Not automatically, no — and this is the single most misunderstood part of international vehicle shipping. Handing your car to a shipping company does not mean it is insured for its value. Carriers carry a legal liability for cargo, but that liability is strictly limited and bears no relationship to what your vehicle is actually worth. Marine cargo insurance is a separate product, arranged on request, and for anything of real value it is the difference between a full recovery and a token payment.
Carrier Liability Is Not Insurance
Every ocean carrier accepts a baseline liability for the cargo it carries, set by international conventions and the terms of the bill of lading. The critical detail is that this liability is capped by weight, not by value.
Why the cap matters
Under the Hague-Visby Rules, a carrier's liability is commonly limited to roughly 2 SDR per kilogram of gross weight, or 666.67 SDR per package, whichever is greater. For a 1,500 kg car that works out at about 3,000 SDR — in the region of a few thousand pounds. The exact figure depends on which convention applies and on the carrier's own terms, but the principle is constant: a total loss pays out on weight, not on what the car is worth.
For a family hatchback that gap may be tolerable. For a classic, a performance car or anything approaching six figures, it is not. A vehicle worth £200,000 and a vehicle worth £8,000 attract almost identical carrier liability if they weigh the same. That is the gap marine cargo insurance exists to close.
What Marine Cargo Insurance Covers
Cover is normally written on one of three standard sets of terms, known as the Institute Cargo Clauses. They differ in how much they cover:
- Clauses (A) — the broadest, written on an "all risks" basis. It covers accidental loss or damage from any external cause except what is specifically excluded. This is the normal choice for vehicles and the one we would generally recommend.
- Clauses (B) — a named-perils policy covering a defined list, including fire, explosion, vessel sinking or capsizing, collision, general average sacrifice and water damage from specified causes.
- Clauses (C) — the narrowest, covering major casualty events only. It does not cover water damage or most handling damage, and is rarely appropriate for a vehicle.
The practical difference shows up in the damage people actually experience. A scrape sustained during loading, or salt-water ingress on an exposed deck, would typically fall under Clauses (A) but not under Clauses (C). If you are being offered cover, the first question worth asking is which clauses it is written on.
How Declared Value Works
Marine cargo policies for vehicles are usually written on an agreed value basis: you declare the vehicle's value at the outset, the premium is calculated from it, and that figure is what the policy pays in the event of a total loss. There is no argument about depreciation after the fact.
This makes accurate declaration important in both directions. Under-declaring to reduce the premium is a false economy — it caps your recovery at the lower figure, and in the case of a serious misstatement it can give the insurer grounds to reduce or decline a claim entirely. Over-declaring does not gain you anything either, since indemnity policies pay the actual loss.
For classics, modified vehicles or anything where the market value is not obvious from a price guide, a recent independent valuation or a documented purchase invoice is the strongest support for the figure you declare.
What Is Typically Excluded
Even an all-risks policy has standard exclusions, and knowing them in advance prevents an unpleasant surprise:
- Personal belongings left in the vehicle. These are not covered, and this is one of several reasons to empty the car before handover.
- Pre-existing damage and normal wear. Anything documented on the pre-shipment condition report is excluded — which is exactly why that report matters.
- Mechanical or electrical breakdown that is not the result of an insured event. A battery that goes flat on a long voyage is not an insured loss.
- Inherent vice — loss arising from the nature of the goods themselves, such as a fluid leak from a component that was already failing.
- Insufficient or unsuitable packing or securing, where that was not carried out by the carrier or its agents.
- Delay. Pure financial loss caused by late arrival is excluded under the standard clauses, even where the delay itself results from an insured peril.
- War and strikes, unless added by extension. These extensions are commonly available and are worth considering on routes passing through higher-risk waters.
What Cover Costs
Marine cargo insurance is priced as a percentage of the declared value, adjusted for the route, the shipping method and the nature of the vehicle. For a standard vehicle on a mainstream lane it is generally a small fraction of the value — usually well under 2%, and often nearer 1%. Higher-value, rare or non-standard vehicles, and routes considered higher risk, sit above that.
Set against the freight cost, cover is normally a modest addition. Set against the difference between a weight-capped carrier payout and a full agreed-value recovery, it is one of the better-value line items in the whole shipment.
How the Shipping Method Affects Risk
The method you choose changes the risk profile, and therefore what cover is worth. A vehicle in a sealed container is protected from weather, salt air and incidental contact for the whole voyage. A vehicle on a RoRo deck is enclosed and secured, but shares the space with hundreds of other vehicles and sees more handling movements. Neither is unsafe — RoRo is how manufacturers move new cars in volume — but the exposure differs, and it is one of the factors behind a premium. Our comparison of RoRo and container shipping covers the protection trade-off in more detail.
What to Do If Your Vehicle Arrives Damaged
How you handle the first hour of delivery has more effect on a claim than almost anything else.
- Inspect before you sign, and note damage on the delivery receipt. This is the most important step by some distance. Signing a clean receipt is a written statement that the vehicle arrived in good order, and it seriously undermines any claim you make afterwards. If you find damage, describe it on the document before signing.
- Photograph everything immediately, at the point of delivery, before the vehicle is moved.
- Notify the insurer and the shipping company promptly. Policies and conventions impose short notification windows, and damage that was not apparent on delivery generally has to be reported within a few days.
- Do not begin repairs before the vehicle has been surveyed. Insurers commonly appoint a surveyor to inspect, and repairing first can prejudice the claim.
- Assemble the paperwork — the bill of lading, the pre-shipment condition report, your declared-value evidence, the delivery receipt and your photographs.
The pre-shipment condition report is the reference point for the whole process. It establishes the state the vehicle was in when we collected it, which is what any assessment of new damage is measured against. Our guide to preparing your car for international shipping explains what that inspection covers.
Arranging Cover for Your Shipment
We arrange marine cargo insurance on request, tailored to the declared value and the specifics of your route and method. It is not included automatically, because the right level of cover genuinely depends on what you are shipping and where — a fifteen-year-old runabout going to a well-served European port and a concours classic going to a thin lane are not the same risk.
Tell us the vehicle, its value, and the route, and we will set out what cover is available, which clauses it is written on, and what it costs — so you can make the decision with the numbers in front of you rather than after something has gone wrong.