subject: Should I Be Buying Insurance For My Courier Shipment? [print this page] We're so used to having to insure every aspect of our business in as many different ways as possible, that sometimes we fail to recognize opportunities where we don't actually need to be expending extra money on insurance. A perfect example of this is when we're using a San Francisco courier service to ship goods for us. The truth is that most courier companies should have all kinds of insurance already in place. Everything that you ship with them should already be well covered, and you shouldn't in most cases have to spend any extra money on insurance.
Don't make the mistake of just assuming that your courier is fully insured though. It is only going to take you a few minutes to quickly ask them about the details of the insurance that they carry, and how much of it will apply to your particular shipment. If you're new to working with a particular courier and don't research their insurance situation, you could be in for an ugly surprise if something bad were to happen to your shipment.
Typically though, a courier company should be carrying something which is known as courier insurance. This is a policy which is actually extremely comprehensive, and should cover almost anything that might cause you to lose money on your shipment. This is a separate policy that they will carry in addition to their regular business and vehicle insurance policies.
These courier insurance policies are going to address the two main causes of losses during courier shipments, which are loss of the package, or damage to the package. Damage to the package would include damage which occurred as the result of traffic accidents, as well as damage due to courier negligence (and many other causes). Lost package insurance would include coverage for times when couriers lose packages, as well as for if packages are stolen.
The only time you may need to actually buy insurance for a courier is if you're shipping goods which are worth more money than the maximum insurance coverage that is provided by the courier company. When you're filling out the shipping forms, you should see something called the maximum declared value. If your goods are worth more than this number, you may need to buy some additional insurance for your shipment. The decision of whether or not to buy more insurance is usually based on how big the difference is between the coverage and the goods actual value.
by: Adam Trammel
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