Welcome to the November edition of our Logistics Bulletin.

In this edition, we begin by reviewing the potential implications of the Insurance Bill for logistics companies. The Insurance Bill has recently been introduced into parliament and, if passed, will make some major changes to the English law of marine insurance. We analyse the key provisions of the Bill and how they could affect logistics companies.

We also report on the future of Chinese ports, in light of new guidelines published this summer by the Chinese Ministry of Transport (MOT), which aim to improve the range and sophistication of services currently offered by Chinese ports.

Logistics contracts such as Warehousing Agreements and Customer Framework Agreements often provide that in the event of a dispute under the Agreement, parties must engage inattempted settlement discussions before commencing arbitration proceedings. A recent English Commercial Court case has considered dispute resolution clauses requiring friendly discussions before arbitration and has decided these can be legally enforceable. We look at the implications.

The new Code of Practice for the packing of cargo transport units (CTUs) has been approved and is expected to be officially published shortly. It looks set to be generally welcomed by the industry. We look at the main requirements of the Code.

Finally, we look at the new London aircraft policy: AVN1D, which has replaced the old policy, AVN1C.