistics, and built this solution from the ground up with firsthand experience in mind.
project44’s mission is to usher in a new era of trust and predictability to transportation and logistics. We’ve built our platform on an API infrastructure designed to easily integrate with other systems. Our ability to integrate with key pieces of industry technology is integral to our mission, and this partnership with Reliance Partners is a prime example of that. By adding this functionality to our Advanced Visibility Platform, we are able to connect the formerly disparate aspects of a single shipment and keep the data in a single ecosystem.
How On-Demand Cargo Insurance with project44 Works
We’ve integrated insurance quoting into the existing process for receiving a regular freight quote. All a customer needs to do is enter their origin, destination, shipment line items, and freight class—all items would normally input for a freight quote anyway. Our insurance API uses those parameters, adding transit distance and line item IDs, and sends the data to an insurance vendor for a quote. project44 passes both the freight quote and insurance quote back to the customer. If the customer chooses to purchase the insurance, a confirmation is sent to the corresponding vendor.
The Benefits of Automating Cargo Insurance
Obtaining cargo insurance has never been simpler. By streamlining the process of securing a quote and automating insurance documentation, all directly within a user’s dispatch workflow, our customers are able eliminate manual processes. The relevant information is available within the user’s TMS, providing a single system of record for all of their shipment’s important data within a familiar interface. This makes cargo insurance information easier to reference and more convenient to share.
Manual data entry is prone to errors. Our insurance solution eliminates the manual processes and redundant paperwork associated with insurance documentation. Automating the flow of insurance documentation provides users with a more reliable source of data.
Providing users with the best insurance options was a major priority when building this solution. With that in mind, we built this solution as a neutral marketplace for shippers to find fast quotes at competitive rates. Vendors are not given favor, this solution is designed for the customer to be paired with the best insurance provider and rate for their specific needs.
This solution is available now for trial, covering insurance on LTL shipments with additional modes, including Full Truckload, to follow.
Interested in our insurance product? Contact us today.
