Incidents leading to customers having to submit cargo claims, be it damages or loss of cargo, cause inconvenience and cost time. With its seventh Quality Promise „Efficient Cargo Claims Handling”, Hapag-Lloyd has set itself the goal to significantly accelerate cargo claims handling by reducing the total amount of time between receiving a customer’s cargo claim and proposing a resolution. In future, in 85 percent of cases customers will receive a resolution proposal within 14 days – including acceptance, rejection or the start of settlement negotiations. By focusing on the efficiency of its cargo claims handling, Hapag-Lloyd intends to underline that it recognizes the urgency to solve cargo claims in a timely manner and therefore makes the process as fast and efficient as possible.

“By resolving cargo claims within 14 days, Hapag-Lloyd will be quicker and well below the industry average of 30 days”, says Thomas Mansfeld, General Counsel and Head of Corporate Insurance and Risk Management at Hapag-Lloyd. “We are convinced that we will reach this target with our highly specialized department for cargo claims. To enable our experts to react quickly to all inquiries, we have created new structures, systems and tools and are optimizing our internal processes altogether – for closer collaboration and clear communication. Our ambition is to make this process easy and transparent for our customers because we recognize the urgency from their point of view.”

In future, Hapag-Lloyd’s customers can rely on professional guidance from assigned experts when issuing a cargo claim and rest assured to get individual support. Especially, when it comes to paperwork, e-mails and phone calls for follow-ups on a cargo claim, a more simplified approach and reduction of workload will be noticeable. For resolving a cargo claim Hapag-Lloyd will request only documents relevant for a specific case. Thus, customers benefit from a hassle-free and timesaving process. While concentrating on their daily business and increasing their productivity customers also get prompt certainty whether liability is accepted. Furthermore, a new tracking system with end-to-end visibility on the status of pending cargo claims as well as a new cycle of performance management offer more accurate data quality and provide customers with even more transparency and lastly planning certainty.

To accelerate the total cargo claim handling process, Hapag-Lloyd relies on its customers to provide a complete set of cargo claim documents accurately in one submission and to respond to queries or settlement offers in a timely manner. On its journey to higher efficiency, Hapag-Lloyd will offer standard e-mail templates or online forms to clarify and simplify procedures for all customers.

Customers can track Hapag-Lloyd’s global performance on its seventh Quality Promise “Efficient Cargo Claims Handling” via the Quality Promise Customer Dashboard, which also offers regular updates down to the individual customer level.

By promising efficient cargo claims handling, Hapag-Lloyd aims at further strengthening its trustful relationship with its customers, reinforce its commitment to higher service quality and pursue the overall objective to be their first-choice carrier – according to the overall target set in its “Strategy 2023” of becoming “Number One for Quality”.