A caravan that leaves the factory in good condition can still arrive as an argument, and in most of those arguments the subject is not the build quality or the ship. It is a short delivery term written on the proforma invoice, and a transfer of risk that had already happened weeks before anyone noticed the dents.

Risk in transit is not decided by who paid the freight, who booked the vessel or who has not yet released the balance. It follows the delivery term. Under FOB and CFR, risk passes to the buyer at the moment the goods are on board the vessel at the loading port. Under CIF the seller arranges freight and insurance, but the cover is only the minimum the rulebook requires rather than full protection. Under DAP or DDP the seller keeps the risk until the named destination. The same caravan, the same factory and the same route can sit under any of those three arrangements.

Risk changes hands at the rail of the ship

Importers who are new to caravan shipping tend to assume that a supplier who "handles the shipping" also carries the risk. On a CIF order that supplier does handle the shipping, and still hands the risk to the buyer at the loading port. The voyage — often four to eight weeks of open water, terminal handling at both ends, and a road leg to your yard — is the buyer's exposure.

Two consequences follow, and both belong in the order rather than in the follow-up emails. First, whether anyone is insured for that period is a commercial decision that has to be made before loading, not after a surveyor's report arrives. Second, the evidence that decides a claim is created at the factory gate: how the unit was secured, what was protected, and what condition it was in when it went on board.

The balance payment does not move risk either. Paying in full before shipment is a payment term; it does not transfer the legal risk back to the factory.

What cargo cover pays for, and what it does not

Marine cargo insurance is sold in three broad levels, borrowed from the Institute Cargo Clauses. Clause (A) is the widest, covering all risks except those specifically excluded. Clause (B) covers a named list of perils plus a few additions. Clause (C) is the narrowest and covers only major casualties such as fire, grounding, sinking and collision. When a contract requires "insurance" without saying more, the assumption is often the narrow end of that range.

Four details decide whether a caravan claim is actually paid:

• The insured value. Cover should be built on the commercial value of the unit plus the freight, and ideally the duty and taxes you will pay on arrival. On CIF terms the convention is at least 110% of the contract value unless the parties agree otherwise. A policy written on the ex-works price alone leaves the freight and duty exposed.
• The excess. Transit claims on caravans are frequently small — a cracked hatch, a bent step, a damaged awning. A deductible set for container cargo can swallow a single-unit claim entirely, so the excess has to be realistic for one caravan rather than for a pallet of hardware.
• Single shipment or open cover. An importer ordering one unit at a time buys per-shipment cover. Anyone shipping monthly should ask about an open cover that declares each shipment automatically, because the failure case is a vessel booked and loaded while the certificate is still being arranged.
• The exclusions. These decide the hard cases: damage caused by inadequate packing or securing where that was the shipper's responsibility, loss that existed before loading, delay, market loss, and deterioration caused by the goods' own nature — condensation forming inside a sealed caravan over a long voyage sits close to that last category, which is why moisture control is a shipping decision rather than an insurance one.

Read the exclusions before the vessel sails. Reading them after the damage has happened is how most disputes start.

Where transit damage on caravans actually starts

The damage patterns repeat across shipments, and almost all of them are visible before the doors close.

Movement in the container or on the rack. A caravan is a long, heavy, high-sided object with a relatively narrow footprint. Lashing that crosses a body panel, chocks that allow a wheel to creep, or contact between the unit and the container wall all show up later as creased cladding or stressed seams. What matters is where the load is taken — chassis and axle points rather than panels — and whether the unit can rock once the vessel starts to move.

Roof, glazing and awning. Acrylic glazing, roof hatches, vents and the awning are the first items to suffer from an impact that moves from outside in. Awnings and annex walls are usually packed separately from the caravan itself, so confirm where they travel and whether they share the container with loose equipment.

Moisture. A caravan is a sealed structure and it crosses several climate zones on the way. Condensation inside the unit does not look like an insurance event on arrival. It looks like damp bedding, discoloured panels, corroded terminals and mould found three weeks after delivery, by which time the survey window has closed. Ask what is done about ventilation and desiccant before the unit is sealed.

Handling at both ends. Drawbar, coupling head, jockey wheel, stabiliser legs, entry steps, spare wheel carrier, external kitchen slide — these take the knocks during port handling and the inland legs.

Products still live inside the unit. Water left in the tanks adds weight and turns into a mess if a fitting works loose. Gas bottles left in place create handling and compliance problems. Batteries connected during a long sea voyage can be flat, damaged or hot on arrival. Loose items such as the jack, mattress or fridge shelf become projectiles in the first swell.

What to have on file before the doors close

The cheapest insurance is a loading routine that produces a record. Before your containers or flat racks are loaded, ask for:

• Timestamped photographs and short video of each unit, taken at the factory, identified by chassis number rather than by model.
• A short written loading report covering how each unit was secured, where the lashing points were taken, how the wheels were chocked, and what was placed between any contact surfaces.
• Confirmation that water tanks were drained, gas bottles emptied or removed, batteries isolated, the fridge latched and loose items either secured or listed and packed.
• The packing scope in writing — which items ship separately from the unit, including awning, annex, spare wheel and any accessories, and where they are stowed.
• A note of who checked the loading, and whether your own inspector or a third party was present.

None of this is complicated. It is simply the part of the order that importers usually leave until the week of shipping, when the caravan is already closed and the container is booked.

Most first orders are negotiated on price, models and specifications, and the shipping file is built afterwards. Importers who buy off-road caravans from China in any volume tend to reverse that order, because the same loading sheet then repeats with every shipment.

At the destination, the first inspection decides the claim

What happens in the yard on arrival matters as much as the loading report.

Inspect the unit before it leaves the port area or the forwarder's yard, and inspect the container or rack as well as the caravan. Do not sign a clean delivery receipt for a damaged unit; the note you write on that receipt is often the record the carrier's insurer will argue from. Where damage is more than cosmetic, ask for a joint survey and keep the lashing and packing material until the surveyor has seen it. Photograph everything, including the point where the load was taken.

Then move quickly. The notice periods in cargo policies are counted in days, and they run from delivery rather than from the day you finally got round to unpacking. A locally quoted repair is normally the basis of the settlement, so get the quote in writing and support it with the surveyor's report. The carrier's own liability, under the international carriage rules, is capped and usually represents a small fraction of the value of one caravan — which is the reason the cargo policy exists in the first place. Keep the loading report alongside the file; when a claim is questioned, the first thing an insurer asks is how the unit was secured.

Five questions to put to your supplier before you approve loading

1. Which delivery term is on the proforma invoice, and at which named place does the risk transfer?
2. Who arranges cargo insurance, and on what value — the invoice price, or the invoice price plus freight and duty?
3. Can you send timestamped loading photographs and a written loading report for each unit, identified by chassis number?
4. Which items are excluded from the unit's own stowage, and how are they packed — awning, annex, spare wheel, mattress, jack, keys?
5. Are the water tanks drained, gas bottles emptied, batteries isolated and the fridge latched before the doors are closed?

LZM builds off-road caravans in China for export to dealers, importers and rental operators in markets including Australia, New Zealand and the United States, and every export order is prepared for the shipping method it is booked on.

Insurers pay on evidence, and the evidence is created at the factory, not at the destination port. Agree the loading routine with the first order and it carries through every shipment after it.

【 Go Back 】 | 【 Print 】