The Seven Surveyor Departments, Explained
Your department decides what you study, what you survey, and what work exists near you. How to choose.
The seven surveyor departments are Fire, Motor, Marine Cargo, Marine Hull, Engineering, Miscellaneous, and Loss of Profit. Every licensed surveyor holds at least one, chosen at trainee enrolment, and the choice shapes everything downstream: the departmental paper you sit, the training you seek, and the class of claims your practice lives on.
You can add departments later by passing their papers, so the choice is not permanent. It is still worth making carefully, because your first department is the one your training year and early practice are built around.
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What Each Department Surveys
- Fire
- Losses under the Standard Fire & Special Perils policy: burnt property, under-insurance and average-clause disputes, reinstatement values, salvage. A high-volume general department.
- Motor
- Vehicle claims: accident inspection, repair versus total loss, IDV and depreciation, theft and fraud indicators. The most numerous class of claims in the country, and the usual first department.
- Marine Cargo
- Goods in transit: Institute Cargo Clauses, general and particular average, quantum assessment, and the paper trail of bills of lading, invoices and packing lists.
- Marine Hull
- The vessels themselves: hull and machinery damage, total loss, collision liability, seaworthiness. Highly specialised, aligned with naval architecture backgrounds.
- Engineering
- Construction and machinery: Contractors' All Risks and Erection All Risks projects, machinery breakdown, boiler and electronic equipment losses. Favours engineering qualifications.
- Miscellaneous
- The wide remainder: burglary, money and fidelity guarantee, liability covers, personal accident and health basics, rural and crop covers, and the fraud detection that runs through them.
- Loss of Profit / Consequential Loss
- Business interruption: gross profit, indemnity periods, increased cost of working, and computing what a stoppage actually cost. The most accountancy-flavoured department.
How to Choose
Four questions that settle most department decisions:
- check_circleWhat does your qualification support? Technical departments (Motor, Engineering, Marine Hull) select for matching technical backgrounds; Law and Accountancy travel well, and Loss of Profit leans on financial computation.
- check_circleWhat claims exist where you will practise? A port city feeds Marine work; an industrial belt feeds Engineering and Fire; Motor exists everywhere.
- check_circleWhere can you actually train? The 12-month practical training needs a licensed surveyor in your department willing to take you on, so the local supply of seniors matters.
- check_circleWhat could you study at 60%-pass depth without resenting it? The departmental paper demands real technical precision, and interest is what sustains that.
S-01 is common to every department. Start practising it now.
Departments Stack
Licensed surveyors add departments by passing additional departmental papers, and established practices often hold several. A common shape is a high-volume first department, Motor or Fire, that funds the practice while a more specialised second department is added. The first choice sets the floor, not the ceiling.
What the Choice Changes in the Exam
Only one of your two required papers. S-01 is identical for everyone, and it is the paper you can start preparing today regardless of which department you are still deciding between. The syllabus page holds the full topic map for S-01 and all seven departmental papers side by side.
Next steps
Take a full surveyor mock testS-01 plus Fire, Motor and Marine Cargo coverage.