How do you ship a quilt safely?

Safety means a lot of things.  Let’s go over my ways of thinking about shipping quilts safely, taking into account packaging, tracking, insurance, and lately, dealing with worrying about tariffs. 

What company should you use?

There are several shipping companies, and internationally even more.  The company you should NOT use is the US Postal Service.  I recommend a company that actively tracks packages and has the workforce willing to actually deliver to your door, with a picture.  Personally I use UPS in the United States, although I have some quilt friends who will prefer FedEx.  Internationally, DHL seems to have a reasonable reputation, although unfortunately no company is perfect and there are horror stories no matter what.

Other tips:

1. Use the fastest, most reasonable shipping, like 2 day air to reduce the number of “facility changes” of long haul trucking.
2. Opt into delivery notifications in as many places as possible, with images, if possible
3. NEVER write the word “quilt” on a box.  If the box is going to XYZ Quilt Show, send it to the address at XYZ QS…it will get delivered with the abbreviation but reduce curiosity.
4. If your business is White Arbor Quilting, send it under the name Bethanne White Arbor, some variation, or just your personal name, again to hide content.
5. Stick a duplicate of your shipping label on the inside bag of your quilt, if a box is fully destroyed, the quilt will hopefully still eventually arrive.
6. Try to ship your quilts on Monday or Tuesday so it arrives (hopefully) before a weekend where it is sitting in a closed shipping distribution warehouse.

Box opening theft is, tragically, on the rise.  Try to minimize curiosity. Even consider double boxing. Some people feel placing a distinctive band of tape, like stripes, around the box is smart to make a box easier to identify if lost. On the other hand it increases curiosity (that’s bad). There is a custom cookie maker on instagram right now going viral for her boxes getting opened and cookies stolen due to her cute shop cookie printed tape on her shipping boxes. Her customers are getting re-taped boxes with fewer cookies than were sent.

There is not a perfect company. You can poll literally any group and they will say “but I have never had problems with THAT company and would never use THIS one”, and find 10 people to say the opposite.

Why not the USPS for valuable items? It is my experience that as a subsidized and underfunded government agency, there is a lack of accountability to customers. Customer service has gotten worse in recent years. Priority tracking, while it works, fails to take into account worker malfeasance.  In my own example, a driver scanned and “delivered” my package to an empty field 8 miles from my house, as seen by my local postmistress using scan tracking, but the Ai complaint system only “closed” my case as the item is marked “delivered”. Nothing my local human could do would fight this system. For profit, private companies are far from perfect, but they are motivated by the money, and don’t love a lot of bad press.

Should you pay for extra insurance?

Insurance is to reimburse you when things go very wrong. Your quilt is gone and you are never getting it back.  Fighting an insurance claim is a nightmare and it WILL NOT matter what number you write in, or how much extra money you pay (although they are happy to take your money) unless you can PROVE its value.

 A quilt will get valued by replacement value of a quilt from Walmart unless you have a certified appraisal of its value as an art object.  And if you DO have a certified appraisal, you will not be allowed to claim insurance for anything over the company maximum regardless, while paying hundreds extra. At best you may, with receipts, possibly be able to claim materials and invoiced paid work by the hour if you are work-for-hire. I say “at best”, as it is very hit or miss depending on whom you have the (misfortune) of dealing with.

So, in my opinion and experience dealing with this, the insurance is a scam. At best, paying for more insurance will possibly make the company take your box more seriously and be more careful, but it will not actually reimburse you the value of a hand made quilt.

Does my homeowner or fine arts rider cover my quilt in transit? If not, what can?

Yea…bad news. NO. Your fine arts rider or homeowner insurance only covers the quilt when it is in your possession, on your property, and even then ONLY with appraisal documents. If you loose your home in a fire, your handmade quilts will STILL only be valued as a “blanket”. AHHHAHAHHAHA call up the wolves! How dare they!

“But I have special business insurance on my quilts just for this!“

Sorry, still no. You can call your underwriter and double check of course, but those types of policies ONLY cover the additional loss potential of when your property (quilt) is AT a location, like a quilt show. If the UPS van hits a train and goes up in flames you are out of luck (or any other weird loss or disaster while in the hands of the shipper). But, if the show venue floods or gets taken out by a tornado, AND you have an appraisal, no problem, here’s your cash.

A “Marine Rider” is the ONLY extra thing I’ve found that will cover a quilt while in transit with a third party company like UPS, Fed Ex, USPS, DHL, etc.

Getting what is called a “marine (as in ocean travel) rider” generally is the only insurance that will supersede the extortionist and scammy insurance offered by the shipper. And guess what? You still need to PROOVE quilt value with a professional appraisal. This rider is something you can get for a yearly fee and the rate is set for “what is your maximum exposure at any one time”. Let’s assume you are a show quilter with many quilts moving at once, and they ALL have an appraisal. Your maximum exposure might be 5 quilts moving around the country at once, valued on average at $7,000 each. You will pay the insurance for $35,000 replacement value. What this will be is up to the company, but for me, when I was showing all the time, I had to pay nearly $800 a year. Obviously this is worth it if you ship a LOT of high value quilts all the time, but it is completely unrealistic for the average quilter.

At the present moment, it’s incredibly risky, especially if you want your quilt back.

The US is in a moment of incredible volatility as tariffs are put in place, removed, put back and generally leave business owners and even international shipping organizations at a complete loss. Shipping from the US to another country is fairly simple, and the above guidelines hold true.  Be careful however about the customs line “value”.  If you are inexperienced in understanding this, you can hurt yourself and the person you are delivering to a lot.  Written value is how international VAT (tax) is going to be determined, and when a quilt is coming to the US, how new tariffs are going to be determined. As of the writing of this newsletter, international shippers have paused all US shipping due to a complete lack of directions on how to charge US customers new tariff fees for goods.

Always mark outgoing and incoming quilts as “personal items”, never merchandise, unless it is in fact, merchandise.  This is mostly an issue if a quilter for hire is international to the customer, and they mistakenly add the value of the custom quilting.  The customer is going to pay 30% or more in VAT. My thoughts on this are not legal advice. Generally a Google search seems to recommend labor (like custom quilting) performed in the US and shipped to another country is not subject to automatic VAT if it is personal use.  My personal policy is to ship quilts to their makers, and place the burden on them to self report added labor, if their country requires it. A quilt is the property of the customer at all times.  This makes it a “personal item”, regardless of added quilting, in my practice.

Absolutely DO NOT mark value on a show quilt you are sending to international show.  Customs will expect to be paid before delivery to a show.  Returning a quilt to the US after a show is also currently a concern, as 10-200% tariffs just went into effect.  No amount can “sneak under” the new rules. Getting rid of the de minimus rule means ALL shipments are tariffed, not just ones over $800, as it has been in the past. If a show mistakenly labeled your quilt with a value, you may have to pay 10-200% that number to get your quilt back. The “value” field has nothing to do with worth or insurance. You need to read that as “TAXABLE VALUE”.

Is there a best way to package a quilt for shipping?

Yes. For the most part, let’s set aside the discussion of “do you want the quilt to arrive wrinkle free?” (if so, pack with spacers in an over sized box).

Let’s focus on pure safety of arrival here. My suggestion is to include an Apple air tag or similar tracker in all boxes. I personally put this in a pre-paid return padded envelope so the person (client or friend) receiving the quilt can just mail it back. An apple air tag will ping off any nearby apple phone, which are hugely prevalent in the US.  Research your country’s equivalent of a common phone and tracker device. It is not perfect, but this process allows me to see my box moving through the mail stream about 60% percent of the time, which is better than being completely mystified if a shipper claims “they have no idea where it is”. Will they act on the information? I don’t know, but I feel less anxious with the information. Quilt shows do not allow “extra things” loose in a box. I sew a tracker behind the label of show quilts.  If a show (like Quilt Con) forbids this safety measure, I will not participate.

Other safe packaging tips:

1. Seal the quilt in a CLEAR bag to avoid issues with wet boxes from water or conveyor belt oil, as well as box chafing. Clear, to avoid an “oh this is a trash bag” moment from some loved one….yes…again, experience. 
2. Stuff empty nooks of the box with newsprint or bubble wrap to minimize box crushing. (Packing peanuts will automatically disqualify a show quilt upon arrival for you making their life a mess.)
3. Use a “heavy duty” box, not a thin wall box. The price difference is minimal.
4. Place a layer of extra cardboard under the opening flap seams…as no matter how silly it is, folks CONTINUE  to slice their quilts opening with a knife, particularly at shows. (yes I have personal experience getting a cut quilt home from a show).
5. Duplicate the mailing label and stick it to the quilt wrapper.

When I first published this list, one of my students sent me the below note, which hopefully illustrates the issue with damaged boxes and the need to double protect the contents. As you’ll read, if there are 10-40 spills per day in a moderate size city like Portland for just one company…imagine how often boxes are exposed to spills.

“My son is a spill responder for UPS in Portland. He cleans up between 10-40 spills a day. A DAY. People just do not package things carefully! I asked him what his recommendations for shipping quilts would be. He said everything you said, with one small addition: Put a copy of your shipping label inside the clear plastic bag. He said many boxes get destroyed by spills and he can’t read the labels. Putting a shipping label inside the clear plastic will protect it from liquids, he can then re-box the package and send it on its way.”

Wow, lots to think about huh?

I hope you find my thoughts beneficial, or at least a bullet point in your personal calculus on shipping decisions.  You can be a huge help to my business, by sharing my content with a Quilty friend or group anytime! 

Happy Quilting Friend!
~Bethanne Nemesh