The Transport branch is the oldest of all lines of insurance. Its origin is linked to the growth of maritime transport . It is governed by the specificities of Maritime Law and international conventions and practices.

The activity of the transport insurers is, moreover, international in nature and generally requires the intervention of professionals of various nationalities, who are situated at the beginning, at the point of arrival and at the points of transit or destination of the goods. It is the same for ships, on the occasion of their stopover or their release in a port. For the legal certainty of the participants (shippers, insurers, shipowners, freight forwarders, port authorities, forwarding agents, brokers, traders, bankers, accident commissioners, experts, etc.), international customs have long been in existence and have made the object of globally used rules. Transport insurers in each national market are used to cooperating in joint bodies and the various national markets themselves cooperate .

Maritime Insurers (International Union of Marine Insurers, IUMI). The Market organizations provide transport insurers with common statistics, information on transported products, maritime traffic and working conditions in ports, shipyards and armaments. They have networks of experts and commissioners of damage.