Project cargo: one item, one chance, one lift
General cargo spreads its exposure across a transit. Project cargo concentrates it into a few minutes of lifting and a replacement lead time measured in months — which is why the cover is structured completely differently.
What is different
- Value concentration
- One item can be most of the insured value, and there is no second one. A partial loss of a consignment of cartons is a proportion; a damaged transformer is the project.
- Replacement time
- Lead times are measured in months or years. The physical damage is often the smaller half of the loss.
- Critical operations
- The exposure concentrates in a handful of moments — load-out, lift, tow, transport over a weak structure — rather than spreading over the transit.
- Engineering, not packing
- Securing is a calculation, not a practice. Transport engineering analyses and lifting plans are documents the underwriter expects to see.
- Multiple interests
- Contractor, employer, financier and supplier all have something at stake, and the policy has to say whose loss is whose.
What the programme usually contains
Marine cargo, project conditions
The underlying physical damage cover, extended for the storage, part shipments and repeated handling a project involves.
Delay in start-up (DSU)
Also called advance loss of profits. Responds to the revenue or financing consequences where insured physical damage to a critical item delays completion. Triggered by damage under the cargo cover, not by delay on its own — which is what makes it the only real answer to the delay exclusion.
Marine warranty surveyor
Independent approval of the method for a critical operation before it happens, under a warranty in the policy. Proceeding without the approval can suspend cover for that operation.
Extra expense and expediting
The cost of airfreighting a replacement part or of overtime to recover a schedule, where agreed in advance.
The only real answer to the delay exclusion
Clause 4.5 excludes loss caused by delay at every clause level, even where an insured peril caused the delay. On a project that gap is the whole problem: a damaged critical item costs far more in schedule than in steel. Delay in start-up cover is the answer, and it works by attaching to the physical damage trigger rather than by amending the exclusion.
The delay exclusion in full →Project risks are referral risks here
Our rating tables do not quote project or heavy-lift cargo automatically, and they should not. The price of one of these depends on the lifting plan, the route survey, the marine warranty surveyor's conditions and the programme behind it — none of which a table can see. A quote request for one of these classes is routed to a person.
Common questions
- What is DSU cover?
- Delay in start-up, also called advance loss of profits. It responds to the financial consequences — lost revenue, increased financing cost — where insured physical damage to a critical item delays the completion of a project. It is triggered by physical damage under the underlying cargo cover; delay alone does not trigger it.
- Why does the policy require a marine warranty surveyor?
- Because on project cargo the exposure is concentrated in a few operations. The surveyor reviews and approves the method for a lift, load-out or tow before it happens and issues a certificate of approval. It is a warranty in the policy, not a courtesy: proceeding without the approval can suspend cover for that operation.
- Is a single item worth more than the limit a problem?
- Yes, and it is worth raising before the shipment is booked. Limits per conveyance and per location bind on project cargo more often than on general cargo, because the whole value may travel together.
InsuranceScanner is an insurance intermediary, not an insurer — see the Terms for our role. Nothing here is a personal recommendation that a particular cover, sum insured or deductible is suitable for you. Where anything on this page conflicts with the certificate, policy schedule or wording issued by an insurer, that document governs.