The need to guarantee the availability of a product in large quantities, quickly and at any desired location, has made logistics a fundamental part of Large-Scale Retailing (LSR), which is now the primary sales channel for consumer goods, Italy's primary industry.

Globalisation has required logisticians to evolve. They are assigned ever greater tasks in the transport and storage of goods, and in the procurement, distribution and sales phases. The challenge is highly complex in this sector, due to the significant quantity of goods to be handled, the many participants in the distribution chain (manufacturers and suppliers), and the many geographical areas involved – each with their own economic, cultural and security conditions.

Many start-ups have stepped in to fulfil these needs. Thanks to technological progress, they have taken advantage of this momentous change to enter the distribution chain with applications that can track every movement of vehicles and goods in real-time, improving performance and control processes.

One obvious example of the criticality of the chain emerged with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown. Queues outside supermarkets and the uncertainty over the emergency's duration created a sudden and significant increase in sales, making it harder for the operators to ensure that products were adequately restocked.

During the lockdown, the turnover of logistics companies fell by around 10% for most sectors, except e-commerce, food and healthcare. Gradually, a full-scale recovery is underway, in a sector where logistics and large-scale retailers have been steadily increasing their turnover for many years.

Against this backdrop, MAG is offering continually up-to-date insurance coverage to protect all the companies involved in the distribution chain. It will insure goods during their whole journey, from the storage warehouse at the logistics operators' depots to final delivery.

The solutions offered vary according to the players involved and can include typical transport goods policies, liability policies for the carrier and/or logistics operator, errors and omissions cover for shippers, all-risks insurance during the storage phases, through to state-of-the-art cyber risk cover.