Process of Inspection of Import and Export Goods Transported by Sea at Pjico.

investing with foreign countries to fight for their own interests. The coordination between PJICO and other insurance companies to exploit and expand the market and attract customers is still limited, and there is no consensus on the assessment of the existing problems that need to be overcome and further improved in the insurance industry. There has been no research to advise management agencies on policies and solutions to help or organize conferences to coordinate with shippers and business owners, especially in the export sector (there are still vacant battlefields such as crude oil products with an export turnover of more than 1 billion USD per year, which are still 100% insured abroad).

The difficulties that exist in PJICO are partly the difficulties of the entire insurance market and the entire economy because the position of our country's economy in the international market is not high, so in foreign trade relations we often have to bear the pressure of importing at CIF prices and exporting at FOB or CF prices, Vietnamese goods are in the process of penetrating the market, the competitiveness is limited, so our position is not enough to force foreign partners to reserve the right to buy insurance for the Vietnamese side. In addition, because the amount of goods imported under the ODA program (disbursed) accounts for about 3-5% of the total import turnover that cannot be exploited because the investment aid side arranges insurance and imported goods from foreign investment capital accounts for 23%, on the other hand, the professional level of insurance operators requires the reality of insurance for customers in the current developing economy of our country. The work of business statistics, risk management and assessment, determination of premium rates, applicable conditions and terms still has limitations, so it is one of the reasons why PJICO's current exploitation work has not achieved high results. Therefore, in the coming years, PJICO needs to propose new and appropriate strategic measures for exploiting import-export cargo insurance and implement them actively and thoroughly to achieve higher results, contributing to the development of the company in particular and the insurance market in general. It is expected that PJICO's import-export insurance premium for sea transport in 2001 will increase by about 15%-20% compared to 2000.

2. Procedure for inspecting import and export goods transported by sea at PJICO.

Loss assessment is the work of the insurer's assessors or the assessment company authorized by the insurer to determine the extent and cause of the loss as a basis for compensation and at the same time through

The appraisal promptly recommends measures to preserve and prevent damage to the goods.

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The loss assessment process is strictly regulated by all Vietnamese insurance companies according to an assessment process to assess and assess the loss that occurs to goods accurately and at the lowest cost, while ensuring the interests of both parties: customers and insurance companies. When a loss occurs, insurance companies must consider whether the loss is within their scope and insurance responsibility, and if so, what is the extent of the loss? Normally, the general principles of insurance companies when conducting assessments are:

- Ensure timely, complete, honest and objective appraisal to ensure good compensation consideration later.

- Insurance companies can directly assess or can appoint their own assessment agents domestically or internationally or hire domestic and foreign assessment companies such as: Vinacontrol, Davidcontrol, FCC, Craw Ford (the largest loss calculation company in Asia, USA)... This is a common trend of insurance companies today.

- Except in special cases, the main task of goods inspection is to inspect

determine and implement measures to prevent and limit losses of insured goods.

At PJICO, the process of assessing damaged import and export goods has been issued together with Decision No. 113/BH-HH dated July 15, 1995 of the General Director of PJICO. In general, when conducting an assessment of damaged transported goods, the assessor needs to perform the work in the following order:

- Accept appraisal request

- Conduct appraisal

- Make a report of the assessment

- Provide appraisal report and collect appraisal fee

2.1. Accept the request for appraisal

When a loss occurs, the insured must immediately send a request for appraisal to the insurance company in any form, but must then be in writing to keep the appraisal records. This request for appraisal is a basic and necessary procedure for carrying out an appraisal and is the basis for requesting the person requesting the appraisal to pay the appraisal fee. Normally, the request for appraisal includes the following contents:

- Name and address of the person or organization requesting the appraisal

- Product name

- Quantity and volume of goods to be inspected

- Content of appraisal request

- Time and place of request for appraisal

Insurance appraisal requests are only accepted in cases where accidents occur, there is a loss, and it is within the scope of insurance liability. Therefore, in cases where it is discovered that it is not within the scope of insurance liability, it is necessary to have an immediate opinion so that the consignee can quickly request the foreign trade appraisal agency to appraise, ensuring compensation claims against the seller or the third party directly responsible. In cases where it is within the scope of insurance liability, an appraisal can be requested when it is found that the following conditions are met:

 Documents that the person requesting the appraisal must present:

- Bill of lading (B/L)

- Insurance certificate (especially for cases where goods are insured by foreigners)

- Commercial invoice

- Packing list, Specification

- Documents of delivery of goods between ship and port, COR, or carrier's delivery note.

Depending on the case, it is necessary to request or seek the following relevant documents:

- Certificate of damaged goods

- Letter of protest (letter of complaint from third party)

- Sea-protest report or copy of sea log.

When using documents, it is necessary to consider comparing the documents with the actual goods, comparing between types of documents to avoid confusion in all appraisals and also to have more conditions to determine the cause more accurately (regarding quantity, type of goods, seller's responsibility, carrier's responsibility, looking for notes on the bill of lading).

 Site preparation work should consider:

- Time and place of request for appraisal.

- Request for ready appraisal (damaged goods kept separate or mixed with other goods)

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- Presence of stakeholders

Depending on the specific situation of each domestic port, each insurance company will have specific regulations to facilitate work for the representative of the insured, but must not be contrary to the following principles:

- Only assess cases of loss occurring within the scope of insurance and while the insurance contract is still in effect.

- Damaged or lost goods must be assessed immediately without relying on the insurance statute of limitations to delay the assessment request.

- Goods that are damaged after being unloaded from the ship must be appraised immediately at the port of unloading, or at the final warehouse if before moving from the ship to the final warehouse, there was a signed record with the ship and the port, clearly stating the quantity and condition of the damaged goods.

- The definition of final warehouse must not be contrary to the general rules of marine cargo insurance of the insurance company or the conditions of the foreign insurance policy in the case of working as a survey agent for a foreign insurance company.

- The subject of appraisal is insured goods with obvious loss or suspected loss, not goods in original condition, with questionable quantity or quality not affected by external risks.

- Insurance assessment is an adversarial assessment between the insurer and the insured or, depending on the case, there may be a third party responsible for the loss (representing the carrier). The foreign trade buyer (domestic cargo owner) has no right to obstruct or dispute issues related to the insurance assessment work.

2.2. Conducting the assessment:

After receiving the request for appraisal and carefully studying the relevant documents, the appraiser must be present at the location as mentioned above on the appointed date to carry out the appraisal. The appraiser must bring the necessary tools for the appraisal (scale, measuring tape, camera, computer, thermometer). The appraisal must be carried out promptly, the appraiser's opinions must be accurate, reasonable and consistent. In cases where the appraisal must last for a long time, the appraiser must stay close to the scene.

Because it is not possible to be present regularly while monitoring and appraising large shipments of goods at warehouses or on ships, surveyors need to know how to divide and choose the most appropriate time to inspect at the right time to ensure the situation and typical level of loss for each case. To do this well, at each port with imported goods, branches need to set out specific principles and coordinate closely with relevant agencies such as: ports, representatives of insured persons, domestic cargo owners, shipping agents to stabilize the appraisal process and ensure honesty in the stages of delivery, counting and storage of insured goods. There must be a decisive solution. In each appraisal case, attention must be paid to the following aspects in each step of inspection:

* Check packaging to note:

- Review packaging and external markings to identify the correct subject of inspection.

- Outer packaging loss prevention symbol (detects the possibility of loss caused by the lack of this type of symbol)

- Packaging specifications and quality are suitable for shipping requirements by air.

Sea freight (damaged goods due to packaging defects)

- Old/new packaging (is it suitable for customs and conditions of purchase and transportation)

- Packaging materials (is the damaged goods due to defects in the packaging materials?)

- And other materials need to be detected to find out if the loss is due to packaging or other causes.

- If the packaging has a lead seal, it is necessary to check carefully to see if there is any difference from the description in the shipping documents.

* Check inside the package, pay attention to:

- Arrangement and packaging of goods inside the package as well as padding and lining (are they suitable for the nature of the goods)?

- Nature of goods.

- Detect wet spots, mold, gaps, foreign objects.

- And other suspicious phenomena to find the cause of loss may be due to packaging, inner padding, possibility of loss, missing or wrong goods.

* Classify losses and determine the extent of loss:

After detecting suspicious traces outside and inside the package, it is necessary to classify and determine the extent of loss. If it is difficult to classify and determine, it is possible to consult with the invited commodity experts to participate in the appraisal.

Determining the extent of loss must be accurate, reasonable and practical, determining the quantity of each type of missing goods separately, determining damaged goods separately with different levels of damage depending on the current condition of the goods. Consider the value of use and estimate the selling price of poor quality goods to avoid inappropriate discounts. It is necessary to determine the extent of loss and the extent of discount separately for damaged goods due to different causes, belonging to different responsible parties and requiring the agreement of the person requesting the appraisal. In cases of large and complicated losses that can easily cause disputes when determining the extent of loss, it is necessary to take samples of goods (good goods samples, damaged goods of all types). Depending on each case, samples can be taken once or many times with appropriate time intervals. In addition to determining the extent of damage to each type of goods, it is also necessary to determine the costs of the goods, adjust, repair and replace if necessary on the basis of reasonable calculations.

When classifying and determining the extent of loss, attention should be paid to:

+ In case of shortage of quantity:

- Determined based on (data) recorded in packaging paper and sales invoice.

- Specify the size and type of item missing from the packing paper.

- Consider the possibility of missing or misplacing goods from one package to another.

- For items such as vehicles and machinery, it is necessary to consider the possibility that there may be parts that the customer did not send with the goods.

+ In case of underweight:

- Consider natural loss, hydrolysis and compounding.

- Determine the shortage based on the seller's certificate or the average weight of each package calculated according to the figures stated on the invoice or bill of lading.

- Goods have uniform weight or are there differences between bags and packages?

- Is the packaging of uniform weight or is there a difference between the boxes and packages of each shipment?

- Check the scale and it can be used during appraisal.

+ In case of damaged goods:

- Determine the quantity and weight of damaged goods.

- Consider the use value according to the correct type of goods and the ability to put them to other uses.

- Goods are replaced with parts, adjusted and repaired according to the supervisor's request.

The appraiser will be charged a discount after adjustment, part replacement or repair.

- When the risk level of goods in the same shipment is different,

Separate standards for each type and if necessary separate samples of each type.

- For machinery and equipment items, it is necessary to consider the impact of capacity and durability of the goods.

- Consider the case of partial loss affecting the entire machine.

- Have active measures to overcome the situation of determining different discount rates each time in cases with different types of losses.

- Must have collective leadership opinion before admitting total loss.

- The discount rate is determined based on the remaining value of the damaged goods (the ratio of the selling price of damaged and intact goods on the market). For machinery, equipment, and automobiles, only actual losses are determined.

* Determine the cause of loss:

Determining the cause of loss means determining who is responsible for causing the loss to the goods. To determine the exact cause of loss, it is necessary to investigate and carefully examine the scene, collect complete documents and fully record all related issues from the beginning to the end of the assessment. The cause of loss can be determined on the following basis:

- Nature of goods and packaging of goods.

- Characteristics of means of transport and itinerary of goods.

- Type of loss.

- Status of loading, unloading, storage, and transportation.

- Delivery status of related parties.

When concluding, do not be hasty, subjective and arbitrary, lacking practical basis, lacking science. It is necessary to minimize the use of general terms, not assigning the individual responsibility of each case, causing difficulties for later consideration and settlement. It is necessary to clearly indicate damage and loss. Thus, due to shortcomings in the packaging of goods, due to warehouse, loading and unloading, transportation to be able to assign the responsibility to: the seller, the carrier, the warehouse or the insured person who caused the damage to the goods.

2.3. Prepare appraisal report.

After the assessment is completed, the assessor will think and filter out the basic details to reflect all the things witnessed at the scene in a document called "Assessment Report". This assessment report is the main document for reviewing compensation for the insured and used to make a claim for compensation against a third party. Therefore, the content of the report must ensure honesty, accuracy, clarity, and specificity. The data must be consistent with the situation and not inconsistent when compared with the documents cited in the report itself.

For some imported and exported goods that are frequently damaged and often occur in similar forms, it is not necessary to describe them in detail. However, in cases of large damage, cases involving many complicated details, it is necessary to describe them fully and specifically so that the person handling the complaint can, through the minutes, visualize the cause and extent of the damage, facilitating the decision to compensate or refuse compensation.

Therefore, in addition to the requirement to fully answer the pre-printed items in the appraisal report to obtain specific data and information about the status of goods, means of transport and transport routes, it is necessary to pay attention to the following points:

- Documents used for reference, comparison or evidence

- The appraiser's own findings based on the on-site exhibits to reach a conclusion on the extent of damage and the cause of the loss.

- Opinions of product experts (specialists, technicians)

- Evidence by testing documents (certification, analysis)

- Evidence with photos taken at the scene.

In cases where technicians are used to test the quality of damaged goods in the laboratory or through detailed inspection of machinery to determine damage, the surveyor may include the survey results in the survey report. However, in cases where important testing or inspection requires detailed and complex analysis, a separate quality test certificate or technical inspection report must be attached to the report. In all cases where an agency or individual is designated to perform technical inspection work, the surveyor must be responsible for monitoring until all reasonable test or inspection results are available.

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