You will probably encounter many different types of insurance during your lifetime. There’s insurance for homes, insurance for vehicles, even insurance for your very life. Everyone seems to understand what all these different insurances are for, but not many appreciate how shipping insurance works.

It is not uncommon for a package or parcel to be shipped without insurance, and for a large proportion of these consignments, everything is fine. It arrives with the intended recipient in one piece, and all is well.

So why do people buy shipping insurance? Simply, to protect themselves and their parcel. It protects their investment and potentially their reputation (or the reputation of their business). You don’t buy vehicle insurance expecting that you’ll need to use it, but you’ll be glad it’s there if the need ever arises.

Every item that is sent by the postal service, a courier, or any kind of shipping company should be covered with shipping insurance. The whole point of sending something somewhere is to get it where it is going, and if it doesn’t arrive, you need to be prepared for what is to follow. Your parcel might go missing, be damaged in transit, smashed, broken, or delivered to the wrong place. What can you do to resolve this problem?

Without insurance, the recipient is going to get quite annoyed rather quickly. They’ve paid for something, and they want it in their hands – and who can blame them? They’ll want a refund, a replacement, or a collection and redelivery to the right location. All of which is fine, but it’s going to cost you time and money to rectify the situation.

And that’s how shipping insurance works for you. The value of the item can be covered, so if it is damaged, destroyed, or lost, you aren’t facing a loss and the recipient won’t be either. You won’t have to find the money to replace the item, and you won’t have to pay for a refund out of your own pocket.

Simply, the difference between being insured and not being insured is that when you are insured, the costs are taken care of and everybody is happy. But without insurance, you’re liable for all the costs yourself. If you need to obtain a replacement product or facilitate a repair, you’ll be paying for it yourself. You’ll also have to take the time to obtain a replacement or repair, and make sure it arrives where and when it is meant to.

When you realize that shipping insurance always works in your favor, you’ll never send an uninsured shipment again. Save yourself time, money, and hassle by insuring every item you send.