[SSLance]

I sold the engine above for $5,000. I would have shipped it without insurance but the buyer really wanted to insure it, so I obliged him. The insurance cost me an additional $75. An engine is not something that I would consider fragile and that is why it is typically classed at a lower NMFC rate than many items shipped via LTL Freight. Frankly freight companies and declared value insurance work very different than what happens with typical small parcel shipments such as with Fedex and UPS. I have never been completely successful gaining payment on any sort of freight damage claim, insured or not. By the way, all damage claims that I've had to file on freight shipments were on shipments I did for customers that wouldn't pay to let me package their shipments properly. I've found the best way to prevent damage is to make the package as bulletproof as possible and to think like a truck driver or a forklift operator.

Always ALWAYS use a pallet, never let whatever you are packing hang over the side of a pallet, make sure whatever you are shipping is strapped down to the pallet securely, take into consideration how top heavy the pallet is and the likelihood that it can tip over.

My personal preference for typically not using a crate is to keep other things from getting stacked on top of my package in the trucks. If anything gets stacked, mine will be on top, not under whatever else the forklift driver decides can fit on top of my crate.

Think also that depending on how far the freight is going, it could get loaded and unloaded many times before it gets on the final truck for delivery. If a pallet is in sketchy shape, it likely won't last after 5 or 10 forklift operators are finished moving it around.

Anything can happen and I'm all for doing whatever one has to do to feel comfortable shipping an item. I've done this for a long time and have seen and learned a lot over the years. I'll be happy to help out however I can. Shipping freight doesn't have to be that difficult or expensive if you know who to talk to and can do a little bit of the legwork yourself.