Types of Marine and Transit Insurance in Türkiye

Four Policies, Four Different Questions

What separates them is not the name on the policy but the question it undertakes to answer. A cargo policy answers “if the goods are damaged, who pays”; a liability policy answers “what happens if I am held responsible for that damage”. Most disputes arise from expecting one policy to give the other's answer.

Cargo Insurance Covers the Goods

Türkiye's Cargo Insurance General Conditions have been in force since 1 January 1953, and the text is written throughout in the language of sea carriage: storm, sinking, stranding, grounding, collision, jettison, barratry of the master and crew. Today's road and air consignments are not its direct subject, and in practice the gap is closed by the Institute Cargo Clauses attached to the policy; Clause A covers loss of or damage to the subject-matter insured from any risk except those excluded in the clauses.

Articles 4 and 5 of the general conditions list what is excluded unless otherwise agreed: rain water and hold condensation, oxidation or rust, breakage, theft, unusual leakage; and further, delay, exchange and market rate differences, loss of profit, inherent vice, insufficiency of packing, the effects of temperature and atmospheric conditions, and ordinary loss in weight and wear. The Institute Cargo Clauses draw a parallel line.

When cover attaches and ends is a separate heading. Article 8 provides that the insurance begins when the goods are taken over by the shipowner or charterer, and ends on delivery to the consignee and in any event no later than the end of the fifteenth day following discharge; where carriage has been entrusted to a carrying undertaking, that period is thirty days. The assumption that cover simply continues while goods sit in a warehouse fails exactly here.

The assured also carries a duty of its own. The general conditions require it to take, in good time, the measures necessary to preserve rights of recourse against the carrier and other responsible third parties for the insurer's benefit. Failing to note a reservation on the delivery receipt has consequences not only against the carrier but against the assured's own policy.

CMR Insurance Covers the Carrier's Liability

CMR applies to every contract for the carriage of goods by road in vehicles for reward where the place of taking over and the place designated for delivery are in two different countries, at least one of which is a contracting country. Türkiye approved accession to the Convention of 19 May 1956 and its Protocol of 5 July 1978 by Law No. 3939, published in the Official Gazette of 14 December 1993, No. 21788.

Article 17 makes the carrier liable for total or partial loss of the goods and for damage occurring between the time it takes over the goods and the time of delivery. The same article sets out the defences: the carrier is not liable where the loss, damage or delay was caused by the claimant's wrongful act or neglect, by its instructions, by inherent vice of the goods, or by circumstances the carrier could not avoid. Its fourth paragraph lists special risks such as open unsheeted vehicles, defective packing, loading by the sender, the nature of certain goods and the carriage of livestock.

What sets it apart from the rest of the family is the calculation. The third paragraph of Article 23, as amended by the 1978 Protocol, caps compensation at 8.33 units of account per kilogram of gross weight short, the unit of account being the Special Drawing Right. Because the cap follows weight rather than value, it falls below the loss on light and expensive cargo. It can be lifted under Article 24 by declaring a value in the consignment note, and Article 29 removes the benefit of the limiting provisions where the carrier is guilty of wilful misconduct.

FFL: Not the One Who Carries, the One Who Organises

Freight Forwarder's Liability cover addresses the liability not of the party physically performing the carriage but of the party organising and undertaking it. In Türkiye that party is the transport operations organiser (taşıma işleri organizatörü), governed by the Transport Operations Organiser Regulation published in the Official Gazette of 27 August 2022, No. 31936, which repealed the earlier text of 6 July 2018, No. 30470.

Insurance is created in Article 19 in a single sentence: the holder of an organiser authorisation certificate must take out carrier's liability insurance for the liabilities arising from the carriage it organises and undertakes.

The logic of that duty sits in the definition. The regulation treats the organiser as a carrier within the framework of the obligations imposed on those acting in the capacity of carrier. The organiser is held liable as a carrier even without owning a vehicle, and that is precisely why the policy exists.

Nor does the claim rest on a single text. Article 18 provides that those using the organiser's services hold the rights contained in the Turkish Commercial Code, the Turkish Code of Obligations, the Consumer Protection Law and the conventions to which Türkiye is a party. One file may turn on CMR and another on the Commercial Code, so the policy must be broad enough for both.

Where Does Domestic Carrier's Liability Sit?

In domestic carriage the carrier's liability arises from the book of the Turkish Commercial Code devoted to carriage, which holds the carrier liable for loss of or damage to the goods, and for delay in delivery, between taking the goods over and delivering them. A domestic carrier's liability policy assumes that liability; it insures the carrier's legal position, not the goods.

Is the policy compulsory? The insurance part of the Road Transport Regulation is built around passenger carriage. Article 47 requires certificate holders in passenger transport to insure bodily injury to passengers, drivers and their assistants; Article 48 names those covers as compulsory motor third party liability and compulsory seat personal accident cover; Article 49 prohibits despatching a vehicle without them.

For goods transport the regulation contains no corresponding general liability insurance requirement. The exception is dangerous goods and hazardous waste, where the certificate holder must also produce the compulsory liability policy for those consignments.

In domestic goods transport the policy therefore usually comes from contract rather than regulation: a shipper agreement, a tender specification or a logistics contract requires it, and the source of the obligation becomes the signed text. Where the certificate covers transport operations organising, the duty comes straight from the regulation instead.

Why Two Policies With the Same Name Behave Differently

The list of general conditions published by SEDDK, Türkiye's insurance regulator, contains two texts under the transit heading: the Cargo Insurance General Conditions and the General Conditions for the Valuables in Transit Policy. There are no published general conditions for carrier's liability, CMR or freight forwarder's liability cover.

The practical consequence is considerable. The cargo policy is framed by a published text, while the cover under a liability policy is built directly in its special conditions; two policies bearing the same name may carry different exclusion lists, limit structures and notification periods. Comparison therefore belongs in the special conditions rather than the premium line.

Questions to Ask Before Buying, and the Agency's Role

The insurance design for a consignment starts not from policy names but from who is responsible for what. Answer the following in order and the required policies emerge on their own:

RYL Sigorta Aracılık Hizmetleri Limited Şirketi is an insurance agency. We prepare quotations from the insurers we act for according to your consignments, routes and the scope of your authorisation certificate, and set the cover lines of cargo and liability policies side by side. The policy is issued by the insurance company, and the indemnity is paid by the insurance company.

To discuss the right structure for your shipping profile, use the quotation form.

• Does the policy insure the goods or the liability, and which does this consignment need
• Is the carriage international or domestic; where CMR applies, have the weight-based cap and the one-year time bar been taken into account
• On high-value consignments, has a value been declared in the consignment note
• Do the attachment and termination points of cover match the warehousing and waiting periods
• Is there a delivery and documentation discipline capable of preserving rights of recourse
• Where the certificate covers transport operations organising, is the required carrier's liability policy in place

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Cargo Insurance General Conditions (SEDDK)
• SEDDK — published insurance general conditions
• Law No. 3939 — text of CMR and its Protocol (Grand National Assembly)
• Transport Operations Organiser Regulation (Official Gazette, 27 August 2022, No. 31936)
• Road Transport Regulation (Directorate General for Transport Services Regulation)
• Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102

This article is for information only; the scope of cover is set by the policy’s specific and general terms.