Carrier declared value
Included at $100, priced up to the tariff ceiling, and constrained by the exclusion and category-cap lists above. Payable only against carrier fault up to the delivery scan.
Coverage compared
What does shipping coverage actually cover?
Loss and damage, up to the declared amount, when the paperwork proves the value and the parcel was not one of the categories a carrier caps or excludes. USPS, UPS and FedEx begin from the same $100 included baseline and then diverge in three directions: which items are held to a $1,000 sublimit, which packing failures are treated as automatic denials, and where the delivery scan ends the carrier's role. The three carrier sources below were read 2026-08-11.
Three carriers, one pageCategory caps namedExclusions quoted
Coverage is a ceiling, not a promise
The smallest of the three ceilings — declared, documented, category-capped — is what actually pays.
Included coverage on a base label
The three US carriers start at the same floor for most services and price additional coverage differently above it.
| Carrier | Included coverage | Add-on ceiling |
|---|---|---|
| USPS | $100 on Ground Advantage, Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express, per usps.com/ship/insurance-extra-services.htm read 2026-08-11. | Up to $5,000 through added insurance; up to $50,000 through Registered Mail. |
| UPS | $100 per domestic package under the UPS Tariff/Terms and Conditions of Service, United States. | Up to $50,000 per package, in $100 declared-value steps. |
| FedEx | $100 per package on US package services, per the FedEx Service Guide 2026. | Up to $50,000 on Ground, Home Delivery and the main express tiers; lower on SameDay and FedEx Envelope or Pak. |
| UPS Ground Saver | $20 per package since April 2 2025, a step down from the $100 floor other UPS services carry. | Same $50,000 ceiling if a shipper declares more, subject to the tariff. |
FedEx and UPS are careful to call this “declared value” rather than insurance. FedEx's terms state, verbatim, “WE DO NOT PROVIDE INSURANCE COVERAGE OF ANY KIND,” per the FedEx Service Guide 2026 read on our own FedEx declared value page. The distinction matters when a claim is denied and the shipper wants to escalate.
What is not payable regardless of coverage
USPS's DMM 609 section 4.3 is the clearest single list of what a carrier will refuse. Both UPS's tariff and FedEx's terms address the same categories in their own wording, and the practical effect is the same for the shipper.
| Situation | How the tariff treats it |
|---|---|
| Loss or damage after delivery | Not payable. USPS wording: “Loss, damage, or missing contents that occurred after delivery.” UPS and FedEx end liability at the delivery scan in matching terms. |
| Fragile item that could not survive normal handling | Not payable when “fragile nature of article prevented its safe carriage,” per DMM 609 section 4.3. FedEx's declared-value clause reads similarly. |
| Abrasion, scarring or scraping on unwrapped surfaces | Not payable on any carrier; treated as a packaging failure. |
| Sentimental rather than actual value | Not payable. A claim needs a receipt, invoice, bill of sale, statement of value, credit-card statement or transaction printout. |
| Perishable contents that spoiled | Not payable, per USPS wording; UPS's temperature-sensitive rules leave the same result for a standard label. |
| Restricted or nonmailable items packed to fail | Not payable. Restricted goods packed badly fail twice: at the rules and at the packing. |
Four of the six categories are about the shipper's own preparation. The claim is decided before the label is printed on a bench with wrap, corner protection and honest weights, then priced correctly at checkout.
The category cap most shippers do not know about
Even when a shipper declares $5,000 and pays the fee, FedEx and UPS hold fourteen and thirteen categories respectively to a much lower cap. The FedEx list, quoted from the Service Guide 2026 read 2026-08-11, is the widest.
| Category as FedEx names it | Examples in the same clause |
|---|---|
| Artwork | Paintings, drawings, vases, tapestries, limited-edition prints, statuary, collector pieces |
| Glassware | Signs, mirrors, ceramics, porcelain, china, crystal, framed glass |
| Antiques | Furniture, tableware and glassware of a past era |
| Jewelry | Costume pieces, watches and parts, mounted gems, industrial diamonds |
| Precious metals | Gold and silver bullion or dust, precipitates, platinum |
| Stocks, bonds and cash equivalents | Gift cards, money orders, prepaid calling cards, bearer bonds |
| Collector's items | Coins, stamps, sports cards, souvenirs, memorabilia |
| Older or customised instruments | Guitars and other instruments over twenty years old |
A 1994 guitar being shipped for $3,000 is a $1,000 declared-value item on FedEx no matter what the seller paid for the declaration. UPS classes anything worth more than $50,000 as an article of unusual value and refuses it entirely. The category list is the reason a valuable parcel often belongs on third-party coverage rather than the carrier's own declared value.
Where shipping-protection products fit
Two useful lines to draw. The carrier's declared value is a liability cap on the freight contract; a third-party shipping protection product is an insurance contract written by an insurer and administered by a claims partner. The two do not stack, and they do not answer the same denials.
Third-party product coverage
Priced against the declared item value, subject to its own exclusions, and often broader on the fragile and jewellery categories that a carrier caps. Sold at label purchase and cannot be added later.
Card and household insurance
A credit card's purchase protection and a homeowner's policy sometimes back-fill the gap between what the carrier pays and what the item cost. Neither is designed for shipping and neither is guaranteed to pay.
SMKlog offers optional shipping protection alongside eligible domestic parcel labels under its own pilot terms. Full terms sit on our shipping protection page; buy protection at label creation, not later, because coverage cannot be added once a parcel is in the carrier network.
Where these rules come from
- USPS, Insurance and extra services — included coverage and the $5,000 add-on ceiling. Read 2026-08-11.
- USPS, DMM 609, sections 3.2 and 4.3 — evidence of value and situations that are not paid. Read 2026-08-11.
- UPS, Tariff/Terms and Conditions of Service, United States, section 56 — declared-value liability. Cross-cited on our UPS declared value page, dated 2026-07-28.
- FedEx, FedEx Service Guide 2026 — declared-value fee ladder and the fourteen capped categories. Cross-cited on our FedEx declared value page, dated 2026-07-28.
Carrier tariffs and coverage terms are revised without notice. Treat the wording above as what each source published on the date read, and check the current tariff before quoting a coverage figure to a customer.
Common questions
What does shipping coverage actually cover?
Loss and damage of the covered contents, up to the amount declared, when the coverage was in force at label creation and the loss is documented with the accepted evidence. The three US carriers share the base idea and diverge on limits, categories and exclusions.
Are fragile items really excluded?
They can be. USPS's DMM 609 section 4.3 lists damage where the fragile nature of the article prevented safe carriage among the situations that cannot be paid, and FedEx caps fourteen categories including glassware and antiques at $1,000 of declared value regardless of the amount paid to declare.
How much coverage is included without paying extra?
USPS Ground Advantage, Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express include $100 on the base label. UPS caps its own liability at $100 per domestic package, and FedEx also covers $100 per package on US package services before any declaration.
What about theft after delivery?
Not covered on any carrier's basic coverage. USPS's rulebook draws a hard line at the delivery scan; UPS and FedEx also end their responsibility there. Porch theft is a matter for the buyer's insurer or a third-party product.