that's crazy. i wonder if it's becuase they ship with insurance so the "risk" is transferred to FedEx
Insurance is the responsibility of the recipient.
Since most medium and large companies self-insure, that's appropriate.
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It's a matter of scale, and the simple fact that the insurance companies want to have a profit margin. That means that they'll set their premiums higher than the expected losses.
Imagine that I'm shipping you a phone worth $1000 (round numbers for simplicity). In our contract, it states that either I guarantee delivery or you pay for insurance agains loss in transit.
If the insurance company's actuarial tables predict that 0.1% of shipments will be lost, that means that $1 insurance will cover the actual risk of loss on a $1000 item.
Because they want to make a profit, and cover their overheads, they'll charge more than the expected loss - say $3.
If I as the shipper am assuming the risk, I'll pay the $3 and accept a guaranteed profit of $997. If our contract says that you as the buyer assume the risk, you'll probably also pay the insurance - better to pay $1003 for an item than to pay $1000 and get nothing.
Basic point - the insurance rates are set to make money for the insurance companies.
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Now, let's change the roles that we're playing. I'm Apple, and you're Verizon.
I'm going to ship you 1,000,000 Iphones for $1B dollars. The insurance would be $3M, and the expected loss is $1M.
We both have billions in cash - so why would we give $2M to an insurance company?
The more transactions and the longer the time, the less sense insurance makes.
If you send one 777 with 250K phones on it and it crashes and burns - that's a hit. If you send hundreds of 777s over many years and you lose one - it's cheaper to simply eat the loss for the one that went down vs. insuring the N-1 that landed safely.
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This is why larger companies don't insure most things.
I frequently travel on business, and our contract with Avis rental cars automatically declines all the Avis insurance. If I wreck the car (only happened once, not my fault), the company will pay Avis for the damage.
It's cheaper for the company to cover the occasional accident than to buy insurance for every rental.
Insurance exists to make money for the insurance companies....