Spike and gap insurance leaves shippers, like you, unprotected

As the freight industry grapples with COVID-driven supply chain disruption across the U.S.— and around the world—one fact surprises virtually no one. In the face of difficult circumstances, criminals are actively seeking out opportunities to profit off of your pain.

And, so, organized crime is on the rise.

Sophisticated criminal enterprises are surveilling your warehouses. They’re making fictitious pickups. They’re ferreting away your loads of high-value electronics and your difficult-to-trace fresh and frozen foods. They’re even making off with your new cars and trucks and your whiskey.

At least your shipment is covered by your carrier’s insurance policy, right? Well, no.

That MTC policy isn’t offering the cargo protection you might expect

For starters, higher value loads, like electronics and certain easy-to-move metals, like copper, simply aren’t covered by a typical carrier’s liability policy. Neither are some sensitive commodities, like volatile chemicals and fresh and frozen foods.

Then, consider that you must prove carrier negligence on your claim to receive a settlement and, even then, you won’t be paid the full value of your shipment.

Adding insult to injury, if you’re successful, you’ll wait, on average, 120 days for your claim to be resolved. And, right now, as protecting cash flow becomes more critical to the sustainability of your business than ever, that’s simply too long to wait.

Pretty quickly, it becomes clear that relying on your carrier’s policy alone leaves you exposed.

But, that’s where spike and gap coverage comes in, right?

Not exactly.

Our team has been taking calls pretty regularly from shippers and they’re finding this coverage increasingly difficult to find. The providers they once relied on simply aren’t offering it any longer.

And, to be clear, that spike and gap coverage was never a complete solution.

For starters, finding shippers’ coverage in excess of $100,000 was no easy feat.

What’s more, those policies would increase the value of the coverage, but not expand the coverage terms. Meaning those same exclusions you’d encounter with your carrier’s policy—those same pitfalls—they’d still apply.

And, as a liability policy, you’d still run up against the same worrisome complication—if your carrier’s policy didn’t pay, neither would this one.

Per-load, all-risk cargo insurance is your best bet

Fortunately, when we get calls, we’re in a position to help people out. What do we tell them? When you choose a pay-as-you-go, all-risk option, you’ll be empowered to not only increase the value of your coverage—but expand that coverage to include many of the things a liability policy won’t. Inside theft, for example. Or, the loss of a load to a natural disaster.

And, what might surprise many, is that our expanded coverage often costs the same—or even less—than spike and gap coverage. We’re talking $200–300 for $250K in wrap-around coverage that pays full value against your invoice.

When you consider the end-to-end digital solution we’ve built, you also have the added benefit of accelerating claims from 120 days or more to minutes—and immediate disbursement of settlement payouts.

And, through platforms, like Kleinschmidt, accessing that per-load coverage is as easy as one-click—with opportunities to automate set-it-and-forget-it coverage just around the corner.

In short, it’s pure upside.

And, it delivers the time and cost savings—not to mention the peace of mind—so many businesses are in search of today.

So, here’s hoping our team fields fewer calls about the challenges of finding spike and gap insurance—or worse yet, people getting burned—and a lot more calls about how Loadsure’s made people’s lives a little easier.