Many cargo owners believe they do not need transport insurance, but for most, this assumption is incorrect. In many cases, freight forwarders and carriers may not be liable for damage or loss to your goods.

Freight forwarders and carriers typically have their own liability insurance. However, this insurance is intended to protect them from liability according to the law and does not offer complete protection for the cargo owner.

To have any damage to your goods covered by the carrier’s insurance in the event of an accident during transport, the carrier must be shown to have been negligent. Examples of negligence include excessive speed or the driver being responsible for a collision.

However, freight forwarders/carriers are often not at fault for incidents, and in such cases, they are not responsible for compensating the goods.
The law places clear limits on the carrier’s liability for compensation. For road transport within Norway, goods are compensated at approximately NOK 200 (17 SDR*) per kilogram. For international transport, the standard compensation is a maximum of NOK 100 (8.33 SDR*) per kilogram of damaged or lost goods.

As a trading company, it is essential to consider whether your company can financially withstand a loss equivalent to the value of an entire shipment. Should your company insure only against major disasters, or do you want umbrella coverage that covers everything? Lastly, does your company have the capacity to handle damages or losses on its own?

Therefore, we highly recommend choosing transport insurance, also known as cargo insurance.

You can decide to additional insurance of goods when ordering transport.

It is a policy that protects cargo owners from financial loss when goods are in transit from the supplier to the recipient.

And it is the cargo owner’s responsibility to have transport insurance. For that reason, any company that sells, buys, or transports goods should reflect on whether a transport or cargo insurance policy is necessary.


*Special Drawing Rights (SDR) is an international reserve asset created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1969. An SDR represents a right to exchange for foreign currencies. The value of one SDR is calculated based on the value of five major currencies: the US dollar, euro, Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, and British pound. The SDR exchange rate fluctuates, typically around NOK 10-11, but as of July 2024, it is approximately NOK 14.
https://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/data/param_rms_mth.aspx

source: https://lovdata.no/lov/1974-12-20-68/§32  (Amount of compensation in the event of loss, § 32)