Tax Counsel
Well-Known Member
The FedEx website says otherwise. I mentioned that in one my earlier posts on the meaning of declared value. If you look at that page, FedEx explictly says that declared value is not insurance. The page even highlights the title of the paragraph explaining that it is not insurance and puts it in large box so it's pretty hard to miss. I've repeated that link below:
That said, as both I and Zigner have pointed out, from the consumer's point of view it looks a lot like insurance so for small occaisonal shipments the difference in the meaning of the two terms isn't going to matter much to them. Either way they get compensated for the loss if they meet the terms of shipment, including proper packaging, etc up to the declared value or the terms of any actual insurance they buy. It does make a difference to companies that do a lot of shipping or ship expensive unique pieces.
And I'll note that like in every other industry some companies provide better service than others. If FedEx gives a customer better service then customers will tend to use it over UPS unless the cost difference is significantly in favor of UPS. I've used UPS, FedEx and USPS to ship things and fortunately never had any loss or damages during delivery. From my point of view the experience I had with all three seemed pretty much the same. It's informative to hear from your experience that FedEx provided you the better experience when making a loss or damage claim. It's something I'll consider in my future shipments.
