Kishangarh · Rajasthan · stone in transit
A marble slab rarely dies in an accident. It dies in handling, a corner at a time, and the policy most traders hold does not pay for that. The distinction between an accident peril and a handling loss is the whole of marble transit insurance, and it is settled before the truck leaves, not after it arrives.
Read this against your own policy schedule. The clause set named there decides which rows below you are insured for.
| Exposure | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Chipping and edge damage | The characteristic marble loss. Rarely one event, usually cumulative through loading, road vibration and unloading. Not an ITC-B peril, and this is the single most common uncovered loss in the Kishangarh trade. |
| Cracking from vibration and flexing | Large-format slabs flex on a poorly loaded bed. A hairline crack that appears at destination is hard to date, which is why photographs at loading matter. |
| Overturning and collision | These are covered under ITC-B, and when they happen the loss is usually total rather than partial. This is the peril the cheap policy is actually for. |
| Staining and moisture | Marble is porous. Water ingress leaves marks that polishing may not lift, and the commercial loss can exceed the physical one. |
| Theft and short delivery | Not covered under ITC-B. A slab or two off a consignment is quietly common and quietly uninsured. |
In order. The first two are the ones people get wrong, and they are the ones that cannot be fixed afterwards.
Written notice to the transporter must go within 180 days of the booking date under section 16 of the Carriage by Road Act, 2007. Not from the date of loss, and a claim bill does not count as notice. The wording is ready to copy at our claim letters page.
Useful when the loss is being described by a driver, a munshi or a godown supervisor rather than by you.
| Hindi | What it means for the policy |
|---|---|
| पत्थर / स्लैब | stone, slab |
| टूट-फूट | breakage, the loss ITC-B does not cover |
| बिल्टी | the consignment note, LR or GR |
| पलटी | overturning, which is covered |
| सर्वेयर | surveyor, before whom nothing should be moved |
Processed marble does move out through Mundra and Kandla, and once it is on the water it is an Institute Cargo Clauses risk rather than an inland one. The inland leg to the port stays on the transit policy, and under FOB or CFR that leg is the seller's exposure, uninsured more often than not.
The clause sets themselves are set out in full on our marine cargo clauses page, including the seven named perils under ITC-B taken from an insurer's filed wording.
Only if you are on the right clause set. Inland Transit Clauses (B) is a named-peril cover and handling breakage is not one of the seven perils, so a slab that arrives chipped is not covered under it. ITC-A, the all-risks version, does respond to accidental breakage subject to the exclusions. Most marble traders are sold ITC-B and discover the difference only after a load arrives damaged.
For processed slabs, ITC-A on a declaration or open policy, so every despatch through the season is covered automatically without a separate proposal each time. Kishangarh moves continuously and per-consignment cover leaves gaps on the days nobody remembered to declare.
Usually one of three reasons. The policy was ITC-B and the damage was handling breakage, which is not a named peril. Or the insufficient-packing exclusion was applied, because the loading and lashing was inadequate. Or the damage was not endorsed on the delivery challan, so the insurer could not establish it happened in transit.
It depends on when the policy attaches and terminates. Some wordings cover loading and unloading at the named locations and some do not. On stone this matters more than on almost any other commodity, because that is where the damage happens. Read the attachment clause, not just the peril list.
The invoice value plus freight, and where the goods are being sold on, the value at destination rather than at the quarry. Under-insuring triggers average, which means a partial loss is paid only in the proportion the sum insured bears to the true value.
Written notice within 180 days of the booking date under section 16 of the Carriage by Road Act, 2007. That runs from booking, not from the date you discovered the damage, and a claim bill is not a valid notice.