MAIN HEAD The TT Club PHOTO Louisebradley.jpg Caption: Louise Bradley, director of e-commerce strategy with TT Club DECK HEAD The TT Club, the world's largest insurer of container boxes, ports and cargo handling equipment, has appointed a director of e-commerce strategy. We found out a little more BODY The TT Club, the world's largest insurer of container boxes, ports and cargo handling equipment, has appointed Louise Bradley as director of e-commerce strategy. Ms Bradley will take charge of development of internet systems, including ClaimsTrac (a claims tracking service) and TTxpress, a tool for insurance brokers to do business with the TT Club. She is also in charge of developing and evaluating new products and strategic alliances. Ms Bradley was previously in the business development department of Thomas Miller managing customer accounts in North West Europe for TT Club, and before that in the marketing department of NatWest International Bank. She is a graduate in law from Queen's University, Belfast, with a Masters in International Business and Transport Law from London University. The online initiatives interface between the experts at the TT Club, who calculate how big premiums should be and what the terms are (and process claims), and the customers, some of which, at busy shipping lines or broking houses, can process hundreds of claims a week. The thrust is not to turn e-commerce into a business itself, but use e-commerce to streamline the interface between the Club and its customers, reducing the manual workload on both people inputting claims and the people handling them. SUBHEAD About TT Club The TT Club claims to insure 70 per cent of the world container box fleet; about 20-25 per cent of its business is boxes. It processes about 25,000 claims altogether a year. The remainder of its business is cargo handling equipment and liability risks of freight forwarders, terminal operators, port authorities, surveyors and cargo (through a partner product called ThruCargo). It insures over 2000 ports and terminals worldwide, as well as over 4000 transport and logistics operations. TT Club was one of the founders of secure electronic document communication service Bolero.net, together with SWIFT. The members of the TT Club make decisions about the strategy and direction of the organisation; it is actually managed by Thomas Miller, which also manages ITIC (the International Transport Intermediaries Club). According to the last annual report, the club renews 94 per cent of its business year on year. The TT Club is owned by its members; it believes that, as a mutual organisation, it can provide a better quality of service. Since it is owned by the members, it does not have so much incentive to try to avoid paying out a claim as normal insurance companies. Any surplus goes into the reserves of the club for the benefit and security of the members. "A commercial world doesn't have the same handle on customer service as a mutual," comments Ms Bradley. "We're driven by providing a first class service, not extending the extra 2 per cent of profit." As a mutual, the TT Club sees it as part of its role to help its members reduce their risk, and provides a great deal of sensible advice. SUBHEAD ClaimsTRAC One of the first services to be developed was ClaimsTRAC, which can be used to help track the processing of claims. Customers can register claims; there are tools for users to monitor the claims they make, which could be used for example to help them identify problem areas. The tool could prove very useful to insurance departments of large shipping lines, who spend all their time analysing claims. Claims can be input electronically. By inputting the relevant data onto a computer, there is less ground for inaccuracy, because nothing is rekeyed. SUBHEAD TTXpress TTXpress (www.ttxpress.com) is a tool for insurance brokers to obtain an indication against a risk online, focusing on "small to medium sized enterprise" category business. The service was launched in July 2000. About 75 per cent of TT Club's business comes through the broking community. Insurance brokers can go into the system, input factors about the risk and select what deductible they want (the amount they have to pay for every claim they make). The data is not examined automatically; it is reviewed by an experienced underwriter at the Club, who can respond, also electronically, within 24 hours. The service was developed following a survey of brokers in the US, who were looking for a speedy turnaround of underwriting information. A further product, ThruCargo, is for insuring cargo. However this works directly through CNA Maritime, a specialist cargo underwriter, with TT merely acting as the front end.