What is Route Package Protection?
You've come across Route Package Protection online and you're wondering if this third party shipping insurance is needed if it's really protecting your shipments. And most importantly what happens if you choose not to take it. That's what we'll try to go into in this blog post.
Route: Insurance, tracking or post purchase experience ?
Route has quickly grown since 2018, and the product offered was new to the market. The visual tracking on the app combined to an extra package protection and a claim resolution platform seemed like a winner combo. So what does Route offer? An insurance? A package tracking service? A post Purchase experience? Probably a little bit of everything.
The questions is, should you take out the protection as a buyer or as seller? It it really worth it and what happens if you choose not subscribe. Read below.
Is Route Package Protection necessary as a seller?
You probably should take the protection if you send expensive items that the carrier may not fully cover. By expensive, we mean over $100. The insurance makes little sense for orders below $100 as you would do better in self-insuring these items. It also depends on the insurance pricing. Over 1% of the insured value, the pricing might to high. Package Protection can go as low as 0,5% of the insured value so don't hesitate to negotiate.
Is Route Package Protection worth it as a buyer?
In Europe, offering insurance to buyers is illegal and forbidden
Why pay extra protection when the European laws already cover you? That's why we think nobody should be offered protection when the sellers are responsible anyway and must refund you if something happens. If the extra fee provides something other than protection, that's fine. But if the main product is the insurance, it's a no go.
In the USA, the rules are different so that's where the protection could be to most interesting. In the USA, a seller could decide not to refund you if you don't take out the insurance. To do so, it must be clearly stated in the terms of sale. We recommend to check your seller's terms so you can be 100% sure if the protection could be interesting or not.
In conclusion, if you're in the USA, you must check if the seller covers you. If not, then Route makes total sense. If you're in Europe, the protection at checkout is not necessary.
