GLN has established an AR Fund for the
benefit of its members. Effective 1st January 2006, this Fund is
mandatory for all new members. This Fund works in conjunction
with GLN's Amber Alert system.
AR Fund Overview:
The AR Fund is owned by participating GLN Members to the
extent of their contributions. The funds are administered by the
“AR Fund Committee” (currently consisting of Klaus Delle of
Detraco/Germany, Greg McKay of Triways/Australia and Roy
Stapleton, GLN President), are not considered income by GLN, are
maintained in a separate bank account and are not co-mingled
with membership fees. GLN will NOT charge a fee for
administration of the AR Fund. A full accounting will be given
to Members at the Annual Conference.
Although originally established to cover only issues of
bankruptcy/insolvency, effective October 2009, the AR Fund has
been expanded to protect GLN members against bad/delinquent
debts from other GLN members arising after that date and can be
used at the discretion of the AR Insurance Fund Committee for
other situations and to guarantee up to $5,000 to facilitate
initial business between members (whether Platinum or not)
The Annual AR Fund fee and the aggregate amount of the coverage
are subject to change.
AR Fund Operation:
The AR Fund is self-funded with an annual fee of USD 500 per
annum and, effective October 2009, contributions are capped
until further notice at USD 2,500 per participating member.
Those participating in the AR Fund are referred to as “Platinum
Members” and indicated clearly noted on the Member Directory.
Non participating members cannot utilize the A/R fund.
Payments into the AR Fund are refundable to participants upon
leaving GLN as defined below after a 90-day period to ensure
that all possible debts to/from GLN Members have been settled.
The amount refunded will reflect the amount paid into the fund
less a proportional deduction for any claims made against the
fund.
AR Fund Coverage:
The maximum amount that will be paid out in any single incident
is an aggregate amount of USD 30,000.
In order to receive payment from the AR Fund, the recipient must
agree to sign any future recoveries of the debt over to the AR
Fund and to fully cooperate with GLN in instituting collection
and/or legal recovery of such debt.
Exclusions from AR Fund Coverage:
Claims will only be considered if the Amber Alert rules stated
above have been followed. The non-reporting of delinquent debts
will make them ineligible for recovery under the AR Fund
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.
If one office is a paid registered then only that office can
apply to AR Fund. Those members who have offices not registered
can become eligible for future access to AR Fund by paying $200.00 for
each
office and be part of the
fund process. It is noted that when some members applied they could not
register some cities due to our rules of 3 per city maximum. But
was felt prudent that those companies like Triways USA, Altius
Spain who registered and paid for all their offices are at an
unfair advantage when others register one office. This
decision levels the playing field. You do not have to register
your other offices but be reminded, if a
member goes bankrupt, only the offices paying into fund can
claim (Office where physical paperwork transaction took place).
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.
If any of the claiming members are also member of another
network with AR Fund coverage, the claim against the GLN AR Fund
will be reviewed after payments made by the other network.
It must be fully understood that the AR Fund is primarily for
bad debts rather than operational errors. Claims will not be
accepted – unless approved by the AR Fund 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.
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
$5,000. This applies to both Platinum and Regular Members.