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MARINE
SURVEYORS, ENGINEERS, CONSULTANTS
1989 University Lane, Suite I, P.O. Box 359, Lisle, IL 60532-0359 - Headquarters
630-852-7944/800-223-8816 PH
630-852-7128/800-852-7128 FAX
Spring 2009 Newsletter Volume 19 NO 1.
WHAT'S NEW
THIS SPRING:
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From the Bridge
By: Gregory T. Davis,
President
 We have begun inspections
for the State of Michigan on fishing charter boats. This has just
started off and we look forward to meeting and exceeding the State’s
expectations. Welcome aboard!!
Our Marine Claims TPA division has its first client in the adjustment
of cargo claims. Look for an article by Ahmed Zarnegar, manager, elsewhere
in this issue. We have had discussions on three other programs and are
hopeful that we can be of service to them in this regard.
Joe Williamson, AMS of our Tampa office has joined the American Society
of Appraisers (ASA). ASA is the premier professional appraisal
organization. The marine survey disciplines of commercial or yacht are
a part of the machinery and technical specialties discipline of ASA.
Joe is required to take four courses and then can submit for
designation within the yacht, commercial marine survey discipline. He
has complete two of the four requisites as of this writing.
Congratulations Joe!
Ice storms in Kentucky, Wind in California, make a busy February for
some of our surveyors. CAT departments at several of our clients have
been placing e-orders with us. This process is so simple, available for
any internet-connected computer, and with an instant confirmation that
the assignment was received. If you haven’t tried it, please talk to
anyone in operations and they will guide you through the process.
We are exhibiting at PLRB in
Seattle, so if you are attending please stop by our booth to say
“hello”. If you miss us at PLRB, we will also be at ACE
in Las Vegas in June. We look forward to seeing you!
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Marine and Specialty Claims: The Value of
Experience
By: Ahmed Zarnegar
 Experience, resources and
expertise in a comprehensive range of loss-related services distinguish
Davis and Company as one of North America’s leading marine insurance
surveying and claim adjusting companies. We have developed expertise in
North America meeting the various needs of North America’s top
international companies.
At Davis and Company, we work closely with our customers in creating
solutions to a wide range of insurance service needs. We create
innovative business programs in the fields of loss adjusting, claims
management, TPA, litigation management, risk survey and valuations.
We are continually adding quality facilities and services in the North
American markets, positioning Davis and Company for continued market
leadership into the future.
Our staff strives not only to meet client expectations, but also to
exceed them by providing fast, accurate service. Davis and Company
offers a complete range of services to meet any requirement. We shall
customize our services especially for your needs.
Our staff is comprised of former insurance company claims managers and
senior surveyors with comprehensive hands-on investigative, appraising,
claim handling, and litigation management experience. You can rely on
our claims professionals for skilled interpretation and application of
insurance coverage.
For our ocean marine and specialty claims clients, Davis and Company
has a fully trained and experienced team of adjusters, specializing in
handling and settling claims of any type of complexity in the ocean and
inland marine sectors such as marine cargo, motor truck cargo, hull, P
& I including Jones Act seaman and LSHWCA, terminal operators,
marine general liabilities, contractor’s equipment, and heavy equipment
and oversize hauling. Additionally, our teams of surveyors, appraisers
and investigators provide quality service within the specific fields in
which our clients operate.
We provide a complete range of marine and specialty TPA claims services
including policy coverage interpretation and settlement negotiations.
At the same time, we offer valuable assistance in litigation
management, healthcare case management, and in controlling litigation
and medical expenses.
The goal of Davis and Company is not only to enhance customer service
and quality of surveys and loss adjustment, but also to reduce the
total cost of claims on an overall program basis.
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Surveyor's Corner
 Kenneth Pohlmann works for
Davis & Company, Ltd. in our St Louis office in St Charles, MO,
since September 2007. Ken has 11 years experience as a marine
technician, and has been boating all his life. He has worked for one of
the largest Motor Yacht Dealer in Missouri, along with the largest
Crown line Dealer in the Midwest.
Ken is certified in Mercury Outboards, and has also work on Mariner,
Force, Johnson, Evinrude, Yamaha outboards and had also worked on
Mercruiser, Volvo, Yamaha, OMC stern drives, Kenneth has also performed
fiberglass repair, hull and deck reconstruction. Ken has completed over
250 surveys of a variety of assignments. Ken has handled writing
insurance estimate along with making sure the work is completed to
customer satisfaction. He is experienced in almost every aspect of the
marine industry.
"I love working for Davis & Company, being a Marine Surveyor I
am able to see every aspect of the boating industry."
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NTSB Marine Accident
training
 The National
Transportation Safety Board recently opened up its training classes to the
private sector. The first marina accident investigation seminar, MS101,
was held the last week of January 2009 at the NTSB training academy in
Ashburn, VA. Greg Davis attended for Davis Consulting Group.
The class was about 200 students strong, most of which were from the
USCG office of marine investigations. Other government agencies also
sent many attendees as did the cruise line industry. Private sector
marine forensic specialists were about 25 of the total.
Mr. Davis commented that the class revealed that the NTSB also employs
the methods already in use at Davis & Company, at least in the
areas of primary data collection and analysis.
The goal/s of the NTSB differ from that of the private forensic expert
in that they are charged with public safety. Considerable effort is
made by the NTSB via public hearings in the collection of data and this
data influences the final determination/s of the safety board.
Although covered within the MS101, the NTSB offers a full week course
on human factors and another on cognitive interviewing. Each one could
prove useful in forensic matters and will be considered in the future
for inclusion in the education agenda.
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Davis presents “How Boats Break” to the
NMMA
 The National Marine
Manufacturers Association’s Boating Industry Risk Management Council
asked Greg Davis to prepare a presentation on “How Boats Break” at
their regular meeting during the Miami Boat Show on February 12, 2009.
The BIRMC presentation was adapted from a paper Mr. Davis authored and
presented at the 6th International Marine Applications of Composite
Materials conference, Melbourne, Florida in 1996. In 1988 Davis &
Company, Ltd. developed a custom operations database and with this
database began coding all jobs based upon the determined type of loss.
The surveyor’s task on each job for the insurance company client is to
determine the cause of loss and the dollar amount of the damage. There
are over 200 loss codes; one code (or master code with sub-codes) is
assigned to each job within the system upon its completion. At the time
of the 1996 paper over 5,000 jobs were included in the analysis. This
data was compared to a previous paper (1992) where over 1500 jobs were
analyzed. The variance was less than ½% between the two papers, statistically
verifying the accuracy.
At the time of
the BIRMC presentation in February of 2009, over 56,000 jobs were
within the database. In brief, the data was sorted into five categories
and analysis indicates 60% of all losses are a result of operator error,
broken down into four subgroups, Collision, Striking a submerged object
(SSO), maintenance (or lack of), and grounding. 3% of losses are a
result of manufacturer defect, 1% is wear and tear, and multi problem
is the remainder such as fire 15%, sinking 18%, weather 46%, theft 17%,
trailering damage 4%.
The 1996 MACM paper is available for download from our website in
engineering, technical papers. If you are interested in receiving a
copy of the PowerPoint presentation for this meeting of BIRMC send an
email to Greg Davis at gdavis@daviscoltd.com.
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DCG hired as Contractor for NFPA Marina’s
and Boatyards Sprinkler Research Project: 1st stage report released
The Davis
Consulting Group, a division of Davis & Company, Ltd partnered with
Schirmer Engineering, Fire Protection Engineers, was awarded a contract
from the National Fire Protection Association for research into
sprinkler systems for Marina’s and Boatyards, especially dry stack
storage systems.
The project, in this stage, involved research into fire experience in
Marina’s and Boatyards, boat storage methodology inside and outside and
dry stack applications currently in use. The fire experience data in
the Davis database was resourced, as well as industry information.
Gregory T. Davis, a certified fire and explosion investigator, lead the
Davis team in this project. Eric Greene, of DCG, a specialist in Marine
Composites, reported on the heat release and fire spread data
collection. Eric has completed studies for the US Navy in the foregoing
areas.
This preliminary research (now complete) may lead to a second stage of
the project that will involve fire testing in an exemplar dry stack
storage rack. The data from this research will be used to design
sprinkler system/s for Marina’s and Boatyards.
The National Fire Protection Association’s standard 303, Marina’s and
Boatyards, is utilizing this research in the update of the standard now
in progress. Gregory T. Davis is a special expert panel member of the
standard.
The referenced report is available for download at:
http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files//BoatStorage.pdf
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USCG looks for information on ‘alternate’
database, Davis presents for them at Miami Boat Show
 The USCG held a public
forum via their Accident Mitigation meeting at the Miami Boat Show,
February 12, 2009. The meeting agenda was exploratory on ‘alternate’
database/s relative to accidents and injuries in recreational boating.
Currently the USCG relies upon the BARD which compiles its data from
reports filed with the individual states by either the marine police
(or equivalent) or boat owner.
The USCG was interested in determining what other
data sources existed and whether their data might prove useful in the
goal of improving safety in recreational boating. To that end they
requested the American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) research the
matter and present a panel for this meeting.
Greg Davis presented an abbreviated “How boats get broken” presentation
for the meeting. This data is property damage related exclusively and
the USCG was interested because their BARD does not provide property
damage data.
Greg Davis, as panel member, also researched insurance company injury
data by contacting many of our clients. Jim Craig of the American
Institute of Marine Underwriters and a few of his members lead us to
the conclusion that the best possible source appeared to be the
Insurance Services Office (ISO). However upon discussion with ISO
database personnel it became clear that the data, as currently collected,
would not address the need/s as defined by the USCG. ISO was willing to
discuss this further with a goal of developing a database for the USCG.
What if anything will come of that is yet to be determined.
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Operations Help Desk
By: Frank Taft
At Davis &
Company, we have computerized all of our records in 1988 and started
offering EORDER service to our clients in 1998. Every adjuster who has
ever given us an assignment has an account code. With this account code
and a password you can have access to our database records. This opens
a myriad of possibilities. Most importantly instant access to order
assignment and order tracking. It takes one phone call to get started
and about 1 minute on the phone to become an expert in your office. For
the new comers to the system call 1-800-223-8816 and ask for assistance
in E-ORDER protocol. They will advise you to go to www.daviscoltd.com
and what your account code and password are. A few quick keystrokes and
you are up and running 24 hours a day – 7 days a week. Instant access
to ordering an assignment or tracking all open files that you may have
and a listing of all files closed during the last 30 days. The tracking
system lists all pertinent info on the files including what office and
surveyor are assigned your task and an easy inquiry that can be made to
that surveyor by email or lists his address and direct phone numbers. As a bonus it list
all repair facilities that we have in our system by alphabetical or
phone area code for your assistance and a list of recalls from the USCG
and other sources. This process is there for your convenience.
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Next time you get a
chance to give out a claim to an outside firm, whether it’s a hurricane
loss or damage loss, please give us a chance to show you what we can do.
We look forward to answering any questions you may have.
We may have a
program for you or we can tailor one to fit your needs. “One Source, One
Solution” is more than just words on our brochure.
ALL INQUIRIES
ALL REQUESTS
ALL ASSIGNMENTS
FOR ALL OFFICES
PH: 1-800-223-8816/ 630-852-7944
FAX 1-800-852-7128/ 630-852-7128
or
E-order
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