UPS is a major carrier that offers widespread benefits to its shippers. One such benefit is the automatic insurance you receive whenever you ship a package with them. If you’re thinking about how to protect your packages with insurance when shipping with UPS, you can rest assured that, to some extent, you’re already covered!
Whether you buy labels online or at any UPS location, you automatically receive $100 in declared value liability. That means that, as long as the value of your package is at or below $100, UPS will cover your shipment for the full amount if it arrives damaged or ends up going missing in transit. The best part is, this $100 of insurance comes at no extra cost to you. So, you don’t need to worry about paying for anything except the label itself.
UPS offers certain economical services like UPS SurePost and UPS Ground Saver that give shippers the option to save even more money on Ground shipments through a partnership with USPS. With these services, UPS handles the majority of a package’s journey and then hands it off to USPS for last-mile delivery. These services typically come with similar delivery timeframes as UPS Ground plus one business day to account for the Postal Service’s leg of the journey. Since UPS is handling the package less than it typically would with a door-to-door service like UPS Ground, shippers can enjoy more affordable rates for a slightly slower delivery.
When it comes to carrier liability for these services, UPS handles it slightly differently than all of its other services. Technically, the $100 carrier liability that UPS provides only applies to the portion of the journey when UPS handles the shipment. Once UPS hands a package over to USPS for last-mile delivery, the $100 of UPS carrier liability is voided, and the shipper assumes liability for the package during the last-mile delivery…unless the shipper purchased third-party shipping insurance, of course.
While UPS automatically includes $100 of insurance for all labels, you can also pay extra to insure your shipment up to a much higher amount. In fact, UPS allows shippers to declare a value as high as $50,000 per shipment. Other carriers, like USPS and FedEx, have a much lower maximum insurance amount (both cap out at $5,000, even with third-party insurance companies). This makes UPS the premier carrier for shipping high-value items such as jewelry and other luxury goods.
To learn more about the UPS insurance policy for domestic and international packages, visit their website.
