OREANDA-NEWS. October 31, 2012. Ingosstrakh Insurance Company took part in a seminar “On Compulsory Insurance of Carrier Liability. Challenges and Problem Issues of Law in the Sphere of Automobile Transport.” The event was held in the conference hall of the Golden Ring Hotel (Moscow) on October 22, 2012.

The seminar was organized by the Russian Automotive Union. There are 117 member companies in the Union, which include industrial groups of all-Russian, interregional and regional significance comprising about 5 thousand of passenger carriers and freight forwarding agents.

Representatives of the State Duma Traffic Committee, Ministry of Finance of Russia, RF Department of Transportation, National Union of Liability Insurers, experts of leading insurance companies and more than 100 transportation organizations took part in the seminar.

During the event, the most topical issues were considered; they related to entry into force of the Federal Law on compulsory insurance of the carrier’s civil liability for damage to health, life, or property of its passengers, determination of basic insurance rates, development of subordinate legislation, etc.

Commenting on the results of the meeting, Sergey Zakroyshchikov, Vice President, Head of Corporate Services Department of Ingosstrakh Insurance Company, pointed out: “The new law is largely innovative by nature. It represents sort of a symbiosis of carrier liability insurance and insurance against accidents with pre-established compensation rates depending on severity of damage. At that, the injured passenger will be relieved of the necessity to prove medical and recovery expenses, which is rather difficult in the current system of compulsory medical insurance. By all means, at the initial stage of introducing the law all market participants, both carriers and insurers, will face problems and rough edges. That’s why it is important to continue working on “polishing” the law, develop competent, adjusted and economically substantiated regulatory acts in execution of the law. In this discussion today, representatives of freight forwarding agencies from Russian regions took a very active part. In the course of the dialog, it became clear that the law was like a litmus paper to reveal a bundle of problems related to the financing of transportation industry that motor carriers shared. We do hope that authorities and legislative bodies heard the problems of transport specialists and will take necessary measures to minimize them. The discussion showed once again the great part that public organizations of transport workers and insurers, such as the Russian Automotive Union and National Union of Liability Insurers, play at maintaining compulsory insurance, and the significance of open platforms to discuss burning issues.”

Let us remind that from January 1, 2013, the Federal Law on compulsory insurance of carrier’s civil liability for damage to life, health and property of passengers will come into force. The law applies to every kind of passenger transportation, exclusive of taxi and metro.