Accounts Receivable Insurance Fund:

GLN has established a self-funded Accounts Receivable Insurance Fund (AR Fund) for the benefit of its members.  The AR Fund is owned by participating GLN Members and is administered by the “GLN Steering Committee”.  Contributions by members into the AR Fund are not considered income by GLN, are maintained in a separate bank account and are not co-mingled with membership fees.  GLN does NOT charge a fee for the administration of the AR Fund and a full accounting is given to Members at the Annual Conference.

AR Fund History:

• Effective January 2006, the AR Fund became mandatory for all new members and those participating in the AR Fund are referred to as “Platinum Members” which is clearly indicated on the Member Directory.  Members who joined GLN prior to January 01, 2016 who elected not to participate in the AR Fund (“Regular Members”) cannot utilize the AR Fund facilities.
• Effective October 2009, the AR Fund was capped at a maximum of 5-years of contributions and coverage expanded to cover (i) bad debts from GLN Members and not just bankruptcy/insolvency and (ii) to guarantee up to USD 5,000 to facilitate initial business transactions between members.
• Effective May 2013, the maximum aggregate coverage per incident increased from USD 30,000 to USD 50,000.
• Effective June 2014, the Amber Alert Rules were amended so that debts reported outside the mandated time-lines are 100% denied.
• Effective January 2017, the AR Fund no longer capped at 5-years for new members joining GLN after that date.  The cap of 5 years remains in place for GLN Members that joined before January 2017.

AR Fund Contributions, Coverage and Claims:

The annual contribution to participate in the AR Fund is USD 500/annum for each legally registered company.  Should a GLN Member have multiple operations in different countries operating under the same Trading Name, and additional USD 500/legally registered entity shall apply unless the debts are guaranteed by the corporate entity.

The maximum amount that will be paid out in any single incident is an aggregate amount of USD 50,000.  Should the total of claims exceed USD 50,000, claims will be paid on a pro-rata basis.

In order for an AR Fund claim to be accepted and eligible for coverage from the AR Fund:

1) The Amber Alert Rules must have been followed in terms of advising GLN of the debt within a specified time-frame. The non-reporting of delinquent debts on a timely basis will make the claim ineligible for recovery under the AR Fund.

2) The Claimant must agree to assign any future recoveries of the debt to the AR Fund and to fully cooperate with GLN in instituting collection and/or legal recovery of such debts.

3) Claims will only be considered when invoiced under the Company Name that was signed on the initial GLN Membership Agreement at the time of membership.  Further, only invoices relating to the offices/cities that are registered will be eligible to participate in this fund (i.e. if a company only registers its Hong Kong office but has several other offices in China, only invoices covering freight originating from their Hong Kong office will be considered as eligible.).  Those members who have offices not registered can become eligible for future access to AR Fund by voluntarily paying USD 200 for each office and be part of the fund process.

4) Claims will only be considered if incurred when invoiced while the claimant is a GLN Member i.e. from date of enrollment (funds received by GLN) on a “go-forward” basis until termination of membership.

5) If Claimant is also a member of another network with AR Fund coverage or similar, the claim against the GLN AR Fund will be reviewed only after payments made by that other network.

6) Understanding that the AR Fund is primarily for bad debts rather than operational errors, claims will not be accepted – unless approved by the GLN Steering Committee – to cover non-conformance with service levels, shipments of personnel effects, shippers/consignees connected with Internet mail services such as E-Bay, lost or damaged cargo, invoices covered by a member’s Errors and Omissions Insurance or other insurance coverage, 3rd party damages, currency exchange fluctuations, goodwill payments, illegal transactions, legal fees, interest, etc. Also specifically excluded are shipments of questionable legality such as those covering the misdeclaration of goods, circumvent of international trade embargoes and/or coverage resulting from transactions that a reasonable and responsible forwarder would not handle if risking its own funds rather than relying on the AR Fund for coverage.

7) The AR Fund adopts the Force Majeure policy that frees the AR Fund from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond our control, such as war, sanctions, strikes, riot, crime or an event described by the legal term “Act of God” (such as Hurricanes, Flooding, Earthquakes, Volcanic eruption).  Force Majeure is NOT intended to excuse negligence – as where non-performance is caused by usual and natural consequences of external forces.

Refund of AR Fund contributions:

AR Funds belong to GLN Members.  As such, when a member leaves GLN, their contributions are refundable upon request.  Refunds will be made after a 90-day period to ensure that all possible debts to/from GLN Members have been settled.  The refund will reflect any AR Fund disbursements made during the period of their participation on a pro-rated basis.

Additional Use of the AR Fund:

As all GLN Members have been pre-qualified, in order to avoid members requesting that freight charges be pre-paid/cash from other GLN members, the AR Fund will indemnify each member up to USD 5,000.  This applies to both Platinum and Regular Members.