Moving insurance across Southeast Asia, written against the route
A mover's liability is calculated by weight, not by worth. Asia Relocation replaces that arithmetic with a declared value, cover placed through a transit insurer that has done nothing else since 1978, and a claim filed by the team that packed your shipment.
Two facts decide whether moving insurance is worth having, and neither appears in a brochure. The first: a carrier's liability is worked out by weight, under the international conventions, so it compensates a crate of tiles better than a crate of electronics. The second: what actually happens to shipments is rarely a catastrophe. It is one damaged item among several hundred.
Cover answers both by replacing weight with a declared value — the replacement cost at destination, taken from an inventory made before packing — and by responding to partial loss, not only to total loss.
The policies are placed with Inter Trans Insurance Services, Inc. (ITI), a California corporation established in 1978 for the express purpose of insuring household goods and personal effects in transit. Asia Relocation does the inventory, the documentation and the claim from here; they underwrite. That division of labour is the whole arrangement, and it is worth understanding before you need it.
What cover answers for, in all three countries
The principles below travel. What changes between Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam is the exposure, further down this page.
Covered by the policy
- Loss and damage across the declared journey — packing, loading, sea or air freight, clearance, delivery.
- Partial loss under all-risk terms: the single broken item, which is the realistic scenario rather than the dramatic one.
- Storage, where it is declared in the policy, including the weeks between two homes.
- Corporate certificates, issued per shipment when an employer, an auditor or a contract requires one.
- The claim file, assembled locally from the inventory we made and carried to the insurer with you.
Route, level and exclusions are set out in the quotation, per shipment.
Outside the cover
- Owner-packed cartons. What was never inspected at origin cannot be assessed after the fact.
- Undeclared value. An item missing from the inventory is, to the policy, an item that never travelled.
- Wear, damp and age. A policy answers for an event on the journey, not for the condition goods started in.
- The move itself. Cover accompanies a shipment; the shipment is an international move or a domestic one.
- Consignments with their own regime. A vehicle, an animal or an office is covered on its own terms.
Tell us what is travelling and we will say which policy it belongs under.
Five covers, and the shipment each was written for
Chosen on the route and the inventory, in that order.
All-risk, full inventory
The default for a household crossing a border out of Thailand, the Philippines or Vietnam. Responds to accidental damage and partial loss from packing through to delivery at the far door.
Named items only
Artwork, instruments, a server: cover concentrated where the value is, with the rest travelling uninsured. Honest arithmetic for a light shipment, provided the list is complete.
Total loss only
The vessel, the fire, the container that never lands. Cheaper, and reasonable for low-value cargo, as long as it is chosen deliberately rather than because nobody asked.
Cover including storage
Declared storage between two leases, or a shipment that lands before the tenancy starts. Undeclared, those weeks are the gap where most avoidable losses actually occur.
Group cover for employers
One level applied across several employee moves in one or more of the three countries, with certificates issued per shipment. One conversation instead of one per family.
From an inventory to a settlement, wherever the shipment starts
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The inventory, made at origin
By the local team in Thailand, the Philippines or Vietnam, before packing. It is the document a claim rests on, and the reason we do not quote cover on a phone call.
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Declared value agreed
Replacement cost at destination. We say when a figure looks low, because under-declaration reduces a settlement in proportion.
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Level chosen against the route
All-risk, named items or total loss, decided on the exposure the journey actually carries rather than on a default.
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Policy placed with ITI
Issued against that inventory before departure, with certificates where a company needs them. The underwriter is named in the quotation, not left vague.
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Delivery, and a claim if one is needed
Reserves noted before signing, concealed damage reported inside the policy window, then a file assembled locally and taken to the insurer alongside you.
Four shipments, four reasons to declare a value
Four shipments, four reasons to declare a value, and one Asia Relocation coordinator who puts the cover in writing.
Families leaving the region
The longest routes and the largest inventories, where weeks at sea and two customs inspections make partial damage a matter of odds rather than luck.
Households arriving from abroad
Often carrying cover bought at origin that quietly ends at the port. The last leg — clearance, road, delivery upstairs — is the one worth checking.
Moves between our three countries
Two regimes in one file. One inventory, one insurer and one claims route, rather than a policy that changes hands at the border along with the goods.
Employers and mobility teams
Standard cover across a population of moves, certificates for audit, and one number to call when something arrives broken.
Three countries, three places where things go wrong
Same principles, different exposure. Start from where the shipment is packed.
In the Philippines the risk is the journey itself: long sea legs, transfers between islands, several handling points and quays where the weather has an opinion. In Thailand it concentrates at the ports and on the provincial roads, and the useful conversation is about declared value and the certificates a company will ask for. In Vietnam it is the first hour and the waiting: the service lift, loading into city traffic, and a storm season that leaves goods in storage longer than planned.
Beyond the three, cover still travels with the shipment: the policy is written for the whole declared route, and the receiving partner works to the same inventory we prepared here.
What people ask before insuring a shipment
Why is a mover's liability not enough?
Who actually carries the risk?
Does the same policy work in all three countries?
All-risk or total loss?
How is the declared value established?
Is our shipment covered while it waits in storage?
What happens when a claim is made?
Can a company standardise cover across several moves?
Two neighbours of a policy
The shipment this cover rides on
Survey, packing, freight and customs for a household crossing a border in either direction.
Moving a home across a border →The whole moving service
Everything we run across the three countries, and which part your move needs.
Moving services in Southeast Asia →Send us the route and what is on the inventory
Asia Relocation prices the levels of cover that fit the exposure, names the underwriter, states the exclusions, and puts all of it in writing before anything is packed.
Ask for a cover quotation →