subject: What Does Declared Value Mean? [print this page] There can be a lot of paperwork to fill out when you're shipping something with a courier company, and while most of the information that they're asking you for may be pretty self explanatory, some of it may be a little more complicated. You might not know what the "declared vale" means on the paperwork that your Florida messenger service provides you. The first thing that you need to know about declared value is that many companies have a maximum amount that you can put in that spot in the first place, as this has to do with the maximum insurance coverage that they have on their courier shipments, so you might want to ask what that maximum value is if you feel that your number may be approaching it.
When you're filling out the declared value on a shipping form you are basically saying that this is the amount that your shipment is worth. This is going to be the primary number that they use when establishing any insurance payouts if there is a need for you to make a claim on something that you have shipped. However, this is why there is a maximum amount that you can put in this spot. Insurance carried by a courier is only ever going to cover up to certain dollar amount, and that is their maximum declared value allowance. You need to check and see if there is a large difference between this maximum amount and the actual value of your courier shipment, because if there is, there is a good chance that you're going to want to take out some additional insurance on that shipment.
As far as your insurance goes there are going to be several options that you will have readily available to you. Many of the insurance companies that are used by the courier companies that you might be shipping with are going to have ways for you to add on to the maximum coverage simply by adding on to the existing policies. If you don't have a large insurance provider that you deal with on a regular basis, this option might end up saving you the most money.
This, of course, leads us to the other option. If you do business with an insurance provider and already have several policies bundled with them, you can potentially get even cheaper insurance through them than you could by bundling a service with your insurance provider.
