Valuation Coverage and Moving Insurance
Every moving business is required by state regulations to use two types of coverage to customers for out of state moving. The first coverage is called the Released Value Protection coverage; the going rate for this is about 60 cents a pound. This means that you will be reimbursed for the most basic items, to the most expensive. This type of coverage should be included in the quote from your company.
Because the customer’s belongings are worth a lot more than 60 cents per pound, the second coverage that is required is called the full value protection coverage. This is based off of the company’s evaluation of the shipments worth. The cost is calculated to about 1 percent of the total shipment worth. For example if the customer’s belongings are worth $10,000 the company would pay $100 for full value protection. This includes any items that were lost, destroyed or damaged during the process of the move. The moving company then makes amends to the customer.
The moving company can get the item repaired back to its original state, or it can replace it with an item equal to it, or a money reimbursement. For example, if your old tube television was damaged, the company will not purchase another one, but likely give you a fair-market value for the old tube television.
Movers are not required to reimburse the company for an item damaged that is over $100 a pound in value, unless it has been specifically listed in the shipping documents or paperwork. This has been set by the Surface Transportation Board which is the federal organization behind moving companies. For example a necklace that weighs 4 ounces and is worth more than $25 dollars, when its $100 a pound must be written in the shipping documents or it can not be covered if it is lost or damaged.
If you choose this type of coverage it can be very overwhelming because anything that is over the $100 amount must be taken into account via paperwork.
Expanded mover coverage
Depending upon how risky of a business owner you have chosen to be, you may decide that you want to upgrade your insurance coverage, there are several options available to consumers, you can ask the companies that give you bids if that are any other valuation options. If your moving coverage only covers damaged, lost or broken items that it is not technically insurance. It is illegal for moving companies to sell insurance so rather you pay for liability coverage. In other words, you set your limitations according to what type of business owner that you are.
Select moving companies have expanded valuation coverage. The declared value coverage enables you to set a poundage amount for the belongings. So if you decide that each shipment is worth 8 dollars a pound and you are going to ship 12,000 pounds, your valuation coverage will be $96,000. This amount would be the most you could receive if the shipment were completely destroyed or came up missing. As is mention in the basic coverage part of this article, items would be replaced with something of equal value, i.e. the tube television reference. This is important because of the actual value of older items such as the TV.
What’s not covered
With valuation coverage, movers are not help responsible for the items lost, broken or damaged in a box that they did not take part in packing. Unless the box itself shows outward damage, most likely you will not be covered for anything damaged inside the box. With these types of coverage’s you are not covered for natural disasters, which range everything from tornados to fires.
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