What you can claim for

A claim is not one number for a bad delivery. It is built up piece by piece from what was affected and what that costs, which is why the form asks the questions it does. Knowing the shape of it in advance makes filing much faster.

A claim is built line by line

Each line of a claim describes one group of affected handling units, and for each one you tell us:

• Damage, loss, or neither. Damage means it arrived broken. Loss means it did not arrive. There is also a no damage or loss option, so you can account for the parts of the shipment that came through fine.
• Number of pieces, out of the total. Two damaged cartons out of forty is a very different claim from forty out of forty, and it is the single most common thing entered incorrectly.
• Condition. New or used. Used goods are claimable, but the value a carrier or insurer will accept reflects the condition they were in.
• Repairability. Repairable, not repairable, or unknown. This changes what you are claiming: the cost to put it right, or the full value of the item.
• Piece value. What one piece is worth, in the claim currency you picked at the start. The vendor's original invoice has to support it.

The freight comes pre-filled from your booking, so you are annotating a list rather than typing one out. That also means the claim can only describe freight that was actually on the shipment.

Repairable or not, and why it matters

If an item can be repaired, the claim is normally the cost of the repair rather than the value of a replacement, and you will need a repair invoice or a quote to support it.

If an item cannot be repaired, you are claiming its value, and that needs backing up. A statement from the manufacturer or a reputable third party specialist, on their company letterhead, confirming the item cannot be repaired is what settles this. Without it, the question stays open and the claim sits still. See Supporting documents.

If you genuinely do not know yet, say unknown rather than guessing. Guessing high and being corrected later slows the claim more than starting honestly.

Delays are not on the form

The claim form values damaged or missing goods, so there is no delay option on it. That is not the same as saying a delay can never be claimed. It means a delay claim starts with a conversation rather than a form, because what has to be established is a documented financial loss caused by the delay: a production line that stopped, a penalty you had to pay, a sale that fell through with evidence it did. If the freight arrived late but intact and nothing measurable happened, there is generally nothing to claim.

If your shipment is running late and has not arrived yet, start with When will my shipment deliver and talk to us. Many late shipments are recoverable while they are still moving, which is worth more than a claim afterwards.

What a claim generally will not cover

• Consequential loss. Lost profit, lost customers, or reputational damage downstream of the shipment. Carrier liability is for the freight itself.
• Freight charges as a penalty. The cost of the shipment is not automatically refunded because something went wrong with it.
• Inadequately packaged freight. If the freight was not packaged to withstand normal LTL handling, the carrier will point at the packaging rather than their handling, and they are often right. This is the most common reason a claim is denied, and the whole Packaging section exists to prevent it.
• Goods with no documented value. A claim needs a commercial invoice or equivalent. An internal purchase order is usually not enough on its own.