Moving valuation coverage: full value vs 60 cents a pound

Every interstate mover is legally responsible for your belongings while they're in its care. What changes is how much it owes you if something breaks or goes missing. Federal rules give you two levels, and the paperwork you sign before loading decides which one you get.

The two options

• Full Value Protection: the default. If an item is lost, destroyed, or damaged, the mover chooses whether to repair it (or pay for the repair) or replace it with one of like kind and quality (or pay what that costs). The mover's total liability is capped at the declared value of your shipment.
• Waiver of Full Value Protection (released value): the mover owes no more than 60 cents per pound, per article. It costs you nothing extra, but it pays very little.

What 60 cents a pound really means

Released value is based on weight, not on what an item is worth. The federal "Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move" booklet uses this example: a 10-pound stereo component worth $1,000 that gets lost would bring you no more than $6.00. Light, valuable things like electronics, art, and heirlooms come out worst under this option.

How Full Value Protection is priced

• Your mover's first written estimate has to include Full Value Protection. You only get released value if you waive full value in writing.
• Full value raises the cost of the move, and the exact price varies by mover. It can also come with different deductible levels, so ask what each one costs.
• The federal booklet says the minimum value used to price it is $6.00 per pound times your shipment's weight. The mover can use a higher minimum, or you can declare a higher value for an added charge.
• The charges have to be published in the mover's tariff, so you can ask to see them.

Watch out for high-value items

Anything worth more than $100 per pound counts as an article of extraordinary value. Think jewelry, silverware, china, furs, antiques, and oriental rugs. If you don't list those items in writing on your shipping documents, the mover can limit what it pays for them. If you do list them, you're entitled to recover up to their declared value, as long as it doesn't go over the declared value of the whole shipment.

Things that can shrink what you're owed

• Your own packing doesn't protect an item well enough and that causes the damage.
• You pack perishable, dangerous, or hazardous items without telling the mover. (Federal law also forbids shipping hazardous materials in your boxes without telling the mover.)
• You chose released value but shipped things worth more than 60 cents a pound.
• You declared a value lower than what your things are actually worth.

Separate moving insurance

A mover may offer to sell you third-party insurance, but it doesn't have to. If you buy it through the mover, the mover must give you a copy of the policy or other written proof when you buy it. If it doesn't, the mover itself becomes liable for the loss or damage claim. Keep in mind that disputes with an outside insurance company aren't covered by FMCSA rules.

Before you sign

1. Find the valuation section on your estimate and bill of lading, and check which option is marked.
2. Don't sign a waiver of Full Value Protection unless you've decided 60 cents a pound is enough.
3. Ask for the full value price at each deductible level, in writing.
4. List every item worth more than $100 per pound.
5. If a broker sold you the move, ask which carrier is actually liable for your goods. See carrier vs broker.

Valuation is one of the things a proper written estimate has to address. For how the price itself works, see binding vs non-binding estimates.